Cha Du-ri creates parody boom

By Bae Ji-sook

Staff reporter

He may have been more famous for being the son of former Bundesliga legend "Cha Boom," but his boundless energy and continuous smile in the match against Greece in the World Cup opener last Saturday has made South Korean defender Cha Du-ri a national darling.

Fans call him "Chaminator" and posted hundreds of articles praising him as a robot rather than a human for his seemingly tireless running.

An Internet user with the ID lucky2inja posted a picture of a half-robot, half-human Cha Du-ri saying, "I am one of the designers to have participated in planning the Cha Du-ri Robot," Monday. On the website, he revealed that Cha is a machine "named Chaminator, 181 centimeters tall and produced by Chaboom industry."

Cha "was given" stem cells from a cheetah and a gazelle, which enable him to run five times the speed of an ordinary person and twice that of the big leaguers, the picture says. "His smile doesn't mean he is happy all the time but it is simply his screen saver," the creator of the parody article jokes.

The "designer" also claimed whenever his father Cha Bum-kun wants to call him, they secretly communicate through the 00700 wave. (The Cha family appeared on the TV commercial for international telephone speed dial 00700 several years ago).

Football fans welcomed the picture and began distributing it all over major websites. They also snowballed the "conspiracy theory" behind the massive energy Cha has.

"Du-ri is in fact Cha Bum-kun's avatar, being remote-controlled by his father. Every time Du-ri gets the ball, Cha Boom stops commentating during TV broadcasts of the games because he is busy playing football with his brain through Du-ri," another netizen said, naming the son "Chavatar."

Cha Du-ri gained stardom after he appeared in the 2002 World Cup held in South Korea and Japan. However, the fame faded quickly and while he was playing for Freiburg in Germany, his name was rarely mentioned in the Korean media.

Both Cha Bum-kun and Du-ri are seemingly enjoying the craze. When a fan jokingly asked the senior Cha whether he would like to disclose how the Chaminator was produced he answered, "I don't think his mother would approve. She wants to keep it top secret. The mother robot is the boss here."

차두리 패러디 붐

분데스리가의 전설 “차붐”의 아들로 더 널리 알려져 있으나 지난 토요일 한국-그리스 전에 선사된 차두리의 끝 없는 에너지와 수그러들지 않는 웃음 덕에 전국민이 그를 국가적인 귀염둥이로 만들었다.

팬들은 차두리의 막강한 체력을 칭찬하며 그를 로봇에 비유한 수많은 기사를 올렸다.

“lucky2inja”라는 네티즌은 반 인간 반 로봇의 형태를 한 차두리의 그림을 올리고 “차미네이터”라는 별명을 붙여주었다. “차두리 로봇 디자인에 협조했다” 며 이 네티즌은 “키 181cm 의 차붐 제조업체 작품”을 소개했다.

“치타와 가젤의 유전자를 받았기 때문에 차는 보통사람보다 5배, 보통 축구선수보다 2배 더 빠르게 달릴 수 있다” 고 그림에 적혀있다. “웃는 얼굴을 하고 있다 해서 그가 항상 행복한 것이 아니라 그저 화면보호기일 뿐이죠”라고 페러디 작가는 설명했다.