El Risitas, who became a web star despite himself for his infectious laughter, died Wednesday in Seville.
He had made himself known thanks to a video, published in 2007, in which his infectious laughter had provoked hilarity.
He had the most famous laugh on the web. Juan Joya Borja, alias El Risitas, a man propelled to web star thanks to a video repeated in a loop, died Wednesday in Seville. Aged 65, he had been seriously ill for several months and had a leg amputated in early September. His story had moved thousands of Internet users around the world and French fans had launched an online fundraiser to help him pay his medical expenses.
Juan Joya Borja was made known thanks to a video, published in 2007. On a television set, the man tells of a mishap he experienced while he was a diver in a restaurant, when suddenly he is taken by a madman to laugh.
His infectious laughter provokes hilarity on the set.
We are then at the beginnings of Youtube and the video has had a small success on the video platform.
Here and there, Internet users are starting to use it for parodies: they keep the sound but add subtitles.
It is one of the first "memes", these images and videos diverted from their initial meaning to make people laugh.
A pot of 14,000 euros for his medical expenses
But it is really in 2015 that the Risitas video exploded, largely by the action of the 18-25 forum of jeuxvideo.com.
This space, in which hundreds of thousands of young people exchange ideas on various subjects, develops a passion for Spanish.
They use the video and screenshots of it to accompany their posts, to convey their hilarity.
It is with sadness that we learned of the death of Juan Joya Borja, known as "El Risitas", at the age of 65 years.
Actor and comedian, he has become a meme on the internet thanks to his very communicative laughter.
❤
Our thoughts are with his loved ones.
pic.twitter.com/7HjSTmrumd
- jeuxvideo.com (@JVCom) April 28, 2021
Learning of his illness, French internet users at the end of 2020 had launched an online fundraiser to help him pay his medical expenses, which had exceeded 14,000 euros at the start of 2021. The web star even split a video to thank his French fans. "Thank you French people for your attention. If you agree to invite me to France, I would like to visit your country one day. Thank you very much, I embrace you!", Risitas said in a trembling voice.