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Kid bodyslams bully, gets his own cartoon

You know what they say on the Internet: "Wacky NMA video or it didn’t happen!"Now, the Taiwanese animation outfit that brought you whimsical interpretations of Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks kerfuffle, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s stalker, Steve Jobs: Airport Ninja and oh so much more, turns its artistic talents to that Australian kid who bodyslammed the smaller bully and became an instant
By Helen A.S. Popkin and Helen A.S. Popkin

You know what they say on the Internet: "Wacky NMA video or it didn’t happen!"

Now, the Taiwanese animation outfit that brought you whimsical interpretations of Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks kerfuffle, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s stalker, Steve Jobs: Airport Ninja and oh so much more, turns its artistic talents to that Australian kid who bodyslammed the smaller bully and became an instant Internet meme.

The 16-year-old’s real name is Casey Heynes, but you may know him as "Zangief Kid" (a.k.a "Little Zangief") — so-named for the move he uses on the smaller bully-turned-victim that “closely resembles the Spinning Piledriver, the signature special move of the character Zangief from the Street Fighter video game series,” reports meticulous meme-tracking repository "Know Your Meme."

"Epic Beard Man, Cheeseburger Josh, and now Zangief Kid," tweets Know Your Meme’s Don Caldwell, in a delineation of viral fight videos the Internet does so love.  

Good luck finding the original "Zangief Kid" video if you haven’t seen it already. YouTube yanked it not long after it was uploaded on March 14, and slaps down copies almost as fast as they pop up on the video-sharing site. (Minors plus violence equals a violation of YouTube's Terms of Service.)   

Backstory: It doesn’t go down much like NMA portrays. For example, "Zangief Kid" never actually Hulked-out, at least on the video. Instead, smaller kid punches chubby kid. Onlookers taunt chubby kid. Chubby kid gets fed up, picks up smaller kid and bodyslams him. Video gets uploaded to YouTube. Reddit reposts. Adult outrage and Internet memes ensue.

Both kids receive a four-day suspension. Angered by the suspension, members of the 4chan hacktivist group Anonymous send letters to Casey’s school in Australia, demanding justice for Casey, adding: "We want you to dress up in costumes of ham and parade around the city to teach you a lesson in punishing the innocent."

And, scene!

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Helen A.S. Popkin writes about the big dumb things that happen on the Internet. Join her on a Facebook or Twitter, won't you?