Tourist guy |
The tourist guy, also known as the accidental tourist (a joking reference to the novel and film The Accidental Tourist ), Waldo (a reference to the Where s Waldo franchise) or tourist of death, is an Internet phenomenon consisting of a photograph of a tourist that has appeared in many Photoshopping pictures after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
=9/11=
Soon after 9/11 an image showing a tourism on an observation deck of the World Trade Center while an airliner was about to hit the building beneath him circulated on the Internet. For a short while it was claimed that the picture came from a camera found in the debris at Ground Zero, but this proved to be untrue. First of all, the weather on the image did not match the real weather on September 11, 2001. Secondly, he is standing on the south tower, but the first tower to be hit was the north tower. Thirdly, the observation deck of the WTC was not open when the planes hit. Finally, the plane on the picture is an American Boeing 757, while the planes that hit the WTC were a Boeing 767s. The picture won a best 9/11 Photoshopping picture contest.
=Later appearances=
The picture became one of the most widely known examples of Internet humor. As its fame spread, other people started to use the same tourist for other pictures. They included the tourist present at the sinking of the RMS Titanic, at the assassination of John F. Kennedy and at the Hindenburg disaster. Other pictures show him present at disastrous events in movies, like the destruction of the White House in Independence Day (movie) or as the bus driver in Speed (movie) . There are also pictures of him together with people from other famous photoshopped pictures, such as Bert or a man holding a huge cat. There even appeared a picture of the Yalta conference where Josef Stalin is replaced by the man with the cat, with the tourist and Bert on the background.
=The real tourist=
The first one who claimed to be the tourist was the came forward as the real tourist. Péter says, however, that he does not want publicity and did not originally release his last name.
Guzli took the photo on November 28, 1997, and was also responsible for the initial edit. He edited the image for a few friends, not realizing it would spread so quickly across the Internet. He first provided the original undoctored photo and several other photos from the same series as proof to a Hungarian newspaper ([http://index.hu/tech/net/realtouristg/]). Later on, Wired News [http://www.wired.com/news/print/0%2C1294%2C48397%2C00.html] examined the evidence and confirmed that Guzli was the real tourist guy.
=See also=
*Bert is Evil *Internet phenomenon *Photo manipulation *Photoshop contest
=External links=
==Pictures==
*[http://www.dunciad.com/accidental%20tourist/tourist.html Dunciad.com] *[http://www.greaterthings.com/News/911/Tourist/ GreaterThings.com] *[http://www.touristofdeath.com/coppermine/thumbnails.phpalbum=1 TouristOfDeath.com]|
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