PORTLAND, Ore. -- Back when MySpace (what's that?) and YouTube were the powerhouses of social media, a little boy unknowingly helped peg the term "viral video" with his endearing, deer-in-the headlights response to a KGW reporter broadcasting live from the Rose Festival.
In this flashback to May 31, 2007, Jonathon Ware, who was 10 at the time, had recently emerged from the face-painting booth looking like a zombie. Turns out, his nerves during the live interview made him act a bit like one, too.
"Back here live at the Waterfront Village with my friend the zombie, Jonathon," began reporter Nancy Francis. "Jonathon just got an awesome face paint job. What do you think?"
Staring blankly into the camera, Jonathon blurted out, "I like turtles."
The response threw off Francis, who lost her composure for a moment, then bounced back into reporter mode.
"All right!" - Awkward pause - "You're great, zombie. G-g-good times here at Waterfront Village," she stuttered, before sending it back to the studio.
Just 17 seconds and the clip was over. Well so it seemed.
Someone who found it hilarious posted it on YouTube. Within hours, the short video snippet surged to 500,000 views and people started messaging about it on MySpace.
That may not sound like much in today's viral video standards, but it was a big deal back then. A big, big deal. (Listed in "Time Magazines" 50 Best YouTube Videos.)
So much so, it spiraled into the sale of "I love turtles" T-shirts, hats, mugs and bags. It also inspired countless memes (before memes were even a thing), remixes, and parodies.
One of the more famous was "The O'Reilly Factor" remix. Someone edited "Turtle Boy" into a clip where Bill O'Reilly grows increasingly agitated because his interviewee isn't responding to his questions. (O'Reilly was actually grilling a hostile guest about Iran) Jonathon seems to spin each question with "I like turtles."
Jonathon's mom said a company in England even offered to pay the family to turn his three-world utterance into a cellphone ring tone. Another popular YouTube clip spliced "Zombie Boy" into "The Shining."
In an absurdly funny parody, Jonathon was invited to join Comedy Central's Daniel Tosh to mock his own video. He explained that turtles are cool because they can put all their body parts inside their own shell and ate turtle chocolates in Tosh's special turtle room.
A month after the infamous live Rose Festival interview, KGW got back in touch with Jonathon.
"I'm famouser than a lot of other people and it's really funny to me," he told Francis at the time.
He also got a chance to "save face" about his peculiar response, explaining that he had just seen an exhibit about turtles, so that was the first thing that came to mind in his nervous state.
It may have been a bit embarrassing, but the kid certainly took it in stride. As for the original YouTube video, it's up to 48,351,838 views and still climbing. It also earned the young turtle lover a voice cameo in Disney's first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie.
SO WHERE IS JONATHON NOW?
Jonathon is 18 now, about to graduate from high school and works at an aquatic park. He lives in Milwaukie, Oregon with his family and plans to study engineering in college.
Even after all these years have passed, Jonathon said he still gets recognized in public as "Turtle Boy" or "Zombie Boy" and once in a while, people ask him to recite the famous line.
"I'll do it if I'm in the right mood," he said. "Then I just laugh with them."
He also likes to look back at the interview sometimes, and cracks up when he watches it.
"I like that it makes people happy," he said.
His mom, Tina Ware, agreed that it's fun to look back on the infamous interview, but said the sudden celebrity status also made life difficult at times.
"It's been a unique experience and he's learned a lot. We've all learned a lot," she said. "It's made our family so much stronger. You learn about having some fame in your family and you learn how to deal with it."
When asked if he had any regrets, Jonathon said he wishes he would have trademarked the "I like turtles" slogan or the images of his zombie-covered face. Because despite all the merchandise that sold with his likeness, he did not earn a cent.
He doesn't regret doing the interview, though, an said he still likes turtles and the Rose Festival, too.
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