Saturday, August 23, 2003

Right to private goofiness vs. universal appeal of chunky kid with light saber

Mitch Mobley forwarded to me this story about a chunky kid in Quebec who videotaped himself wielding (with ever increasing energy and enthusiasm) a golf-ball retriever as if it were a light saber in one of the Star Wars movies, and after someone else found the video and put it on the Internet, and it became popular (with websites such as this one), the kid is now suing over his lost privacy.

A fan of the video had this comment:

"Contrary to popular belief, I think it is not the Jedi kid's awkwardness that keeps him in people's hearts but his undeniable enthusiasm for what he is doing," Murphy says. "While I feel bad for him because he hates his new found popularity, I revisit the site anytime I am feeling down. It just cracks me up. I love this kid!"

Said another:

"I definitely want to respect the kid's privacy. But...," he says, starting to laugh, "It's so funny. He's the 'Star Wars Kid' in all of us."

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