El Risitas
Joya in 2015
Born
Juan Joya Borja

(1956-04-05)5 April 1956
Seville, Andalusia, Spain
Died28 April 2021(2021-04-28) (aged 65)
Seville, Andalusia, Spain
Occupations
  • Comedian
  • actor
Years active2000–2021
Television2000–2002: El Vagamundo, Canal 2 Andalucía
2002–2005: Ratones Coloraos, Canal Sur Televisión
2006–2007: El loco de la colina, La1
2007–2012: El Gatopardo, Canal Sur
Height170 cm (5 ft 7 in)

Juan Joya Borja (5 April 1956 – 28 April 2021),[1] better known by his stage name El Risitas (English: The Giggles), was a Spanish comedian and actor. He gained widespread popularity in 2015 thanks to a series of memes based on a television interview recorded in 2007 on Jesús Quintero's TV show Ratones Coloraos.[2]

Biography

Joya was born in Seville, Andalusia on 5 April 1956.[3] He had a number of jobs throughout his life, including cooking and unloading sacks of cement.[4]

His first appearance on television was in 2001, on Jesús Quintero's show El Vagamundo, where he interviewed on various life situations with his partner "El Peíto" or "el Cuñao" Antonio Rivera (1959–2003 December), in a comedic tone.[3] He became recognizable for his high-pitched, wheezing laugh (described in The Guardian as like a "dolphin with a 20-a-day habit"[2]), which led to his nickname "El Risitas"[5] ([el ri.ˈsi.tas]; "Giggles" in English). He also appeared in the 2005 film Torrente 3: El protector. When he became known internationally around 2015 he also performed for companies outside of Spain, for example in a Finnish commercial.[6]

Ratones Coloraos interview meme

In 2007, Joya appeared on Jesús Quintero's show Ratones Coloraos and described an incident when he worked as a kitchen porter. He describes leaving some paella pans (paelleras) at night in the ocean to soak and clean, and when in the morning he returned to retrieve the pans, they had washed out to sea with the tide. He frequently interrupts the story with his trademark laugh.[2] The original video was uploaded to YouTube on 25 June 2007, and received over a million views eight years before the meme became widespread.[7]

In March 2014, footage from the interview was used in Egypt by the then recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization to parody presidential candidate Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.[8] Other videos featuring footage from the interview were also produced; however, they were usually apolitical instead, generally parodying technology and gaming.[2] The most viewed versions of the video subtitled Joya as the designer of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, a designer of Team Fortress 2, a Valve employee discussing Dota 2, a Canon representative discussing the C300 camera, an Xbox Live employee describing the platform's system, and a cinematographer describing shooting on a Red camera.[9]

In March 2015, the meme received significant attention after the launch of the 2015 MacBook, where subtitles present Joya as a designer who worked on the prototype. Within a month the video had received over five million views on YouTube.[10] The meme's impact has been compared to parodies of the 2004 war drama Downfall, where scenes from the film are similarly edited with fake subtitles.[2]

Another popular meme was published in April 2015 parodying a political affair in Slovakia known as the Vahostav affair [sk],[11] where Joya was subtitled by popular Slovak stand-up comedy performer Jano Gordulic.

In 2019, a zoomed-in still image of his face from the interview, named KEKW, was added as a 3rd-party emote for Twitch on FrankerFaceZ.[12] As of April 2022, over 100,000 channels on Twitch have enabled the emote.[13] With more than 400 million uses in chat, the emote occupies 10th place among the most popular FrankerFaceZ emotes.[14][15]

Health and death

In September 2020, Joya was admitted to the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville, where he underwent an intervention for a vascular problem and had a leg amputated.[16]

Less than a year later, at noon on 28 April 2021, Joya was transferred from the Hospital de la Caridad to the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, after a sudden relapse. He died from complications of his illness later that afternoon at the age of 65.[17][18]

Filmography

Television

References

  1. ^ Sevilla, Diario de (5 April 2019). "El Risitas confirma que "los franceses están locos" (con él)". Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e Parkinson, Hannah Jane (13 March 2015). "Apple engineer spoof video: is Spanish Laughing Guy the new Downfall?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Fallece el humorista Juan Joya Borja, 'El risitas'". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 5 April 2019. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  4. ^ "Noche de humor este sábado con 'El Risitas' en Nerva" (in Spanish). huelvaya.es. 13 October 2015. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d "Muere Juan Joya, 'El Risitas', que alcanzó la fama con Jesús Quintero". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). 28 April 2021. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  6. ^ "'El Risitas' triunfa en Finlandia con un anuncio de pizzas" (in Spanish). 20 minutos. 21 October 2015. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  7. ^ El Risitas, Jesús Quintero (24 June 2007). Risitas y las paelleras [Risitas and paelleras (paella pans)] (Television production) (in Spanish). Spain: Canal Sur (broadcaster), video via Jesús Quintero's YouTube channel. Retrieved 12 April 2015. Note: The date value is the video upload date on YouTube.
  8. ^ "Viaje a Egipto del 'Risitas' y los 'Hermanos Ubnormales'" (in Spanish). El Mundo. 4 June 2014. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  9. ^ Hardy, Robert (14 March 2015). "Hilarious Parody Video: DP Discovers That He Has to Shoot on a RED Camera". nofilmschool. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  10. ^ "'El Risitas' sorprende en Estados Unidos como ingeniero de Apple" (in Spanish). Europa Press. 12 March 2015. Archived from the original on 13 March 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  11. ^ a.s., Petit Press (16 April 2015). "Fico seeks to blame Figeľ for Váhostav". Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  12. ^ "Man Behind Laughing Guy Meme & KEKW Emote, Juan Joya Borja, Dies". GAMING. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  13. ^ "KEKW". Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2019 – via FrankerFaceZ.
  14. ^ "KEKW". 30 December 2019. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2020 – via SlangLang.
  15. ^ StreamElements. "Twitch Emotes Tracking | Chat Stats by StreamElements". StreamElements. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  16. ^ "El Risitas, ingresado en Sevilla tras sufrir la amputación de su pierna" (in Spanish). 13 September 2020. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  17. ^ Ybarra Bores, Pedro (28 April 2021). "Muere 'el Risitas'" ['El Risitas' dies]. ABC Sevilla (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  18. ^ "El Risitas: Man behind 'Spanish laughing guy' meme dies". BBC News. 29 April 2021. Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  19. ^ a b "Muere el 'Risitas' con 65 años, el del famoso 'cuñaooooo'". RTVE.es (in Spanish). 28 April 2021. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.

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