There have been plenty of rumors surrounding the viral meme "Damn Daniel" that have surfaced in the last week, but the most bizarre one of all happens to be the one that's real. The Twitter account behind "Damn Daniel" was hacked by white supremacists, leading to the deletion of the viral video and, unfortunately, the addition of some pretty awful tweets. The original "Damn Daniel" video was uploaded by 15-year-old Josh Holz, the famous voice behind the camera who created the meme in the first place, and on this week's episode of This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, it was his account that was targeted in the hack.
The video had been retweeted hundreds of thousands of times before the hackers took control of Holz's account on February 27 and started tweeting racist messages and graphics. Holz regained control of the account Monday morning after Twitter was alerted to the breach, but unfortunately by then it was too late to recover the "Damn Daniel" video (or unsee any of the horrible things that were tweeted in its place). Josh took to Twitter to address the hack, assuring his thousands of followers that he was back in control of it.
In the meantime, avid "Damn Daniel" fans have gotten the hashtag #GetTheVideoBack trending to see if there's anything the folks at Twitter can do to recover it after the hackers deleted it from the account. It seems to me that "Damn Daniel" transcended the meme genre so virally that if there were anything Twitter could do to recover it they would, so fingers crossed. In the meantime, let's review the other crazy things that have happened in the "Damn Daniel" craze that range from mildly amusing to straight up bizarre.
1. "Damn Daniel" Star Daniel Lara Was Hospitalized
A fake news outlet reported a parody article that Daniel Lara, the 14-year-old Los Angeles high school student who stars in the viral video, was beaten up outside of his school for his famous white Vans. Although it was very clearly on a fake news site, someone forgot to tell the teens, who took to Twitter expressing their concern for the teen. Thankfully, despite the rumor and despite this gross Twitter hack, both Daniel and Josh are doing quite well.
2. The "Damn Daniel" Vans Are For Sale On eBay
Well, somebody's Vans are for sale on eBay, but they're sure as hell not Daniel's. He confirmed this himself on Ellen when he pointed out that his Vans are slip-on, not lace-up like the ones that are supposedly for sale. That, and he'd probably notice if an actual human swiped his sick kicks. (Or maybe he would have last week — Ellen scored him a lifetime's supply of Vans, which are, incidentally, a little harder to keep track of.)
3. Somebody Pranked Josh Holz, Resulting In A Team Of Officers Showing Up At His House
According to The Daily Mail, on February 23 someone using a voice-modifying device allegedly posed as Josh Holz, the student who posted the video, and claimed that he had shot his mother from their California home. The Daily Mail reports that police subsequently stormed the home before realizing it was a hoax, and that Holz believes that there is a connection between this incident and the virality of the video.
Images: Twitter Video
