[LINK] "Don’t I know you...? What happens when Star Wars Kid grows up?"

[rfmcdonald]

Remember Star Wars Kid?

On November 3, 2002 a Canadian student made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The video was filmed at his high school studio, and the tape left 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, uploaded to the internet, and eventually became a viral meme. An edited version of the video was created, adding Star Wars music, texts, and lightsaber lights and sounds to his golf ball retriever. As of November 27, 2006 it was estimated by The Viral Factory that the video had been viewed over 900 million times.

The Globe and Mail's Wency Leung starts an article on surviving youthful follies as an adult with his story.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Star Wars Kid? Nearly eight years ago, private footage of Ghyslain Raza, a corpulent, faux-light-sabre-wielding Quebec teenager, hit the Internet and quickly became one of the most popular viral videos of all time, viewed by more than 900 million people.

Now in his 20s, Mr. Raza has made headlines again, this time for his appointment as the new president of the Patrimoine Trois-Rivières conservation society in Quebec. An article published earlier this year by Le Nouvelliste outlined his vision for the organization, accompanied by a photo of a slimmer, professional-looking Mr. Raza in a suit and tie.

Readers might not have made the connection were it not for three words, in bold lettering at the bottom of the online version of the article: “Star Wars Kid.”

Reputations gained in youth die hard – whether you were a nerd, a prodigy or a delinquent – career experts say. And reinventing yourself for the working world can be all the more difficult in an age when information about your past can be dredged up with a quick Internet search.

The French Wikipedia has an extensive article about Mr. Raza's plight, if you were wondering.