On this return Thursday, we take a look at the best of SA’s Vernon Koekemoer!
Vernon Koekemoer is the nickname given to Cassie Booyse, a South African bodybuilding enthusiast who became an internet celebrity in 2008 after a photo of him standing alone at a rave party in Boksburg, South Africa, took started circulating on the web.
Vernon Koekemoer: Chuck Norris from South Africa
According to KnowYourMeme, similar to alpha male icons in other cultures like Chuck Norris in the United States or Makmende in Kenya, Vernon Koekemoer continued to inspire a variety of spinoffs and tributes, photoshopped images and parody films at the sites. Web and t-shirts.
The photograph of Cassie, then 51, was reportedly taken by an unidentified woman who noticed her unusual appearance at the annual H2O rave party in Boskburg. The photographer then emailed the photo to her friends, which included a man named Bryan Theunissen. He decided to spread it further as a viral marketing experiment by dubbing the man in the picture “Vernon Koekemoer”.
In April 2008, The star published an article revealing Vernon Koekemoer’s identity as Cassie Booyse, who was unaware of her online fame, let alone the existence of Facebook, until her colleague showed her “over 400 [photoshopped] images’ of himself.
Embrace his fame
Booyse eventually embraced his internet fame and went on to appear in a number of TV commercials for South African companies like Vodacom and Nando’s, one of which shared American actor Chuck Norris as a cameo. Additionally, Booyse made a cameo appearance in the 2008 music video. Pretty things by South African rock band Evolver.
In an interview with FHM, he said he liked the name Vernon Koekemoer – and that he obviously made people happy with his “alter ego.”
After all these years, Vernon Koekemoer is also still active on Facebook.