Angry German Kid

Angry German Kid (also known as Unreal Tournament Kid or Keyboard Crasher) is a German viral video, released on February 14, 2006. The fictionalised persona in the video, played by a German teenager named Norman Kochanowski, of Bergisches Land, Nordrhein-Westfalen, tries to play Unreal Tournament 2004 on his PC, but faces problems with it, such as the game loading slowly, which causes him to get enraged and shout, as well as smashing his keyboard in some scenes, with the video ending with Kochanowski furiously slamming the keyboard against his desk before leaving. Business Wire awarded Angry German Kid second place in the top 10 internet videos of the year in 2006, and in 2007 The Guardian ranked it as number three on its Viral Video Chart.

For a long time, the behaviour demonstrated in the video was widely believed to be genuine, but it was later revealed that the video was staged and part of a series of comedic skits. After the video was prominently featured on German television by the production company Focus TV, the video went viral online and was re-uploaded many times. The viral spread of the video resulted in its original context being lost.

Creation and initial reception Ever since he received a camcorder for his 13th birthday, Kochanowski had been experimenting with it and releasing short films under a variety of aliases, the most popular being "Leopold Slikk". At first, the videos were published in forums and video sites or exchanged on CDs. In 2006, he released a parody of rap music videos with the fictional character "Echter Gangster" . It quickly spread to many platforms, and its success led to sequels featuring the same character. In addition to "Echter Gangster", he often calls himself "Slikk" online. Even after the game loads, he still loses and ultimately slamming furiously the keyboard against his desk before leaving.

After its first release on February 14, 2006, the video was soon shared on other sites, including YouTube, which was first published on February 22, 2006.

Misperception and effects on personal life Many viewers were not aware that the video was a skit. Since 2018, he has also published his own rap songs.

Today, the video is considered a prime example of web videos in the 2000s. It has been studied in the context of the psychology of computer users.

Documentaries Die unglaubliche Geschichte des Angry German Kid(Translation: The Incredible Story of the Angry German Kid), YouTube channel of Funk, May 27, 2020, runtime: 9:50 min) Zapp (magazine): Ausgerastet und abgestürzt: Der Fall des Angry German Kid(Translation: Freaked out and crashed: The case of the Angry German Kid), YouTube channel of NDR, February 1, 2023 (runtime: 23 min.)