Dorkiness is the secret to many Web celebrities, like the infamous "I Kiss You" guy, Mahir, or Ze Frank of "How to Dance Properly." Web users love to celebrate dorkiness, and laugh at dorkiness. In fact, sometimes they aren't even sure if they are celebrating it or laughing at it.

But while Mahir and Ze Frank went online on purpose, the Web's latest celebrity dork didn't quite mean to become a sensation. The Star Wars Kid was just goofing off at school. Now he finds his private performance downloaded by Internet users across the world.

The Star Wars Kid is a 15-year-old from Quebec known only as Ghyslain -- his parents are keeping his last name secret to protect his identity. Back in November 2002, Ghyslain was goofing off at a school video studio and recorded himself fighting a mock battle with a broomstick lightsaber. Over two minutes, the video shows the lone, overweight teenager twirling his mock lightsaber ever faster while making his own accompanying sound effects.

Yes, we've all had our dorky, private moments, but this poor kid is living the nightmare of having his private dorkiness projected across the world to giggling Web users. His friends found the tape, and uploaded it to KaZaA as a joke on April 19. Within two weeks, someone had added full Star Wars special effects and noises to the tape, and the video was linked on gaming, technology, and Star Wars-related sites across the Internet.

We started getting searches for The Star Wars Kid three weeks ago, but last week The Kid really arrived on the Web culture scene. His searches went up 500 percent and he received more searches than actor Jim Carrey or hot summer movie Dumb and Dumberer.

But if The Star Wars Kid is feeling horrifying embarrassment, at least he's getting something out of it. Some of the weblogs that have posted the video held a fundraiser to buy Ghyslain an iPod as a thank you for all the trouble he went through to entertain the world. They ended up making more than four thousand dollars, enough to buy the kid an iPod and a ton of other stuff.

TOMORROW: TV ratings vs. Internet searches.