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Well...
OK Guy was never my idea. It wasn't my concept.
OK Guy started with Claudiu.
First time I heard about OK Guy was in the 9th grade when I was a freshman
Those were the days... First time I saw it I didn't like OK Guy at all
First of all I thought he was a ***. Well I found out later that he was bi.
But the first time I just found it gay. And well... I'm a bit homophobic that way.
And when I saw him grabbing other boys' *** I found it disgusting.
But after a while I started liking him. He started to grow on me.
I think it was in 2006 that I first heard of this OK Guy thing.
I didn't know what it was but Claudiu came to me
and showed me this thing saying his *** is small but big enough for my mom.
... that ***. But then I thought it was cool.
I found out about this comic from my esteemed colleague Tiganas Radu.
Who gave me the link about two years ago and ever since It's fascinated me.
Just every time I look at it... It's simply a brilliant comic.
OK Guy is my role model. If I'm not like him by the time I'm 30 I don't know what I'll do.
I saw it on these street signs, like on a "No Entry" sign and a crosswalk.
There were these big stickers, maybe A4, and there were these stickers with OK Guy.
This intrigued me considerably Because I didn't know what this OK Guy was.
But then I looked it up and found out that Claudiu was in the middle of it.
And I knew that Tiganas was behind it...
And it was a hit.
I'm not sure why, but people really liked it and thought it was funny.
So then Claudiu, who was, in fact, the star, entered this unexpected period of fame.
And this was like 5 years ago, before blogs... It had a sort of word-of-mouth thing going.
People were just passing it along because they wanted to.
I think it was successful because of its spontaneity. It was a very "on the spot" thing.
And Tiganas helped him a lot.
That's why the second one sucked, it wasn't spontaneous and it didn't involve Tiganas.
The bad jokes are on such a high level That they just...
Excel at being awful. And they're so incredibly bad that they instantly become funny.
... the very "in your face" attitude. The way it says "*** you" straight up.
Not many people do that. Well, you have to be an idiot to do that... But it's cool.
He didn't want it to be mainstream but somewhere in-between.
So that it could catch on with stupid people that are like: "***, haha!"
But also with the more select crowds that watch long movies that got a nine rating on IMDB.
... Its punk attitude towards society and the way it spits out what it wants to say
made it a very iconoclastic thing. People weren't expecting it,
but they got it anyway. And they received it well.
It caught on very fast because although people didn't know it, it was exactly what they needed.
It's cool. It's worth seeing. The second one sucks, but the first one was awesome.
Claudiu was always a pretty eccentric figure. The class buffoon. Well maybe not just a buffoon.
He wasn't our clown, we didn't make fun of him. I guess he was a sort of a spiritual leader.
I mean he would set the bar not only for the stupid stuff, or skipping class, but for everything.
The best example is... Well, the religion classes in the 9th grade
When Claudiu would whip out his *** And slam it against the table really hard
and you could really hear it and he was showing it to everybody,
Going "Look, I've got my *** out". ... It was pretty cool.
In the 9th grade we had this crazy, retarded, chemistry teacher. Also, bald.
So Claudiu got under the table and hid under some coats. And when the chemistry teacher came in
He grabbed her by the ankle and said "Here I am". And we laughed.
And Claudiu got an F.
We were taking a test at the end of the semester and we finished it.
but we really had to go pee and the teacher wouldn't let us leave.
So what we did was pee in some plastic cups that were on the table.
We peed and then what we did was pour the *** from one cup to another.
Just like chemistry class, where you had to mix two substances.
It was in the 9th grade... At the high school opening ceremony.
I got to the front of the building and I didn't really know anyone there.
But there was this guy there and there were a lot of people around him
and he had this awful shirt with squares on it, with some short, gay, sleeves.
Anyway, there were a lot of people around him and I had heard that this high school was infamous.
So he came up to me, I didn't know him, and he asked if he could drink from my Coke.
So I said to myself: "***, this guy must be some kind of a badass"
We went for a beer with the guys.
So we were at this table and... Claudiu came up with the following joke
One of the guys we were with Was pretty distracted, by nature...
He was a pretty absent-minded guy. So Claudiu started telling him
"See that little green light?" so the guy would turn to look
and we would pour more beer in his glass. So the guy kept drinking but
he had no clue how much he was drinking. After a while, we got him drunk as hell.
I think it's a very good joke.
- Comedic genious, eh? - You're such an idiot...
... Because of the green light?!?...
And amongst his many jokes and stupidities he had this OK Guy thing, this character.
As you know, he sat there thumbs up with this stupid grin on his face
and he would run through the class room screaming obscenities at people like:
"Hey, Adina, suck it!" And that was the OK Guy.
We were filled with enthusiasm we weren't in it for the money.
Or the drugs or the... ***. Or other stuff like that. We were in it... For real.
And Claudiu took this character and said let's do something with it.
And, yes, I wrote the thing, very short, three lines of text.
But let's not make it a comic strip per-se Because that takes time and all.
So we said "let's do it now". One of us had a camera and...
I ripped some pages from my notebook, Wrote on them, and made the OK Guy.
I don't know, I remember there was Claudiu that kept saying "Dude, this and that"
I don't know, stupid homeboy talk. And he was constantly arguing with Tiganas
Who wanted to do it right. In the end he conceded and did as Tiganas told him.
Although they could work together... They both always fought hard for their opinions.
It could never be the way one of them wanted it, they always had to compromise.
So that was pretty bad. That slowed us down a lot.
But in the end we managed and all in all maybe it was better this way.
He got this offer from a paper, I can't remember which paper
but something serious, anyway. He was to make a weekly comic strip
and he insisted he could do it, but I tried to explain that it's pointless.
That OK Guy was already burnt out.
He was already very rich and he didn't really care about anything anymore.
So he made a second OK Guy which was retarded and incomprehensible.
In it, the OK Guy was at the high school and the police come to take him away
but he manages to get out of it, somehow. But you couldn't even see the police cars in the background.
We had to take his word for it.
It didn't have the same spark as the first one. It was very drawn-out and saturated with a
"I'm so damn good I can do this again" attitude.
I think the first one was far too good for it to have a sequel.
So it all went... Wrong.
And the paper in question didn't buy it. They said that it's pointless.
By this time Claudiu was a completely different person than when he did the first one.
He wasn't that young enthused guy anymore...
Because it came as a shock. I don't think he was ready,
in the state of mind he was in and considering all his problems and family...
I don't think he was ready for the fame that OK Guy brought him.
So at one point he had a break down and he was trying to hide this from everybody.
What was in his heart at that time... I don't wish that upon anyone. Honestly.
If you would've seen him...
We went to play some soccer on artificial grass.
And he was doing pretty good. You wouldn't have suspected the torment in his soul
By the way he was shooting at the goal, for example.
Yes there was... I had another project with Claudiu.
After I made OK Guy with him, I wanted to try directing and I still want to.
So we made a short film, I wrote and directed it.
And I made this film with him and another guy, Catalin Moise. And we made "It's cold outside".
And Tiganas wanted us both. Especially since we filmed at...
I mean I provided the location. So I acted in the movie alongside Claudiu.
I got to know him better then, and we would laugh between takes
and chit-chat and smoke a cigarette. And I found him to be a pretty cool guy.
When he entered the editing studio I had a "larger than life" sensation.
I mean I was used to seeing him this big. Actually, this big, on this screen.
And when he came through the door I was shocked...
I mean I was expecting him to be this big!
I thought he liked it a bit too much when he punched me in the stomach...
In the movie.
Who do you think you are? Have I become a joke to you?!
You think you can treat me like a joke?!
But I remember that at one point it pissed me off. So in a take that I messed up by calling him Claudiu,
I tackled him. And afterwards I felt much better and thought
that everything was balanced now and we continued without further problems.
Jesus, what a *** movie! My God, I remember... My God...
And his *** acting career...
Oh, "It's cold outside"... Whatever.
He sucks as an actor. Besides OK Guy he doesn't know anything else.
"It's Cold Outside" was one of the worst movies what ever existed. Everyone laughed at them
and made them feel like ***. I think none of them wanted to work
in any artistic domain after "It's Cold Outside".
The film was nothing much... A thing with teenagers, couldn't have been much.
I understand that she sent you packing.
I understand that it's difficult for you, living in the same building with her.
I understand all this. But I don't care. It's not my problem.
But...
Claudiu was the problem.
It seemed from what he told me that he was a victim of his circumstances.
I mean the whole thing with his family... He was trying to fight for...
He was trying to lead a normal life.
You couldn't have suspected that he lead a double life.
I found out about that later, from the TV, the papers...
He had no interest in the film itself. If its going to be any good
if his work is any good if he could do any better
or if he's going to pursue further projects. No, he didn't care.
He only cared about his rap career. Which... let's leave it aside.
And he wanted people to love him like when he made OK Guy...
Otherwise, I can't see what he was thinking.
There was a sort of collapse between him and Tiganas at one point.
Probably when Claudiu started doing all sorts of stupid stuff.
And he started doing drugs and...
Stopped coming to school and all.
At school he had a small flask with *** or cognac or I don't know what.
But anyways, he didn't drink the cheap ones, he was using the good stuff.
And he would come to school with that and go crazy with the professors...
Which, to Tiganas, probably seemed as a highly unprofessional attitude.
And rightfully so. But afterwards Tiganas made
"The Math Hour", all by himself, which is...
"The Math Hour" was proof of Tiganas's talent.
It's a film in which he plays, like, 20 parts. He's like Eddie Murphy in Norbit, if you please.
Which is a great thing for Romania.
Write in your notebooks!
Why isn't there any paper covering this chalk?! God damn all of you!
Now write in your notebooks!
"Jale!!!" (no english equivalent)
I hear it's made by the same guy that wrote OK Guy.
Some guy, Tiganas, I don't know anything about him.
But I liked it, it was pretty cool. The same very "in your face" style.
I liked it but it was just the one. It didn't have a retarded sequel.
Anyway, it's a very able film, Even though it didn't catch on.
Probably because the market wasn't ready for it.
Even so, it continues to be a very underrated film.
Finally, after everything Claudiu did, OK Guy, "It's Cold Outside",
and him being in the Youth Parliament and in every pointless activity possible,
finally he managed to launch his rap career.
He was interested in rap music before he even started OK Guy.
I've always thought that he considered the OK Guy
a sort of launching pad for him to be already known when he starts his musical career.
He knew people, he started to be "in the game".
He managed to organize a few concerts using the money he'd earned from OK Guy.
That's how he started losing all his money.
I was happy for him, of course. But... Some big rap career...
He started by rapping in parks when he was 12 years old.
Crazy on stage, I don't know... Homeboy poet that lays rhymes on the beat. It's hot.
Claudiu's concert...
Yeah there was Claudiu acting like a monkey on stage as he was pretending to say something.
Well... we got there...
I was stupefied to see that there were no more than ten people there
And that no one had a clue who Claudiu was, where he comes from or what he'll sing.
Everyone was actually there for this other guy, Arsura. Eventually Claudiu got on stage
and everyone turned around, started talking, smoking and Claudiu kept singing even though
he had forgotten the lyrics and was improvising. And... A horrible concert. It was horrible.
Amazingly, he didn't stop singing. Even though he was gathering his teeth off the stage floor.
And he left the stage with everybody cheering and applauding, the next band coming on stage.
He called me there probably for the sake of our ex-friendship.
Afterwards he left with his friends, Rappers... Real stoners.
They went to drink stuff and whatnot.
There were some highly depraved things that took place there...
All sorts of rumours saying that Claudiu performed oral sex on boys
and that he'd snorted no more than seven kinds of substances.
And that he did all sorts of other stuff...
They were snorting. I'm sorry, I can't say it any other way...
But, I repeat, they were snorting. And I don't think I have ever seen...
... Flour in the quantities that there was *** on their table.
At one point he tried to take refuge in drugs.
He tried to isolate himself from the world by consuming ***, LSD, weed...
...and nuts.
I think that Claudiu's expulsion from school represented the last nail in his coffin.
No matter how hard it was up till then, nothing could compare to this.
He was just... Destroyed by this. In that moment he lost his future.
No matter how much he worked up till then he knew he could never regain what he had lost.
I don't know... For his reputation at least, that when it went to hell.
I feel that I got to know Claudiu at a turning point in his life.
And I wish I'd have been able to help him more but at that time I couldn't see how I could do that.
And I regret that now.
When he would enter the room everything would go quiet.
Everyone would stop speaking no matter how fired up the conversation was.
His presence imposed such a degree of respect that we would all stop and wait to see what he has to say.
Considering the success those comic strips had it would be hard for me to say that Claudiu isn't talented.
He had a presence that... Stole anything else.
Marlon Brando could've been in that picture and you'd still be looking at Claudiu.
He had a way of focusing attention on himself. He had a certain charisma... An aura.
You could feel that he was a very talented person.
Eventually, I think that Claudiu's biggest fret was that OK Guy marked his career.
Everything he did after OK Guy, Films, music and so on...
He couldn't shake off the OK Guy image. The Mark Hamill syndrome...
I mean... He struggled hard and it drove him nuts, it just drove him nuts.
And, although he doesn't want to admit it, I think that OK Guy represented
all that was good in Claudiu. I mean, when OK Guy was made,
Claudiu was a different person, He was vivacious, enthusiastic and generally upbeat.
He liked making people laugh. He would really put his heart in everything he'd do.
Leaving aside everything he did afterwards, OK Guy is what we'll always love him for.
And why we'll always remember him.
Last shot footage of Claudiu Oprea 21 March 2006
I have a big *** - No you don't - Big enough for yo momma.