Herald Staff Report
The words “viral video” are so much a part of our internet-laden lexicon that you can hardly get excited when the video you took of your mom making bad dance moves gets, like, 1 million views online. But few know the roots of the original “viral” video that hit the internet 20 years ago. That video, “Bad Day” (technically badday.mpg), was circulated mostly via email back in the day, and its roots are in Durango. Wired, a technology magazine, recently revisited the Bad Day video in a feature article called “The strange history of one of the internet’s first viral videos.” Badday.mpg shows Durango resident Vinny Licciardi smacking his computer monitor, pounding his keyboard and then using it to knock his monitor off his desk – all in a fit of frustration. He was, ostensibly, having a bad day. Licciardi worked for Loronix, a security software company that was founded by Durangoan and Fort Lewis College alum Pete Jankowski. (The company is now known as Verint.) Wired’s article chronicles how the video came to be, how it went viral and how quickly it was scrutinized to prove it was fake. Licciardi, known as “Mr. Bad Day,” really was having a good, fun day creating a video to test the company’s software.
Watch the video:
