About
Crack Kid is the nickname given to Viner Brady Hartwig[2] after several video clips of the young boy squealing and pulling other antics went viral on the the mobile video-sharing platform in June 2014.
Origin
On June 5th, 2014, Viner Nathan Moszyk[3] uploaded a video of his little brother Brady making high-pitched squealing noises while being hit in the head with a basketball (shown below). In the first week, the Vine gained over 233,000 revines and 225,000 likes.
Spread
On the same day, Viner MilesHRLY[4] uploaded a new video of Hartwig yelling while banging a basketball with his forehead, accumulating more than 30,000 revines and 26,000 likes in the next week (shown below, left). On June 9th, Moszyk uploaded a new video of his brother performing a twerk dance (shown below, right).
The same day Viner Duke Thurston uploaded a remix video combining the original Crack Kid video with the 2012 hip hop song “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” by Kendrick Lamar (shown below, left). In the next 72 hours, the vines garnered over 5,900 and 36,000 revines respectively. On June 10th, Viner Demontz uploaded a version of the Crack Kid clip edited to appear as if he were throwing a basketball at Hartwig’s head while babysitting him (shown below, right). In 48 hours, the video received more than 252,000 likes and 195,000 revines.