The Internet, and now the NY Times, dig on the sometimes deft, but more often lurching light saber action of a 15-year-old chunky kid from Quebec, known as Ghyslain:

In the video, Ghyslain brandishes a golf ball retriever in a series of maneuvers that are both painfully awkward and unmistakably joyful. Wearing khakis and a button-down shirt, Ghyslain, who is heavy-set, plays his character with great intensity, glaring into the camera and making sounds to accompany his moves.

Since it was released on the Web late last month as a prank by fellow high school students who discovered the clip, the video has been downloaded more than a million times. Also in circulation are several "remixes," adding special effects to make the stick glow like a light saber and setting the action to music.

The poor kid has been traumatized by this kind of exposure - much of it of the derisive kind - and while just about anyone would look stupid whipping around a faux saber a la Star Wars, this kid has a certain nobility, and though he is something of a load, he is not particularly clumsy either. Rock on, G.

Over at Waxy.org, you can download the original video, the super cool remixed version with treated light saber action, music and titles. And while you are at it, you can sample the new BitTorrent download technology:

BitTorrent is a "swarming" file download system. After you download the file, your computer automatically hosts it for other people to download, instead of everyone downloading from the same congested server. The more people there are downloading a file, the faster everyone's downloads will be! Sounds too good to be true, right?

It's craziness.

At Waxy, you can also contribute to the Ghyslain fund to assuage your conscience for laughing at the kid - the total is now over $3,000. Here's an interview with the lad, and Amy Harmon of the Times spoke with him also:

As nice as it might be to get an iPod, he said, he would have preferred that the video, which he had not intended anyone to see, had remained private.

"People were laughing at me," he wrote in a follow-up e-mail message. "And it was not funny at all."

Poor little dude. Hold your head up high, fearless young francophone - you have suffered your trial with dignity and grace.