Angry German Kid
| Angry German Kid | |
|---|---|
| File:Angry German Kid.jpg | |
| Directed by | Norman Kochanowski |
| Screenplay by | Norman Kochanowski |
| Starring | Norman Kochanowski |
Release date |
|
Running time | 4:23 |
| Language | German |
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Angry German Kid (also known as Keyboard Crasher[1], Unreal Tournament Kid[2], Echter Gangster[3], or Leopold Slikk[4]) is a viral video made in 2005 by Norman Kochanowski[5] in which he experiences intense frustration and anger as he attempts to play Unreal Tournament 2004 on his computer.[1] The video became a cultural embodiment of computer rage, and is the subject of several parodies and Internet memes.
Origin
The producer of the video had previously published some web videos. Since he was given a camera for his 13th birthday, he had been experimenting with it and published short films. He appeared on the Internet under various pseudonyms. Initially, the videos were published in various forums and video pages or exchanged on CDs, a large platform like YouTube did not yet exist. In 2005, the teenager released a parody of rap music videos with the artificial character "Echter Gangster" (German for "real gangster"). This quickly spread to many platforms and the success motivated the filmmaker to continue with the same figure.[6][7]
In 2005, he released his fifth video titled PC spielen. In this, the filmmaker sits as an artificial figure in front of the computer and gets a tantrum because he wants to play Unreal Tournament, but the game does not load fast enough. He increases in anger, shouts at the computer and finally smashes his keyboard.[6][7]
Publication and reactions
After the first release in 2005, the video was soon spread to other sites by copying and uploading others, including YouTube. The video and its protagonist became known in Germany as the Unreal Tournament Kid, internationally in English speaking countries primarily as Angry German Kid, in Spanish as El Niño Loco Alemán, in Japanese as Keybord Crasher, in Polish as Niemieckie Dziecko Neo. The video was edited by others, accompanied by music or other words in other languages put in the protagonist's mouth. It established itself worldwide as a well-known internet phenomenon. When spreading across many platforms, most viewers were no longer aware that the scene shown was only played.[6]
When the Emsdetten school shooting occurred in November 2006, a discussion broke out in Germany about the dangerousness of video games. Focus TV distributed Norman's video as an example of how games could make young people aggressive. The web video became even more widespread. The editorial team named the protagonist Leopold in the text discussed above. He was secretly filmed by his father, addicted to the Internet and now in a clinic. The television contribution was sharply criticized by scene media, among other things because the protagonist of the video is known for staging it. Nevertheless, he became a symbol of the fears that video games could turn youngsters into violent criminals.[8] Years later, Focus's contribution had been withdrawn and given a blocking notice so that it would no longer be published.[6]
Due to the increasing distribution, the filmmaker, who was also recognized in his school and bullied by classmates. Many considered the scene shown to be real. He tried to clarify this, but eventually deleted all of his videos from the Internet, as far as he could, and withdrew.[6] He changed his appearance so that he could no longer be recognized, but the bullying did not stop there. Eventually, the teenager became violent himself, intimidated classmates and announced a killing spree at his school. He was expelled from school and spent a month in prison.[7]
Legacy
From 2015, Kochanowski produced videos again and put them on YouTube. They were about his training and have no relation to previous films. However, he was recognized, but initially did not respond to questions about Angry German Kid.[6] At the end of 2017, the Angry German Kid came back into the public eye under the new pseudonym Hercules Beatz. The young man, who was now 26 years old and has now trained a bodybuilder body, published a disstrack in which he talked about the events surrounding the publication of the web video 12 years earlier and insulted those who bullied him at the time. However, this is more for fun, since he now sees everything more relaxed.[9][10][11] The filmmaker has been publishing his own rap songs since 2018.[12]
The studio Ryanimation Entertainment produced an animation series in 2016 with the title The Angry German Kid and Friends Show, which tells fictional stories about the Angry German Kid and other internet phenomena.[13]
Today the video is considered a prime example of web videos from the 2000s,[14][7] as well as Star Wars Kid, for example. The video may be formative for the genre of German language videos over which new texts are placed in other languages. By 2019, the video had over 10 million views on YouTube alone in various versions.[7] As one of the best known early Internet phenomena, Angry German Kid is also treated in studies on memes. So as an example of a video in which the protagonist does not meet expectations of masculinity and whose content is linked to popular culture (as well as Star Wars Kid);[15] as an example of the success of a video through its use and usability in many mashups;[16] or as an example of exaggerated reactions of the user in the study of psychological reactions in the Interaction between humans and computers.[17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "And now, a special message to Japan from that angry German kid who smashed his keyboard in 2006". SoraNews24 -Japan News-. 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ Staff, Noisey (2017-11-07). "Das "Unreal Tournament Kid" ist wieder da und hat einen Realtalk-Track gedroppt". Vice (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ "Was macht eigentlich der 'Echte Gangster'?". delta radio (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ "Leopold Slikk". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ "Angry German Kid Parodies - Atrocious YouTubers Wiki". atrociousyoutubers.miraheze.org. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Kogel, Dennis (2017-11-21). "Deutschlands Meme-Meister: Die faszinierende Geschichte des Angry German Kid". Vice (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 "„Angry German Kid": Wie ein Internetvideo das Leben eines Teenagers zerstörte". www.rnd.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ "Counterstrike.de: Medienlandschaft Deutschland | Aktuelle Berichte". www.4players.de. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ "Unreal Tournament Kid - 12 Jahre später: Vom Meme zum rappenden Bodybuilder-DJ". www.gamepro.de (in Deutsch). 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ Anna Bühler, Bayerischer Rundfunk (2017-11-10). "Comeback eines Memes: Das Unreal Tournament Kid ist zurück und will nicht weiter undercover bleiben" (in Deutsch).
- ↑ Rohwer, Björn (2017-11-08). "Kaum wiederzuerkennen: Das Unreal-Tournament-Kid ist jetzt Rapper, Produzent & Hayvan". Hiphop.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ "Nach 12 Jahren: Das Unreal Tournament Kid beantwortet Fragen zu seinen alten Videos". GIGA (in Deutsch). 2018-03-28. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ The Angry German Kid and Friends Show, retrieved 2019-12-22
- ↑ "Meme: Was aus dem wütenden "Unreal-Tournament-Kid" wurde - derStandard.de". DER STANDARD (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ↑ Limor Shifman: Meme: Kunst, Kultur und Politik im digitalen Zeitalter. Suhrkamp, 2014
- ↑ Hanne Detel: Netzprominenz: Entstehung, Erhaltung und Monetarisierung von Prominenz im digitalen Zeitalter, S. 169. Herbert von Halem Verlag, 2017
- ↑ Patrick Ehrenbrink, Sabine Prezenski: Causes of Psychological Reactance in Human-ComputerInteraction, S. 1. online
Category:1991 births
Category:2005 films
Category:German Internet celebrities
Category:Living people
Category:German people of Polish descent
Category:Human–computer interaction
Category:Viral videos
Category:Internet memes
Category:Internet humor
Category:Victims of cyberbullying
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