Finding 'Winnebago'
Winnebago Man
Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer hunts down a YouTube superstar.
The world of Youtube is not all sneezing pandas and terrified hamsters. It's mostly about LOLs and some of the biggest ones have come from the earliest YouTube stars - 'The Star Wars Kid', the 'Impossible Is Nothing' video resume and of course the 'Winnebago Man'.
Have you ever wondered who the people are behind these clips? Well documentary filmmaker Ben Steinbauer did - he became so obsessed with the 'Winnebago Man' clip that he tracked down its star, also known as "the angriest man in the world", Jack Rebney.
If you haven't seen the clip here's some background - after a grueling two week video shoot in August 1988 for a Winnebago sales ad, some of the crew edited together the outtakes of salesman Jack Rebney into a 4-minute clip.
Rebney's hilariously foul-mouthed outtakes from the RV sales video became one of the first and most infamous underground videos to be passed hand-to-hand on VHS tapes, before YouTube turned it into a full-blown viral phenomenon in 2005. The clip is regarded as one of the classics that helped launch the age of online video. If you haven't seen it, the clip can be viewed here.
Steinbauer takes on the seemingly impossible task of tracking down Rebney, who until recently, had no idea that the outtakes clip even existed, or that millions of people around the world have watched it.
Winnebago Man is not only Steinbauers feature film debut but the first theatrically-released feature film about a YouTube celebrity. It's an unironic look at one man's response to unintended Internet celebrity, and ultimately a story of how so-called "humiliation" can become a beacon of light to many.
Winnebago Man screens in Freaky Fridays over the next two weeks. For session details click here.
Published Friday, 7 May 2010
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