Techno Viking is an internet phenomenon or meme based on a video from the 2000 Fuckparade in Berlin.
The 4-minute video shot by experimental video artist Matthias Fritsch at the Fuckparade on 8 July 2000[1] begins with the title "Kneecam No. 1" and shows a bare-chested man wearing a Thor's hammer pendant grabbing the arms of and pointing his finger at another man who has just shoved a woman, drinking from a bottle of water offered to him upside down by another man, then dancing down the street to techno music.[2] Fritsch intended it to raise questions of whether the action was real or staged.[1]
Fritsch uploaded the video to the internet in 2001.[3] It was posted on YouTube and went viral in 2007. After being posted on Break.com, it peaked on 28 September at more than 1 million views per day and was watched by over 10 million people over 6 months. More than 700 responses and remixed versions were posted.[1][4][5][6] It was the #1 clip on Rude Tube's series-three episode Drink and Drugs.[7] Mathew Cullen and Weezer wanted to include Techno Viking in their compilation of Internet memes for the "Pork and Beans" music video but were unable to.[8] Techno Viking was also rendered in oils as part of a series on internet memes.[9] By mid-2010, the video had generated over 20 million hits on YouTube alone.[3] Techno Viking has a Know Your Meme page, which documents aspects of the meme, the simplest form of it being a picture of Techno Viking with his finger raised and the word "Obey".[10]
Fritsch mounted an installation and the online Techno Viking Archive "to research the strategies of participatory practice in digital social networks"[11] and presented lectures on the reception of the video. His Music from the Masses project was suggested by the Techno Viking experience: it explores web collaboration by providing silent films for artists to provide soundtracks.[1][3][5][11] In response to legal action by the man featured in the video, access to the Techno Viking video itself has been restricted and annotations on YouTube blocked since late 2009.[1]
Fritsch has not revealed the man's identity.[5] Some have claimed he is a Munich bodybuilder called Hans Schlepkopper.[12] A man calling himself "Harry the old Teuton" appeared on the "Bodybuilding" broadcast of the German television show Raab in Gefahr,[13] and was interpreted by some to mean he was Techno Viking.[14] Fans have claimed Keith Jardine is Techno Viking.[15]