| El Risitas | |
|---|---|
| Famous laughing face | |
|
Real name |
Juan Joya Borja |
|
Born |
April 5th, 1956 (age 65) |
|
Known for |
|
|
Also known as |
Spanish/Mexican Laughing Guy |
|
Died |
April 28th, 2021 |
El Risitas (real name Juan Joya Borja) was an actor and comedian from Seville, Spain and was best known for his characteristic laughter. His stage name El Risitas means giggles in English.
Being a meme[]
In June 2007 Joya appeared on show Ratones Coloraos, where he told an anegdote about throwing kitchen pans into sea when he worked as cook's asisstant at beach reastaurant. bursting into laughter several times during the show. The record of this show was published on YouTube on June 25th, 2007.
In March 2014, footage from the interview was used by the Muslim Brotherhood to parody the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Other parodies were also produced, usually parodying technology and gaming. The most viewed versions of the video subtitled Joya as the designer of the Nvidia GTX 970 graphic card, a designer of Team Fortress 2, a Valve employee discussing Dota 2, a Canon representative discussing the C300 camera, and a cinematographer describing shooting on a Red camera.
In March 2015, the meme received its most attention after the launch of the 2015 MacBook, where Joya was subtitled as a designer who worked on the prototype. Within a month of its uploading, the video received over 5 million views on YouTube.
In parodies[]
Whilst Joya's interview is not commonly used by Untergangers, he is one the most famous non-Downfall characters to be associated with the meme, with comparisons drawn between him and Downfall parodies. Despite this, he can still be found in quite a few parodies, usually mocking Hitler and making him angry. His own parodies would almost always mock current events, however, some were used by those in the Downfall community to mock events that took place and figures within the community.
Illness & death[]
In September 2020, he was admitted to a hospital in Seville with a vascular problem and had a leg amputated. He stayed in this hospital until the 28th of April 2021, when he suddenly relapsed and was transferred to another hospital within Seville, where he sadly passed away later that day at the age of 65.