Here’s to hoping that someone close to him is smart enough to do so.
I would love to see this kid come out ahead.
the odds are against him.
I, for one, am rooting for the guy.
Not necessarily in the lawsuit, per se, but to come out of this whole episode better for it.
Actually, Ghyslain Raza is a PERFECT Star Wars name. Seriously, it would fit right in.
I’m an Icon Artist for the Jedi Council Boards at theforce.net, and someone made an icon of this kid. It was up for a vote on the possibilities page, but after some discussion, was removed.
I think it’s awful what happened to him-people making fun of him. Although I really wish he could turn this around and make it positive. He could bill himself as the SW guy, etc.
But he’s fifteen, and probably very insecure. However, if it was made for a class project, surely the whole class saw it anyways, and would have made fun of him regardless. I don’t know what to think.
I agree with Wang-ka’s post. Just reread it using a feminine voice in your head.
I was a 15 yr old fat girl with glasses and a book.
I dont know if 100k is the appropriate action but still I am rooting for the kid.
Yup. Make an example of them that would make bullies potentially think twice.
The fact that he was hospitalized is really the main issue for me.
I think it goes to show that this was not all fun and games, and was in fact seriously detrimental to his mental health.
The poor kid.
I am with Wang Ka on this.
Just because you make a video of yourself, it DOES NOT mean that anyone can swipe it away from you and publish it on the web. It does not mean that. And having people say that you need to get a “sense of humor” doesn’t help either. True, the kid would be better off all around if he had taken it with good humor, but he’s 15 years old and no doubt insecure as hell, and it’s not up to anyone else to dictate how he should respond to a video of himself being stolen away from him and distributed to the world, for the world to potentially mock.
…and there’s the rub.
Sure, I hope he comes out of this all for the better. Hell, ANY really painful experience either makes you stronger… or it breaks you… and then you get to pick up the pieces and decide what you’re going to be.
…but the schools of the Western World can be a remarkably vicious fucking place.
Bad enough to have the entire school laughing at him. That’s pretty bad… but I could have lived it down, when I was his age. Especially if I had had no choice. Sure, I would have fantasized that my old man would get transferred or something, or that I might go live with relatives in some other town where no one knew that I had made an ass of myself with a golf ball retriever gadget…
…but this kid can’t even do that. As far as he is concerned, the entire planet is laughing at him.
Is it an opportunity? Sure, I guess. I’m not sure exactly how one goes about parlaying this kind of notoriety into a career, or even legitimate money, but I suppose if it was ME up there twirling my saber, I could, maybe, do SOMETHING with it, I suppose.
…but, again, I’m not a fifteen-year-old kid. A fat kid, likely insecure, maybe never even kissed a girl yet, for potato’s sake.
And in all honesty, if I had been in his shoes when I was his age, I have no freakin’ idea what I would have done.
But it’s probably a good thing no one had invented “going apeshit at school with a gun,” yet…
If I were his parent, I’d sue if the common-sense parenting had not worked and I had not managed to support him to have an objective POV about the whole horrible thing. I’m guessing though there’s not a lot of 15 yo’s out there with the kind of bullet-proof self-esteem needed to deal with this positively.
$225 000 actually doesn’t sound all that much if he’s cracked up to the point he’s going to need on-going psychiatric help. I’d wonder if there’s compensation in there for loss of wages for the parents. One aspect of having a mentally ill kid is that your earning capacity is quite frankly screwed in the short term and possibly in the long term.
When I first read about this in the Sydney Morning Herald 3 weeks ago, my heart went out to this guy. Poor kid. Nobody deserves this at 15 years old. I think I’d be mortified at nearly 40 if someone did that to me.
And my hope would be that he is still offered a part in the Star Wars movie because I don’t see it as mutually exclusive. If anything it would help his mental state wouldn’t it?
Instead of suing, he should be parlaying his fame into dates with hot chicks. But seriously… if he was mocked so badly that he required the help of mental health professionals, then he probably is entitled to some damages.
…um… how does one parlay one’s appearance in a goofy-assed internet movie into “dates with hot chicks?”
I mean, I really don’t think any of the girls at his school are clawing his door down or camping under his window, REGARDLESS of how much internet exposure this little film gets. If there WERE, I suspect he wouldn’t need quite as much therapy.
Admittedly, perhaps one COULD make some MONEY off it… although I’m at a loss to explain exactly how… but “dates with hot chicks?”
Do enlighten me as to how this might come about…
I’ve said this before, but I just want to emphasize it: I can see how the video is good for a laugh. But what struck me as outrageous is the fact that the people who were laughing uproariously and maliciously were mostly fanboys themselves, who have the same inclination to mess around the same way every time they get hold of a broom handle or whatever. And probably wouldn’t come off any better than Raza did.
I believe the owner of the site where the video was originally posted temporarily suspended the comment board for that reason, and, when he reinstated, issued a warning along the lines of what I said above. Like “You’re not better than this kid, so if you’re going to post just to say how stupid you think he is, DON’T.”
This just goes along with what I’ve said in the past about scenes of humiliation in movies. Laughing with someone is okay, but when there’s this undercurrent of “Oh, that person is such a complete loser…Only complete losers trip, or spill, or whatever!”, it’s just cruel.
But as I said earlier, whom do you sue?
Holy SHAT!
I just now realized how MANY different versions there ARE of this freakin’ film!
Myghod… this kid has been force-fed, head first, into WESTERN POP FUCKING CULTURE! WITHOUT HIS KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT!
Y’know, all of a sudden, I am VERY interested to see how this lawsuit works out…
Little? when were you ever made to look like a jackass in front of the whole planet?
You know, if he can refine his technique well enough to go to martial arts championships and win, that just might cure him and cement his now cult following.
Don’t they care that the additional publicity caused by the lawsuit will cause more people to watch this video clip? A couple of people have already posted it in this thread.
I bet a decent agent could get him into a long distance commercial.
Ya know, it really just depends on the kid. I’ve got friends who would just love the attention, whereas I’d probably take a lightsabre to those other kids and then myself…well, I would if lightsabres existed and I had access to one, that is. Otherwise, I’d probably just crawl into a corner and die.
He’s not half bad, actually.