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| xenith >> editorials >> the star wars kid proves that tragedy and comedy are hopelessly intertwined |
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The Star Wars Kid Proves that Tragedy and Comedy are Hopelessly Intertwined by Jason Katzwinkel It was explained to me over MSN Messenger - as I'm sure it was to many, many people - but it didn't make much sense to me. Some kid video-taped himself wielding a golf ball retriever like a light saber and it's all over the Internet. Big deal. I can sit at home and watch my nephew turn anything into a light saber. Hell...now and then, I can watch myself fend off the imaginary clone hordes with a Swifter™. Which boy, of any age, hasn't held a broomstick at the ready and made the familiar "vvvvrrrmm, vvrrrrrmmm" noise? Then, I saw the video and understood. Bigger than three Dancing Babies, Ghyslian Raza, a.k.a. "The Star Wars Kid," is a cyber phenomenon that has the Internet world loathing itself with titillative glee. The phenomenon in question is simply the video mentioned above of a portly, fifteen-year-old Canadian executing his finest Darth Maul maneuvers with a golf ball scooper, embellished with mouth-spun sound effects, and you can see that he means business. You can read on his expression that there are perils around him we cannot perceive. You can see in his eyes that he is absolutely caught up in the moment. It's a moment most people are familiar with (presumably). Not necessarily of the "Star Wars" persuasion, but a moment of certain solitude that induces actions better left to the back of the imagination: belting out Aretha Franklin tunes at top volume in the shower; loudly reciting poetry of love to a photograph of a celebrity in a magazine; wildly dancing in underwear on the bed to show tunes. But most people who have the intellectual capacity to operate a Camcorder know better than to record those moments - in any medium - and understand that if, for some reason, evidence is accrued, it must be destroyed immediately in the most fiery and explosive manner available, especially if the evidence is a witness. Alas, poor Ghyslian knew no better and allowed the tape of his bad-ass moves to fall into the hands of classmates. The classmates digitized the video and put it up on Kazaa, a file sharing program, for all the world to see. Inside of a week, the clip was scattered all over various gaming and technology sites, wherever nerds and geeks converge. Within two weeks, the first "remix" popped up, a portion of the original clip with added visual and audio effects. Not long after, dozens of "remixes" came to be, along with plenty of fan sites, message boards, and fora. From there sprung the collective question, "Should we be laughing at this poor kid, and, if so, how hard?" the multitudinous answers to which have filled terabytes on bulletin board servers. Thus far, the original video and the first remix have been downloaded an estimated 4 million times, making Ghyslian an Internet celebrity. It is, however, a celebrity ill received. If The Star Wars Kid is to receive attention, it is not typically to gain an autograph or photo-op. He was ridiculed so harshly and consistently in school that he was forced to drop out and finish his classes under psychiatric care. Andy Baio of waxy.org raised over $4,000.00 for Ghyslian, but that hasn't stopped his parents from suing the classmates who posted the video for over $200,000.00 as recompense for Ghyslian's humiliation and disruption. Have you ever been caught doing something inexplicably goofy? Have you ever been caught by the whole world? In a way, I feel a certain sense of personal outrage about the whole issue. When I watch the video, I see humiliation, betrayal, indignity, and disrespect. When I watch the video, I empathize (insofar as I can) and feel genuinely pity for SWK. When I watch the video, I laugh my ass off. I'm sorry, but I can't help it. I mean, I really can't help it. If Ghyslian were in the room weeping and that video popped up on a nearby computer screen, I would feel terrible as I crumpled to the floor laughing. My heart would be torn in two as I helplessly giggled and rolled around on the carpet. As much commiseration as I may feel for The Star Wars Kid, I still posted his "collection" for all to see, 'cause you just gotta see this kid. It would be trite for me to say, "It's okay to laugh at the fat kid, because there's a little bit of Ghyslian in all of us," but, ultimately, I think that's really what it all comes down to. I doubt there's a person alive who could watch that video without cracking a smile and the first rule of comedy is that the audience has to be able to relate. Is there's anybody who can't relate to Ghyslian's plight? Anyone who hasn't been caught with his hand in the kooky jar? We laugh because we feel bad for laughing. We laugh because There-But-By-The-Grace-Of-Maxell-Go-We. We laugh because we have compassion and because we feel pity. Would the video be as sensational if it were Will Sasso or (a still-living) Chris Farley swinging a stick around? Yeah, it'd be funny, but would it inspire 4 million downloads? Somehow, I doubt it.
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