A fascinating, funny and surprisingly moving encounter with the man who shot to YouTube notoriety as ‘Winnebago Man’, the world’s angriest TV salesman. Check out the clips and you’ll want to see this movie!
Winnebago Man brilliantly encapsulates the transformative power of the online video boom.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
Winnebago Man 2009
Imagine someone filming your worst ever day at work. You ranted like a fool and swore a blue streak. Imagine those clips being passed around the bootleg tape circuit for two decades. Imagine that the footage eventually entered the pop culture fabric: you were quoted in Hollywood movies, and seen repeatedly by millions on YouTube where you were rated the world's angriest man and one of the greatest swearers of all time. This happened to Jack Rebney, a spokesman for the Winnebago company whose profane out takes grew in notoriety over the years while he personally disappeared into the great unknown.
Ben Steinbauer's instantly likeable doco starts with the Austin-based filmmaker wondering what happened to ‘that guy’ from ‘those’ clips and setting out to locate and possibly befriend the mysterious Rebney. Along this entertaining and ultimately moving journey, the film asks us to examine the psychology behind viral phenomena: what we get out of watching them and the profound effect they have on their innocent subjects. — AT