This Group Wants to Save the World By Yelling ‘Wow’ Like Owen Wilson

Things are pretty bleak right now: Climate change is pushing the planet toward collapse, we’re on the brink of nuclear war with North Korea, and we just saw the second-deadliest school shooting in American history. But none of that will stop one group of resilient souls from trying to spread some joy on this depraved husk of a planet the best way they can think of: Converging on a public square, huddling together, and saying “wow!” like Owen Wilson in unison.

While you slave away at your soul-crushing job on Monday, almost 4,000 people are planning to meet up in Melbourne, Australia, where they’ll all do their best one-word impression of the comedic star. You know the one—the “wo-ah-ow” he’s uttered as a rookie model in Zoolander, a cowboy-hat wearing Eli Cash in Royal Tenenbaums, or as a guy who just really can’t get enough of Paris in that one Woody Allen movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOq7QYpEwaA

It’s Wilson’s universal sound of shock and awe that Nicolas Zoumboulis, the organizer behind the actual Facebook event, is hoping to tap into on Monday—for no particular reason at all, other than to bring the world a bit of joy and camaraderie. At Melbourne’s Federation Square, Zoumboulis plans to lead the masses in a “hype speech” and a few “warmup wows” before the main event.

“Ultimately I just really want to put some ‘positive energy,’ as Owen likes to say, out into the world,” Zoumboulis told the Independent. “If I can remind people that this world we are lucky to inhabit is beautiful, and to embrace that like Owen does in his movies by saying ‘wow,’ then I’ll be happy.”

Can you hear that “wow” now? Maybe it’s Wilson’s disbelieving “waaaaw” from Wedding Crashers, or Hansel’s whispery, baffled “wow” when he gets the skinny on Matilda’s sex life in Zoolander. Perhaps it’s the long, joyous “woooooow” Lightning McQueen lets out on the Western plains in Cars.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter—once every conceivable Owen Wilson “wow” comes together as one, it’ll probably just sound a lot like this:

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