Support NeoGAF

[Bomber Bob]

Almost a billion viewers across the planet know him as the Star Wars Kid, but they’ve never heard him speak, until now.

Ghyslain Raza was a normal high-school student in small-town Quebec back in 2002, a shy 14-year-old who liked to make videos. In 2003, classmates posted one of those videos on the Internet without his knowledge–in it, Raza wields a makeshift light saber, clumsily imitating a Star Wars Jedi knight.

The video went viral, and the Trois-Rivières teen became one of the earliest and highest-profile victims of a massive cyberbullying attack, one that played out among classmates and strangers online.

“What I saw was mean. It was violent. People were telling me to commit suicide,” the now-25-year-old recalls.


After a 10-year silence, Raza speaks out for the first time in an exclusive interview with award-winning French-Canadian journalist Jonathan Trudel (L’actualité magazine). The full interview also appears in English in the latest issue of Maclean’s.

Recorded while Raza was “goofing around” alone at his school’s TV club studio — the group had been working on a Star Wars parody — the video had soon been seen by tens of millions, all the more remarkable in a pre-YouTube world.

Raza said he lost what few friends he had in the fallout, and had to change schools. “In the common room, students climbed onto tabletops to insult me,” he told L’actualité.

It was “a very dark period,” he said. “No matter how hard I tried to ignore people telling me to commit suicide, I couldn’t help but feel worthless, like my life wasn’t worth living.”

Raza, now a law-school graduate from McGill, said he was driven to speak out by the recent spate of high-profile cases of cyberbullying, some of which have pushed their victims to commit suicide. If the same situation were to happen today, he said he hopes school authorities would help him through it.

Raza said he hopes talking about his experience will help others to deal with cyberbullying, and urged other young victims to “overcome (their) shame” and seek help.

“You’ll survive. You’ll get through it,” he said. “And you’re not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you.”

Pretty sad

 

[Zozz]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

 

[Conor 419]

Poor guy, hope things work out.

 

[capslock]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

He didn't put it online.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

IS this in response to the topic or just in general?

 

[Camp Lo]

It was “a very dark period,” he said. “No matter how hard I tried to ignore people telling me to commit suicide, I couldn’t help but feel worthless, like my life wasn’t worth living.”

That's a fucking shame.

 

[grap3fruitman]

You mean to tell me that complete strangers on the Internet can be really mean?! I'm shocked.

 

[TommyT]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

... In 2003, classmates posted one of those videos on the Internet without his knowledge...

Yeah, you tell 'em!

 

[BlueSteel]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Wow, it's like you didn't even read the quoted part of the article...

 

[-PXG-]

Poor guy

 

[Kai Dracon]

They'll say it's only internet but the internet is made of people. And it allows an unprecedented number of people to gang up on a single individual with a scary amount of coordination.

 

[tycoonheart]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Read the fucking article.

 

[Mastadon]

At least he's gone on to a successful acting career. He's great as Sam in Game of Thrones.

 

[Camp Lo]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

The fuck?

 

[threetri333]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

I guess what you said applies to many other cases, but this guy didn't even post the video online.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Your tag should be "zozz can't read"

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Pretty sad that the kid got bullied to that degree. People are idiots.

That said, that video and the videos made from it were awesome.

 

[Tesseract]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

congratulations.

 

[Borgnine]

Don't let them fool you, Canadians are ruthless assholes.

 

[Dresden]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Rule 2: read the OP

 

[Cerebral Assassin]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

At least he can read, you simpleton.

 

[PaperFlame]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Rule of the internet, don't be this guy.

 

[.GqueB.]

READ THE ARTICLE ZOZZ!!!

 

[Pollux]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

In your haste to be the first post and post something witty/insightful/on-point....you failed to notice that your post was completely irrelevant.

Good job.

 

[fabricated backlash]

Wow, it's like you didn't even read the quoted part of the article...

Gotta get that first post for maximum internet glory.

 

[raindoc]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

did you even bother reading the OP?

 

[Keru_Shiri]

This whole trend of racing to post dipshit comments in response to the thread title really needs to stop.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but Star Wars kid happened quite a while ago before people really understood the potential and nature of viral videos on the internet.

 

[Tuck]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Did you read any of the OP? The kid didn't post the video online - someone else did.

Feel bad for him - dunno why people would be so mean over a silly video.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Wasn't he actually pretending to be Kilik from Soul Calibur?

 

[BrokenEchelon]

Did they also force (lol) him to swing a pole around like an idiot for a few minutes?

It's incredible that people's reactions to it were to tell him to kill himself. I laughed at it and that was about it.

 

[Camp Lo]

In your haste to be the first post and post something witty/insightful/on-point....you failed to notice that your post was completely irrelevant.

Good job.

That was absolutely it, I'm sure of it.

 

[Coconut]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Didn't other people maliciously put his video online?

 

[Tomat]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

You think a barrage of people telling you to kill yourself is "being made fun of?"

 

[RM8]

This is so awful. Now I feel bad for finding it so hilarious back in the day, I can't believe such a stupid thing affected his life in such a strong, negative way. It's not that it's not okay to laugh at silly things, but people being rude to him and telling him to kill himself? WTF?

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Did they also force (lol) him to swing a pole around like an idiot for a few minutes?

We all do embarrassing shit in private, bro. Even you.

 

[ComputerMKII]

“You’ll survive. You’ll get through it,” he said. “And you’re not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you.”

That's easily said but it doesn't change the fact that, when bullying happens, you are alone and you do suffer. It's not true that there is always someone to help you. I was bullied in middle school and high school, and the only thing that stopped it was going to the university.

 

[FStop7]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Way to shit on the rug.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

Did they also force (lol) him to swing a pole around like an idiot for a few minutes?

He was a kid. Kids do stupid things, sometimes they get made fun of for it. Few anticipate being humiliated on a global scale, especially not before 2003.

 

[Kazerei]

Worst first post ever.

 

[strafer]

At first I thought this was about the kid that played Anakin.

 

[Clevinger]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

He didn't put it up. And even if he did, young kids do dumb things all the time but they don't deserve the world bullying them for it.

 

[Count Dookkake]

The best video was edited like a teaser for Ep3 and culminated in SW kid deflecting a barrage of laser blasts. Used the music well.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

Zozz
students can't hear
(Today, 02:39 PM)


Can't read either, apparently.

 

[Weenerz]

George Michael Bluth did it better, you terrorist.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

I like that this thread has turned into cyber-bullying Zozz.

This is so awful. Now I feel bad for finding it so hilarious back in the day, I can't believe such a stupid thing affected his life in such a strong, negative way. It's not that it's not okay to laugh at silly things, but people being rude to him and telling him to kill himself? WTF?

You shouldn't feel bad for finding it funny if you didn't tell him to kill himself, as that is what caused the bulk of the damage. If it was just a prank and people laughed, he probably would have been ok. It's the real dirtbags out there that hurt him the most.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Did they also force (lol) him to swing a pole around like an idiot for a few minutes?

Come on, like you've never done anything embarassing when nobody is watching? Especially at age 14. Posting it online was one of the most outright mean and nasty things his classmates could have done.

I have always felt really badly for this guy, and I am really glad to see he managed to overcome the hell he was put through. Law school graduate, good for him.

 

[Resilient]

Rule of the internet, don't want to be made fun of? Don't put stupid shit online. Can you take a joke and comments from assholes? Do it, more power to you.

How about don't be a fucking asshole? Is that a rule?

This mentality of "they should learn to take a joke" is bullshit. Because that's what this post is, given by your ass tone and complete disregard for what OP posted. For fucks sake.

 

[inky]

Now I feel bad for laughing at the video so many times =(

 

[SUPREME1]

This isn't the first time he's spoken out. I recall him doing so a few years back.

I think he sued, won a good chunk of money, and used it to pay for college+law school.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

That's easily said but it doesn't change the fact that, when bullying happens, you are alone and you do suffer. It's not true that there is always someone to help you. I've been bullied in middle school and high school, and the only thing that stopped it was going to the university.

I think the original quote was meant more as words of encouragement.