No doubt you’ve seen the video of Star Wars Kid, a poor young fella who’s ridiculous Star Wars-inspired antics ended up becoming what is probably the most watched viral video ever. Now some background to the saga has emerged. But first, if you’ve never seen the video, prepare to be dazzled.

It was such a hit that a veritable cottage industry sprang up, producing such motion picture classics as Star Wars: Drunken Jedi, Star Wars Kid vs. Yoda and even Star Wars Kid Matrix.

Now Andy Baio (whose greatest hits include Fanboy Obsessive Video Supercuts) has produced the history of the Star Wars Kid phenomenon, including a whole lot of data on where and how the video spread.

… the video was first released by Ghyslain’s schoolmates to Kazaa on April 19, 2003 with the original filename “ghyslain_razaa.wmv.” Within three days, it was being passed around in the offices of Raven Software in Madison, Wisconsin, where a game developer named Bryan Dube posted it on his personal website on April 22. Two days later, he created the first Star Wars Kid remix, adding lightsabers and sound effects in a new video titled “TheLastHope.avi.”

Baio went on to track down the kid himself (see ‘Finding the Star Wars Kid!’) and interviewed him. What an epic!

The data story is worth reading, if only because it provides the details behind something which is now an everyday phenonmenon - viral video.

And there are purty graphs.

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