Let's Address The Viral Owen Wilson Lightsaber Mashup

As many of you may know, I’m the Owen Wilson of Barstool Sports. It’s my signature impression. Some people say I sound like him even when I’m not trying to sound like him. Definitely not the worst thing–everyone likes Owen Wilson. The guy has made myriad comedy classics but also garners the sympathy of our nation by following up his suicide attempt with Marley and Me. Talk about a power-punch combo to the heart! Anyway, here’s an encore of the one sketch I’ve done as Owen:

Is it the best Owen Wilson impression out there? No. But it’s strong enough that on Friday, when this guy Josh Billinson posted a fight scene from Star Wars with Owen Wilson’s “wows” dubbed over the lightsaber sounds, everybody and their mother texted/DM’d/tweeted it at me. I’m talking HUNDREDS of people. Almost like the world was trolling me: “Hey Fran! Check out this pithy idea you could have made if you had any editing skills whatsoever! It’s going viral as a motherfucker!”

How viral? Well, not as viral as my fellow Harvard-grad Riggs’ sunscreen tweet, but pretty viral.

Interesting that Josh’s vid is closing in on Riggs’ retweets but Riggs’ tweet has so many more likes. I suspect that’s because Josh’s tweet is a video, while Riggs’ is a written joke, but I have NO FUCKING IDEA when it comes to twitter. I’m humble enough to know that I’m a complete Twitter rookie. Seriously–of all the bloggers at Barstool, I use twitter the least. I’ve tweeted just over 2,000 times while young Robbie Fox, who just celebrated his 19th birthday, has tweeted 27,000 times! (Big Cat- 131k, Chaps- 132k, KFC- 88k). They’re all WAY better than me at harnessing the medium, but hopefully I’ll improve before Twitter goes bankrupt soon.

For my part, I think Josh’s Owen Wilson video is great. Simple idea, great execution. I didn’t laugh out loud when I saw it but that’s probably because my twitter feed/DM box was so saturated with it. Still, it’s just astounding to me what sorts of things strike the funny bone of the internet. From some teenager saying “cash me ousside” on Dr. Phil to Owen Wilson’s “wow” scoring a lightsaber battle, you can’t write a formula for virality.

My Xanax song was the closest I’ve come but it needed a retweet or two from a monster account. It never got over the hump, but here’s my promise to you: I’ll continue to fire shots from the relative obscurity of my social media (~45,000 followers between platforms) until, so help me God, I either go viral or die trying. Most shots will arc briefly through the night, tracing short-lived paths of tone-deaf comedy. But someday, goddammit, one will break through. And when it does, you can believe I’ll be wearing my best suit for the pictures.

PS- hey @kendalljenner, I KNOW you eat Xanax for breakfast. Pass along to your 23 million followers.