Star Wars Kid TV Tribute Roundup

Posted by Andy Baio

It’s been almost two years since the Star Wars Kid video, but the tributes keep coming.

Tonight, “Arrested Development” featured an obvious SWK homage. In a flashback, the family stumbles on a tape-recording of George Michael, the teenage son of Jason Bateman’s character, doing his lightsaber moves. (Thank to Matt for the video.)

Video: swk_arrested_development.mpg (10MB, MPEG2)

While I’m at it, here’s a video clip I’ve been sitting on since late last year from the Cartoon Network’s “Venture Brothers.” From Episode 106, a winged henchman tries to fight Brock with a junk lightsaber. Before he does, he performs some very familiar fighting moves…

Video: swk_venture_brothers.mov (5MB, Quicktime)

And, for the completists out there, episodes of two other shows were entirely based on the Star Wars Kid ordeal. In Episode 76 of “Ed,” aired December 2003, an overweight high school student recorded himself doing a dance. After the video is stolen, leaked online, and remixed into a catwalk-style fashion video, he asks Ed to help seek damages in civil court. In the end, he decides to drop the charges and embraces his geekiness by repeating the dance moves in the high school halls. The fifth episode of “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” aired September 2004, was full of geek in-jokes and SWK parallels. The TV Tome description rounds it up nicely.

Finally, because I get asked occasionally, I have no new Star Wars Kid news. He’s never tried to contact me, and I haven’t tried to follow up in any way. I don’t know the outcome of the lawsuits or what Ghyslain is up to. If anyone out there knows, I’d love to know how he’s doing.

June 26, 2006: Here’s a clip from the September 25, 2005 episode of “American Dad.”

Comments

    I watched Venture Bros this morning and immediately started thinking how I could capture that clip and get it to you. So damn funny!

    Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is great and that episode you mention is the one that drew me into the show. Genus writing!

    Poor Star Wars Kid. Embrace your innner dork and you will be free!

    Hard to believe I have never seen the SWK. I’ve tried but it never plays on my dinky laptop. I probably won’t get the jokes mentioned in the episodes.

    I hope he has a cameo in Episode 3. I heard there was a petition for that somewhere online. Even though I’ve never seen him, I still think he’s cool.

    I just started playing the PSP edition of Tony Hawk Underground 2. The first thing I checked out was SWK on the Boston level, and sure enough there he still is swinging his broom/sabre.

    I remember when I first saw the SWK video. I burst out laughing, what a classic. Its good to see that its receiving tribute from TV shows. Its not limited to just us internet folk. Ghyslain is more popular than you’d initially think.

    Nothing super exciting, but in tonight’s “next time on Arrested Development” it did appear the Star Wars Kid take-off will be an on-going plot element.

    Dave, the “next Time on Arrested Development” segments are always fake. They never actually show up in the next show, but are just a device to close off the loose plotlines from the current show. It’s kind of a running gag.

    That doesn’t mean that the SW kid take-off won’t be in the next show, it just means that it’s not a real indicator.

    Can you believe this? I am a total, unapologetic SW freak AND Web dork, and I never even heard of this Star Wars kid until last night. What’s the matter with me?

    I just learned of it during last night’s episode of “Veronica Mars”, where a high school girl who is afraid that a sexy video of her will get out comments that she’d be a total laughingstock, “Like Paris Hilton or the Star Wars kid.” The first thing that went through my mind was, Jake Lloyd made a sex tape?

    From the Globe and Mail, Saturday 7 May 2005, page F8:

    “Millions of chortling spectators downloaded it. Late-night talk shows ridiculed him as the Stars Wars kid – and played the video over and over. Ghyslain eventually ended up in a child psychiatric ward.”

    I think that’s pure speculation on their part. As far as I know, nobody has ever been able to confirm what happened to Ghyslain.

    Just about six million individuals inhabit the earth, 3 quarters have read the bible. One guy advertising in one single country, initiated this, with just word of mouth. People today have the technology with which to reach all of those people, all this at your fingertips, you can change anything, go for it bad boys!!!!!!

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