The phrase "YouTube sensation" gets thrown around an awful lot, describing every popular online video from lip-synching loonies to adolescents on Novocaine. But Jack Rebney is the real deal. Who's Jack Rebney? That's a good question, one that filmmaker Ben Steinbauer felt destined to answer in his search for the guy who became known as Winnebago Man. The result of Steinbauer's three-year journey is knee-slapping fun, a relentlessly entertaining documentary about fame and the unlikely famous. And the art of cursing. 

Jack Rebney didn't start in the limelight: In the late 1980s, he was just a guy starring in a corporate sales video for the Winnebago RV company. Innocent enough, sure, until you see Rebney's outtakes, in which he regularly spews a slurry of profanity so raw, so ridiculous, so harmlessly angry, you can only laugh at the performance.

Somehow, Rebney's bloopers and blunders were put onto a VHS tape, copied onto many other tapes, and distributed throughout the entertainment industry. They eventually stormed the world on YouTube some 20 years after the Winnebago Man first filled the frame with filth.

Lucky for us, Steinbauer wants to know everything about this lightning strike of popularity, and wants to share it with us, the right approach for a culture now supersaturated with the very idea of sharing information. After the quiet director breaks down the particulars of how and why the outtakes spread like wildfire, he is practically obsessed (or, he appears obsessed) with finding Rebney. Questions abound. Does Rebney know of his fame? Has he ever watched YouTube? Is he still really pissed off?

Steinbauer and company make sure we get plenty of Rebney's rants right up front; when the filmmaker actually finds the guy, the thrill is a bit intoxicating, like finally meeting a famous actor and wondering about his "real" persona. When he shows up on screen, Rebney is in his 70s, crotchety yet charming, and sly enough to continually keep us guessing about the real Jack Rebney. He's a character with character.

And that's where Winnebago Man turns from a simple idea into a complex look at cultural iconography and public perception. Rebney's initial fame -- or infamy, if you will -- is as viral as it gets, a pristine example of the retweet, long before there was a Twitter. But when Rebney starts showing up at public screenings of his videos, revving up the cult crowd, fame takes a very revealing turn.(Think Troll 2's popularity, as seen in Best Worst Movie).

Intended or not, Steinbauer creates an enlightening case study about the zeitgeist, and how cool becomes cool. And even if Winnebago Man didn't peer deeply into the eyes of popular culture, it works simply by recognizing how exciting it can be to see a frustrated guy curse his brains out.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.