Edgar's fall (La caída de Edgar) is a video that was uploaded to YouTube in March 2006 from Mexico. This internet meme has been one of the most popular videos in YouTube, with 21,872,668 viewings as of December 24, 2010.
Contents |
The video features a young Mexican boy named Edgar and his cousin Fernando hiking in a ranch near their home town of Monterrey with Raúl as the cameraman and the tour companion. The video starts with Edgar being afraid of trying to cross a small stream using two long branches as a bridge when Fernando taunts him of pushing him off. Fernando assumes him that nothing bad will happen which Edgar hesitates but after he is at the middle of the bridge, Fernando starts moving one of the branches, causing Edgar to curse angrily with a Mexican "norteño" (northern) accent. After Edgar calls Fernando "idiota" (idiot) when begging him to stop, Fernando drops the branch and Edgar finally loses his balance and plunges into the stream. He curses even more as he emerges from the water even though Fernando asks for forgiveness.[1]
Edgar's fall was the subject of much media exposure in México which included newspapers and the clip being shown on the TV news.
There are ringtones, games, parodies, remixes and even a web page where Edgar is proposed for Mexico's presidency. There are over 20 versions of the video including Star Wars, Mario Bros, Street Fighter, Counter Strike, Naruto and Pokémon. Some publicity campaigns have made use of the video without worries of copyright issues, for example Nike's Joga Bonito campaign. Edgar has also gained other media exposure, appearing on TV shows and in newspapers because he was sussing he was really mad.[2]
In 2007, Edgar, Fernando and Raúl that participated in this video made a commercial called La Venganza de Edgar (Edgar's Revenge) for a Mexican cookie company, Gamesa. The commercial, which also became a viral video, parodies the situation seen in the original video. The curse words Edgar utters are beeped out. Instead of Edgar falling in the river, he screams "Guardias!", and suddenly Roman soldiers appear, to the shock of Fernando. Edgar orders the Roman guards to throw Fernando in the water by saying, "Al río, güey", and despite Fernando's protests they do so. At Edgar's command, Raúl is also thrown into the water.[3] The video was made by Gamesa's ad agency in Mexico, Olabuenaga Chemistri and was aired for a short period of time.
This series of commercials advertises a brand of cookies called Emperador (Emperor); they show people acting like they were a Roman Emperor, calling their guards to turn things in their favor.
In 2007, YouTube launched the Mexican version of its website, with content oriented to Mexicans. During the launch, Edgar was present with Coyoacán Joe where he filmed a welcome video for YouTube México.[4]