“By the end of May 2003, the video had received extensive coverage from mainstream news media outlets, including The New York Times.[11] Unfortunately, Raza was humiliated and finished school in a psychiatric ward.”
For sure one of the first “viral videos”. He was bullied mercilessly, if he would have made as big of a video like 5 years later he probably would have been famous (not infamous) instead.
“By the end of May 2003, the video had received extensive coverage from mainstream news media outlets, including The New York Times.[11] Unfortunately, Raza was humiliated and finished school in a psychiatric ward.”
Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/star-wars-kid
To me this is probably one of the original memes. It was parodied by Family Guy, Arrested Development and I’ve seen it elsewhere as well.
For sure one of the first “viral videos”. He was bullied mercilessly, if he would have made as big of a video like 5 years later he probably would have been famous (not infamous) instead.
If he made it today he’d get buried in /new. The internet was a different place back then, we talked about the same funny video for months.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/star-wars-kid-reflects-on-his-2003-viral-video-the-media-circus-and-human-nature-1.5841434
Fascinating, thank you for showing us the human behind the meme.