It began as a schoolboy lightsabre demonstration filmed as a prank. But Ghyslain Raza, known as the Star Wars Kid, has topped the world’s “viral video” chart, with an internet clip being viewed 900 million times.
The boom in viewing homemade video clips, forwarded over the internet and posted on sites such as YouTube, has created a new breed of overnight stars. Ghyslain’s two minutes of fame has proved more popular than notorious footage of Paris Hilton and a raunchy underwear advertisement starring Kylie Minogue.
But like Ms Hilton, Ghyslain, a 15-year-old Quebec schoolboy, was none too pleased to see the footage made public. He is seen swinging a mock light sabre; a clip that has earned him cult status, and which can be seen tonight in a UKTV G2 series devoted to the phenomenon, Totally Viral. He is suing his classmates for £140,000.
Television companies, losing viewers to the net, are now launching channels to show “viral videos”. Research by the marketing agency The Viral Factory found that the Star Wars clip had been forwarded 900 million times. The runner-up, Numa Numa, features a New Jersey teenager, Gary Brolsma, 19, lip-synching to a Romanian pop song. It has been seen 700 million times. He has since accepted an offer to appear in a TV advert for Bluetooth iPod headphones.
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The top ten includes explicit footage of a Paris Hilton sex romp which was forwarded 400 million times. Marketing gurus are now exploiting the potential of viral videos, with an advert for John West Salmon, in which a fisherman performs kung-fu moves on a bear, reaching 300 million hits.
A BBC Online survey has found that the online video craze is eating into the time that young people spend watching television, with 43 per cent of those who watch video from the internet or on a mobile device at least once a week saying they now watch less normal television as a result.
The ICM poll found that online and mobile video is far more popular among the young, with 28 per cent of those aged 16-24 watching more than once each week.BBC News 24, which receives 10,000 viewer emails a day, has launched a new programme in which all the material is generated by public submissions.
However, Ricky Gervais, whose audio and video podcasts have become hits on the web, believes amateur video will never replace television. “You can’t knock up an episode of The Sopranos or 24 on a little handheld digital camera,” he told the BBC News website.
Viral videos: the top ten
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1 Star Wars Kid (viewed 900 million times)
2 Numa Numa (700m)
3 One Night in Paris (400m)
4 Kylie Minogue: Agent Provocateur (360m)
5 Exploding Whale (350m)
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6 John West Salmon Bear Fight (300m)
7 Trojan Games (300m)
8 Kolla2001 (200m)
9 AfroNinja (80m)
10 The Shining Redux (50m)
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Source: The Viral Factory for UKTV G2 Totally Viral