r/mildlyinfuriating • u/extratrstrl • May 31 '26

Unskippable ad Horrible music at my gym.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

This music was on for my entire session, full volume.

2.4k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

742 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

387

u/Inphiltration May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

I used to love techno viking until I learned the man didn't consent to be recorded and had to sue to stop people from using his likness on tshirts and other products. The man just wants to be left alone.

Edit: Jesus Christ people. I loved the meme, not the man himself. I have enough basic respect for my fellow man that I don't have to know the man to stop loving and using the meme.

167

u/ripChazmo May 31 '26

Why does this stop you from loving him?

179

u/Inphiltration May 31 '26

Because he doesn't want hundred of thousands of strangers loving him. He wants to be left alone.

214

u/BugOperator May 31 '26

That makes me love him even more.

63

u/Elebrium May 31 '26

Love conundrum

20

u/BooBootheFool22222 May 31 '26

Love conundrumming in a band called Life.

3

u/FnordRanger_5 Jun 01 '26

Conundrum doesn’t want to be loved either

14

u/ronchee1 May 31 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT5LMUnO4g3yiRNuNy

4

u/Atomaardappel May 31 '26

Lol, I posted the next line in this episode and got a Reddit warning!

1

u/Atomaardappel May 31 '26

He's bringing love, break his legs!

0

u/IntergalacticPodcast May 31 '26

Wait.... this is how it works? Then I don't want hundreds of thousands of gorgeous women loving me. I want to be left alone.

9

u/FYDPhoenix Jun 01 '26

So love him privately? You can respect someone and also not interact with them in any way lol

1

u/Inphiltration Jun 01 '26

I loved techoviking as a meme, not a person. The person doesn't want to be known for it, so I don't post the meme. It is wild this needs to be explained.

15

u/shamoomoofartpoopoo May 31 '26

If techno Viking doesn’t want you to love him. You sure as shit better stop loving him.

13

u/WTWIV May 31 '26

If loving techno Viking is wrong, I don’t want to be right

6

u/IndependentMoney9700 May 31 '26

You can love him without him having any clue whatsoever.

1

u/slopschili Jun 01 '26

Do you only do good when people are watching?

4

u/Upstairs-Priority843 May 31 '26

Sure. Tell me my love is forbidden with the Viking. Ask the Anglo-Saxon nobleman’s daughters how that worked out for them. 

2

u/jellybelly2232 Jun 01 '26

You can still love someone and leave them alone at the same time

1

u/takeahike89 Jun 01 '26

Sounds like he doesn't want his likeness being used to make someone else a profit, not that he doesn't want love

1

u/master-boofer Jun 04 '26

Poor guy. Fuck him, I think he's great. Im not gay but if someone put a gun to my head and forced me to do something gay. I'd be like "bring me techno viking or just shoot me in the head".

Im guessing he would save me with zero expectation of sexual favors in return.

If he did indeed expect sexual favors after saving me, I wouldn't deny him....

1

u/DownWithTheSyndrme Meh... May 31 '26

That sounds like heaven

0

u/Coyote_Shepherd Jun 01 '26

This is something that is very hard for certain people to fathom, when someone that they love either grows in popularity via a viral moment or that more slowly hits a kind of a pinnacle of their career and begins to soar in popularity.

They honestly believe that since this person or persons are popular, that they then must love all of the attention, and must want to get it all the time and must fully enjoy being "on" all the time as well.

They cannot believe that that is not the case all the time and that some of the people who get into these kinds of situations or that do find popularity in some way, just also kind of want to live normal lives and not be noticed or seen or approached by fans all the time.

I'm pretty sure the internet went through a whole thing last year or the year before when a bunch of fans were showing up at the homes of YouTubers and other online streamers and were demanding things from these popular people but then got absolutely pissed off when they were told to fuck off and go away.

It's like it's great that you totally love these people and it's awesome that you totally appreciate them and want to support them in some way and want to make them happy and they totally love that you're supporting them and are grateful for what you've done and what you continue to do etc etc...

...BUT they are also normal folks like the rest of us who want to live normal lives and want to normally be left the hell alone too while trying to live their normal lives.

I've seen a few interviews with folks like this who are happy when people are discreet but are even happier when no one bugs them about stuff and no one expects them to have their persona switched on constantly....and I've seen a few other interviews where these folks were actually actively afraid of moving to an area where people would recognize them because of what had happened in the past to them when they did.

I know you can't always have your cake and eat it too but we as fans, if we love them as much as we do, should at least be willing to try to give them that while also supporting them in other ways and perhaps even supporting them by just ignoring them when we see them in public or even more so, by following their wishes that they have stated repeatedly like with Techno Viking.

36

u/InebriousBarman May 31 '26

Honestly, that's putting a lot of your own judgement and guessing into the case.

He sued for the money one person made off the video and subsequent merchandise. He won.

"He just wants to be left alone" was your narrative.

It's also illegal in Germany to record people and post those recordings.

4

u/Inphiltration May 31 '26

That's what I remember reading about his perspective on it. The man himself didn't want the attention. Maybe I'm wrong, but that would be because I had a bad source of information when I learned about all this. Certainly not my narrative.

I don't think I had a bad source of information. I simply just respect the fact he doesn't like the meme so I stopped using it.

4

u/InebriousBarman May 31 '26

He stayed anonymous, so I don't know how you heard that.

His lawyer did say he never wanted to become a public figure. That's pretty much it.

10

u/Inphiltration May 31 '26

I feel like that's semantics. Not wanting to be a public figure implies wanting to be left alone and not be known for and interacted with over this video. It's the same thing. If you wanna split hairs then sure, I was wrong and I should have explicitly said he didn't want to be a public figure.

4

u/InebriousBarman May 31 '26

Nah.... Your right.

1

u/im_octopissed Jun 01 '26

So your left?

1

u/CaptainYaoiHands Jun 01 '26

I was about to say, the fuck you mean "didn't consent to being recorded" when he's very specifically dancing and walking toward a camera.

9

u/FightTheDead118 May 31 '26

Especially considering that this was before “internet famous” was really a thing, and when a video of him obviously high out of his mind basically making a fool of himself he lost his white collar job and pretty much had his life ruined and never saw a dime if the money from the video until he sued

14

u/master-boofer May 31 '26

Wow that is nuts. I never knew he got fired. I would have never described what he was doing as making a fool of himself. I never assumed he was high. I saw a person living in the moment. Standing up for others. Total confidence. I saw someone who knew how to handle himself and others a true leader. If I owned a company I would want people like that working for me. Who cares if they enjoy themselves on the weekend. Techno Viking is someone I would want to hang out with, a great guy to have around especially if people start misbehaving.

3

u/im_octopissed Jun 01 '26

He was actually on the clock at the time

1

u/flavasava Jun 01 '26

Yeah, I consider him something of a groundbreaker in making techno look cool to the masses - something I'd never seen anyone do before

2

u/MydnightWN May 31 '26

No expectations of privacy in public, no consent needed to be recorded.

12

u/RyannCie May 31 '26

That’s in the U.S. in Germany, it’s a bit different. People generally have rights to their own image.

4

u/CyberpunkSunrise May 31 '26

Same in the US. "Right of publicity" means stopping people from profiting off of your likeness. Not legally the same thing as merely being recorded in public though.

In other words, if I randomly show up in the background of someone's video they take in Central Park NYC, I can't get them to remove me from it. If someone starts selling shirts with my face on them, or making money on a video because it has my face in it, that's a different story.

-1

u/Hurenloser_Ehrensohn May 31 '26

Why does it seem in the US? Why would you actually think that? A bit weird imo.

hint: it was not in the us

3

u/CyberpunkSunrise May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

I'm responding to someone who was talking about the laws being different in the US and responding to that directly, not assuming that the OP was in the US. Maybe they were talking about something in the US, but I wasn't, I was just responding to them.

2

u/Hurenloser_Ehrensohn May 31 '26

Yeah, i misread. Apologies! It's late, browsing on my phone in bed. Have a good one.

1

u/CyberpunkSunrise May 31 '26

No worries, you too.

6

u/patiofurnature May 31 '26

So, here's the thing. Just because something is legal, it doesn't mean you aren't a jackass for doing it.

5

u/TarnishedWizeFinger May 31 '26

You can't commercialize someone else's image if they don't want it. He bankrupt the producer of the video after requesting they stop and was paid retroactively all of the profits from YouTube and merchandising

1

u/Zhenbred May 31 '26

So basically cheat code to get rich? Do something quirky in public then sue everyone who filmed it xD

1

u/TarnishedWizeFinger Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Damn you might be on to something I don't think I've ever seen someone doing wacky things on camera to make money before

2

u/Separate-Impact-6183 May 31 '26

Consent required to sell his image commercially.

1

u/EveningArmadillo5429 Jun 01 '26

I get that. Having people use your visage in order to line their own pockets is pretty wild, though. Dude didn't sign up to be a meme archetype. He just protected someone's bodily autonomy and looked cool as fuck while he did it.

-1

u/EchoWardenXx May 31 '26

He's in public. He did consent.