Star Wars Kid is a viral video made in 2002 by Ghyslain Raza in which he wields a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul’s lightsaber moves from the Star Wars films. At the time, Raza was a 15-year-old high school student from Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He had not intended for the video to become public, but its subsequent release led to ridicule during which Raza chose to distance himself from the video. Raza since has affirmed his identity and has used the video to help speak on the effects of bullying.
On November 3, 2002, Raza made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The Star Wars Kid video was filmed at his high school studio, and he accidentally left the tape in a basement. It was taped over a portion of a basketball game (as seen extremely briefly at the end of the clip). The video was discovered by a schoolmate, whose friend created an electronic file from the video tape. The video was distributed amongst his school’s students. A student uploaded it to the Internet with the title Jackass_starwars_funny.wmv. The video eventually became a viral Internet meme through P2P services. According to court transcripts, the video first appeared on the Internet on the evening of April 14, 2003.
Raza states he was a victim of cyberbullying, as his Star Wars Kid video also attracted negative attention and comments. Online commenters responded with critical or bullying messages. In a 2013 interview, Raza states, “What I saw was mean. It was violent. People were telling me to commit suicide.” Among the comments online, “One commenter called him ‘a pox on humanity.’ Others suggested he commit suicide.” He was bullied in person at his school, and he left the campus to pursue private tutoring. He claimed to have lost friends because of the ordeal. He returned to high school for his senior year and went on to finish schooling as a law graduate.
In July 2003, Raza’s family filed a CA$250,000 lawsuit against the families of four of his schoolmates. The lawsuit stated in part that he “had to endure, and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates and the public at large” and “will be under psychiatric care for an indefinite amount of time.” Legal proceedings against one family were quickly dropped. The lawsuit had been scheduled to begin trial on April 10, 2006, but on April 7, the boy and his parents reached an out-of-court settlement with the defendants.
Until May 2013, Raza had taken steps to avoid connecting himself with the video, although this identity was discovered through other means. Raza recounted to Maclean’s that he had received numerous invitations from various late night and talk shows, but found out they only wanted “to turn me into a circus act”. During the ten-year period from the propagation of the meme, Raza had become the president of the Patrimoine Trois-Rivières heritage society. Raza decided to come forward to assert his identity as the Star Wars Kid to help bring to light the type of bullying and negative attention that children might receive in similar incidents with the rise of social media.
In 2005, CNET listed the Star Wars Kid as #8 on its Top 10 Web Fads list. In 2007, the G4 TV show Attack of the Show rated it the number 1 viral video of all time. It was ranked #2 on VH1’s “Top 40 Internet Celebrities”, right behind Gary Brolsma (The Numa Numa Guy).
Star Wars Kid
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