Mom in Chewbacca mask: The laugh the Internet is looking for
Laugh it up, Fuzzball. Candace Payne's simple video showing her trying on the growly "Star Wars" mask becomes a viral hit.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Thank you, Candace Payne. The Internet was heading into the weekend in need of a humor break and the Force was with you.
Payne was returning some clothes at Kohl's and happened upon a talking Chewbacca mask, which she bought not for her children, she notes, but for herself.
"This is mine," she says in her public Facebook video. "I mean, I'll let them play with it, I'm not a bad mom, I'm not a jerk, but in all honesty, at the end of the day, it doesn't go in their toy box, it goes in my room."
The resulting four-minute video features a good-natured Payne and her infectious laugh and delighted hand claps as she tries on the mask and demonstrates its Chewbacca growl. "I'm in a parking lot, people are literally looking at me like crazy, I don't even care!" she declares as she unboxes the treasure.
But it's once she puts on the realistic-looking mask that things swoop dangerously and delightfully into a galaxy of goofy, reminding you of the last time you laughed so hard your sides ached. "THAT'S NOT ME MAKING THAT NOISE, IT'S THE MASK!" Payne hoots, dissolving into hysterical laughter like Boba Fett in the sarlacc pit.
Payne's public post has been up for one day, and as of this writing already has 45 million views and 829,000 likes. The Wookiee wins again.