Here, then, is the cautionary tale of Gary Brolsma, 19, amateur
videographer and guy from New Jersey, who made the grave mistake of
placing on the Internet a brief clip of himself dancing along to a
Romanian pop song. Even in the bathroom mirror, Mr. Brolsma's
performance could only be described as earnest but painful.
His story suggests that the quaint days when cultural trinkets, like
celebrity sex tapes, were passed around like novels in Soviet Russia are
over. It says a little something of the lightning speed at which fame is
made these days.
To begin at the beginning:
Mr. Brolsma, a pudgy guy from Saddle Brook, made a video of himself
this fall performing a lip-synced version of "Dragostea Din Tei," a
Romanian pop tune, which roughly translates to "Love From the Linden
Trees." He not only mouthed the words, he bounced along in what he
called the "Numa Numa Dance" - an arm-flailing, eyebrow-cocked
performance executed without ever once leaving the chair.
In December, the Web site newgrounds.com, a clearinghouse for online
videos and animation, placed a link to Mr. Brolsma on its home page and,
soon, there was a river of attention. "Good Morning America" came
calling and he appeared. CNN and VH1 broadcast the clip. Parodists tried
their own Numa Numa dances online. By yesterday, the Brolsma rendition
of "Love From the Linden Trees" had attracted nearly two million hits on
the original Web site alone.
The video can be seen
here.
It was just as Diane Sawyer said on her television program: "Who
knows where this will lead?"
Nowhere, apparently. For, in Mr. Brolsma's case, the river became a
flood.
He has now sought refuge from his fame in his family's small house on
a gritty street in Saddle Brook. He has stopped taking phone calls from
the news media, including The New York Times. He canceled an appearance
on NBC's "Today." According to his relatives, he mopes around the house.
What's worse is that no one seems to understand.
"I said, 'Gary this is your one chance to be famous - embrace it,' "
said Corey Dzielinski, who has known Mr. Brolsma since the fifth grade.
Gary Brolsma is not the first guy to rocket out of anonymity on a
starship of embarrassment. There was William Hung, the Hong Kong-born
"American Idol" reject, who sang and danced so poorly he became a
household name. There was Ghyslain Raza, the teenage Québécois, who
taped himself in a mock light-saber duel and is now known as the Star
Wars Kid.
In July 2003, Mr. Raza's parents went so far as to sue four of his
classmates, claiming they had placed the clip of him online without
permission. "Ghyslain had to endure and still endures today, harassment
and derision," according to the lawsuit, first reported in The Globe and
Mail of Toronto.
Mr. Brolsma has no plans to sue, his family said - mainly because he
would have to sue himself. In fact, they wish he would bask a little in
his celebrity.
"I don't know what's wrong with him," his grandfather, Kalman Telkes,
a Hungarian immigrant, said the other day while taking out the trash.
The question remains why two million people would want to watch a
doughy guy in glasses wave his arms around online to a Romanian pop
song.
"It definitely has to be something different," said Tom Fulp,
president and Webmaster of newgrounds.com.
"It's really time and place."