This has very little to do with PR. Have you heard of Star Wars Kid? Probably one of the funniest UGC videos I’ve ever seen. In short, a young kid in Canada filmed himself swinging a golf ball retriever much like a light sabre from a Star Wars film.
Wikipedia says: “On November 4, 2002 Ghyslain Raza made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as if it were a weapon. Most believe he was imitating the Star Wars character Darth Maul with a double-bladed lightsaber, though others believe he was imitating the character Kilik from the game Soul Calibur wielding a bo. The video was filmed at the studio of his high school, and the tape was left forgotten in a basement for a few months. On or around April 19, 2003, the original owner of the videotape discovered Raza’s recorded acts and immediately shared it with some friends.
The video was uploaded to file sharing site, Kazza, and the rest, as they say, is history. After being sent to and from friends in countless emails around the world the mainstream media including the New York Times, CBS News (RealPlayer video) and BBC News picked up on it.
While the original video is undoubtedly funny (much to the dismay of Raza himself who filed a lawsuit in July 2003) there are over a hundred remakes of it in various themes. I guess in this case UGC isn’t favoured by all.
The original
Star Wars themed
Terminator
The Matrix
Rave remix
technorati tags: star+wars+kid, user+generated+content
Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
Stumble it
Digg it
Deli.icio.us
Tweet this
Mike
This is so old it even pre-dates the phrase “User Generated Content”. I believe is was generally referred to as ‘a funny video’ at the time.
Stephen
Still funny though, regardless of its age.
Mauro Turcatti
I love it! Expecially the star wars version.
Serge
Finally: we see the ligher side of Stephen come out again. I’d already thought working in London had made you so dead serious…
Stephen
Haha! Of course not Serge! Still a cheeky chappy…