The, um, "Angry German Kid"

I just found this subtitled version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdlTvKOve5Q&mode=related&search=

Seeing the subtitles actually causes me to wonder if this is just a hoax. (Damn good kid actor though if that’s so.)

I know people can be very, very, very strange. But literally screaming like this, about things like slow load times on a game, for such a sustained amount of time?

If it’s not a hoax, it’s not funny. The kid needs psychological help as far as I can tell.

-FrL-

Okay, so after some googling, it looks to me like the majority of intelligent people think it’s a fake.

Sorry to bring up old news. :slight_smile:

-FrL-

I dunno. I’m ashamed to admit I can get pretty worked up when playing computer games, and I’m ten years older than that kid easily.

/Reason I can’t show my face in a local LAN cafe.
//Man did I make an ass of myself…

Even without Googling, it seems pretty obvious to me that he’s play-acting. He doesn’t really look angry at all.

I don’t know what it says about me that I found this very funny indeed.

I wasn’t really watching closely. I just saw the form of a kid flailing around while screaming. So I found him convincing enough over almost any five second stretch. It was the fact that the same level of agitation was maintained over longer than a few seconds at a time that led to my disbelief.

-FrL-

Fake or not, without the Angry German Kid, we wouldn’t have gotten The Angry German Kid vs. Leeroy Jenkins. :smiley:

While I see no reason to think there aren’t any kids out there so utterly fucked in the head that this couldn’t be real, one thing makes me suspicious – he hardly moves the mouse at all while playing. I love playing UT, and you put some pretty good mileage on your mouse in that game.

Also, someone should clue this little twit in to the fact that pounding on the keyboard while you’re waiting for something to load is pretty counterproductive.

Acting or not, you guys have obviously never worked with kids, especially that age.

He seemed pretty normal to me - having a micro-tantrum - give him some space and then later go in and try to find the real problem. Assuming it wasn’t acting, my guess is the computer/game malfunction has little, if anything, to do with the cause of this outburst.

I worked at a private school for rich kids, and about once a month one would flip out like this kid, or much worse - most of the time it was family problems or boyfriend/girlfriend problems.

Remember, at this age, problems seem overwhelming and of earth-shaking magnitude.

Well… yes I have. Probably not as much as you though, and certainly not as any kind of expert. But still–between some teaching and much subbing, I’ve spent at least many thousands of child-hours with kids this age. This kid’s behavior is not normal.

Also, aside from teaching and substitute teaching, I can take this opportunity to confess that I, too, was once a kid this age. I remember this span of my life with some clarity. I recall at this time having experience–full, well developed interaction, even–with several kids this kids age. Dozens, perhaps hundreds. And they were all kinds of kids–all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of personalities, and so on.

And I can’t remember a single case of anything like this video occuring. Not even anything coming close.

The closest I recall was undertaken by, I’m embarrased to admit, yours truly. I literally screached out an angry diatribe against a teacher (and screached out some non-vocalic calls as well) for what was probably about 30 seconds. (Damn that teacher was being unfair. Almost 15 years later and it still makes me a little angry to think about it. :slight_smile: )

But anyway, that was it. I have only encountered screaching and acting out like this once in my whole life, and that was only for seconds, rather than minutes. And I’ve known (and played with and worked with) plenty of kids.

So, I doubt the implied claim you expressed as follows:

No way. I can barely believe there are isolated cases like this kid. But “normal?” You’re going to have to show me studies or something.

-FrL-

I didn’t mean to imply that every kid has the same tantrum style…some go into their room, slam the door and don’t speak for a week…others have crying jags you can hear a mile away…some act out and hit other kids or break things intentionally…one girl at the school took her roommate’s clothes, slashed them with scissors and ripped them to shreads (roommate was her best friend from home) and then turned around and blamed another girl and said it was a racially motivated incident. When the story finally came out, the girl was jealous that her best friend had more money and better clothes. We had kids with hundreds of dollars in their pocket get arrested for shoplifting a CD, and thus expelled from school and ejected from the country (the school was in Switzerland). One kid bought a switchblade and went into another dorm and threatened another kid.
The list goes on and on - wasn’t a year that went by that at least two or three kids were kicked out of school.

Yes, the kid in the video seems to be on quite a rage - but I have seen similar fits by kids that age - so I am sticking to my story - not all that uncommon.

Oh, and BTW, all of those incidents happened at a very expensive private school, and the kids were generally good natured and peaceful, highly intelligent and well mannered - not at all a school for troubled youth - but every year, we would get some kids who just had some serious emotional problems. I have a friend here in Las Vegas who briefly worked at a camp for troubled kids, and boy does she have stories that would make your hair stand on end.

Heh, I love the subtitle “speaks incomprehensible and screams again”

I seem to recall a lot more hand movement (both mouse and keyboard) when I played Unreal. Also, around the 2:35 mark it looks like he breaks apart his keyboard.

Still, I have no problem believing that a kid could be that much of a screaming lunatic. Have we forgotten the nine-year-old who throws such a tantrum at his mom while playing Rainbow Six online that the other players stop what they’re doing and record him?