Today I am more proud to be a Canadian than ever. We own the Internet according to this article that I saw on the Globe and Mail site today.

‘Star Wars’ Kid named most-seen clip on Net

The video clip of a Canadian known around the world as the “Star Wars Kid” has become the most-shared footage on the Internet, a British net-tracking firm has determined.

The once-private tape of Ghyslain Raza faking a light-sabre fight, using a golf-ball retriever in place of the traditional Jedi weapon, has been seen online by about 900 million people.

That’s more than twice the total of Paris Hilton’s sex tape.

Mr. Raza, who grunts and grimaces as he reels theatrically in front of the camera, said that the video was not meant to be made public. He had filmed it late in 2002 in a studio at his Trois-Rivières school and then accidentally left the tape behind. Another youth found it the following spring and shared it with friends.

For those of you still in the dark and have never seen what they are talking about here is the clip.

Wikipedia has all kinds of interesting facts about this kid as well. The cultural references alone are worth reading, here are a few of the good ones.

In 2005, the TV series Arrested Development had George Michael Bluth’s lightsaber moves in the middle of a family video. Buster is also shown doing lightsaber moves. Bluth’s video is seen four more times in the series: once in a high school election video, leading to his reconciling with his ex-girlfriend, a second time at a fundraiser for the family in the episode “Prison Break-In,” a third time by the FBI, who mistake it for a terrorist training video in ‘”Sword of Destiny,” and a fourth time when he uses it to tape his dad’s girlfriend Rita eating fake fruit in the episode “The Ocean Walker.” Bluth wearily suggests they should get a new tape as “they’re not expensive”.

On the August 10, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert is shown jumping around in front of a green screen with a lightsaber. This is done as part of the Better Know A District segment when he visits California’s 6th congressional district where Star Wars creator George Lucas lives. The next week he found online videos of his “battle” which people have edited to include saber glow and blaster shots, Colbert then started a challenge to see who could make the best one. Many people edited Colbert’s footage with that of Star Wars kid to get an effect of them fighting each other.

Be sure to check out the Globe article to see what other clips have made the list, I am sure you have seen at least one of them before.

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