negroeb

https://vk.com/kamen_v_lesu

Translation (sorry for possible mistakes)

0:00 [Announcer]

There is an actual Hungarian world-wide star: Arató András István, an average-looking 70-years old retired man living a completely ordinary life, who has tens of thousands of fans on the Internet from Russia to the USA. Based on András's pictures a meme was created: his photo is put on bodies in funny or extreme situations, which later lives on on its own. András now smilingly notes his growing popularity.

0:32 [Female speaker]

A gray-haired grandpa with a funny smile and a meaningful look: this was all that was needed to be picked up by the Internet, and to become one of the world's most well-known meme figures, which means due to some funny caption or other editing a picture becomes a real Internet hit. The interesting thing is, that this old gentleman, whose pictures are known and beloved from Russia to the USA, is actually a 70 year old electrical engineer from Budapest.

1:02 [András/Harold]

As soon as I posted this, 10 seconds later I see that 75 people liked it, and 9 people shared it already; so it's totally unbelievable to me, all of them are Russians. Now it's 133..134 people liked it. In one minute, 12 people shared it.

1:23 [Female speaker]

Arató András István can barely believe it himself, but in a few years, he became a world-wide star on the Internet. Mostly young people create memes out of his pictures. A few years ago, András was first outraged when he first found his manipulated photos, but later he realized that in his youth, he also created something similar, in his own ways.

1:40 [András/Harold]

When we were schoolkids, we also made memes, but back then we made Arany János into a pirate captian in our reading book. It's actually the same story, and Arany János didn't become neither larger, nor smaller because of us.

1:54 [Female speaker]

Everything started with this holiday picture from Turkey, which was noticed by a photographer on a later closed community website called Iwiw. He called András to be a model for him to make a few so-called "stock photos". These photos are collected in a database, and they are usually ordered as illustrations for graphical works. But there were some who rather produced funny situations out of the Hungarian retired man's pictures.

2:18 [András/Harold]

Everyone is a bit vain, and I tried to look after, where are my photos used. I found a lot of completely normal uses, like I was a director of a hospital, I was a grandpa, I was this and that, and once I found a site where I was made into a meme. Well, I wasn't really happy for that.

2:41 [Female speaker]

A few years earlier, on the stage of "A nagy duett", the extremely happy Zsidró Tamás also inspired the Hungarian meme creators, after progressing in the contest, his eruptive happiness was also put in numerous funny situations, but this wave didn't pass beyound our borders. But Arató András István is sorrounded by ever increasing adoration in foreign countries. He even has a fan page in Russia, where this year, he signalled with a photo and a caption saying "I'm alive" to his fans, that he is in fact real, and a same flesh and blood human like the creators of his memes. Of course, the craze just got stronger after this.

3:16 [András/Harold]

It's stupendous, what happened after this. In two days, I got twenty-something thousand followers. On Facebook... no, not actually on Facebook, but on its Russian equivalent.

3:27 [Female spaker]

And what does the wife say to all of this? To this day, she can't comprehend András becoming a star.

3:33 [Wife]

I didn't really like all this, so I wasn't happy for it. I felt like this is really looking into the privacy of some, almost like interferencing.

3:47 [Female speaker]

András's meme figure even got a name: he is called Harold, whose smile is hiding some underlying pain, as imagined by the Internet users. Thus, "Hide the Pain Harold" was born. Mr. Arató says, there is no pain in the background, just during making the photos, his smile got a bit weaker.

4:03 [András/Harold]

I had to smile like this for long seconds. I see that it's not my natural face as well. Well, they interpreted that I'm trying to hide some inner pain.

4:18 [Female speaker]

There are some memes that Mr. Arató likes, and there are some who he considers tasteless. But to his chagrin he can't do anything againts these. His photos on the Internet almost live on their own, but he also has some favorites.

4:30 [András/Harold]

Where the American presidents are carved into the rock, there my picture was put in, well, I liked this, because I find this a definitely funny thing. Even though I have an unsightly look, but well, this is why it's funny.

4:44 [Female speaker]

During the shooting, he posted to his Russian community profile, without a photo, he just wished for a nice day. In an hour, 802 people liked it, after a day, this number grew to 1449. András doesn't understand his fans, and even though in the beginning, he wasn't happy for all of this, now he is resigned that even against his will, he became a world-wide star at 70 years.

5:06 [András/Harold]

Now I can't be left out of it, I have to undertake it.