'Chewbacca Mom' Leaves Internet in Stitches

Candace Payne's post-shopping video goes viral
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2016 2:10 PM CDT

All Candace Payne wanted was yoga pants, and she ended up amusing the world. The Dallas-area mother was shopping at Kohl's recently when she got discouraged about buying the pants (and sticking to her workout goals) and discovered a Chewbacca mask in the toy department, ABC News reports. "It accidentally started making the growl, and I went, 'I need to get that. Like, I don’t think my kids need that, I think I need that,'" she said Monday on Good Morning America. So the mother of two made a video of herself unboxing the mask and putting it on in her car. No big deal, right? Except it's so hilarious that her May 19 post has easily shattered a Facebook Live record with more than 137 million views thus far, the BBC reports.

Her roaring laugh, her charm, and her ability to poke fun at her own weight are what win viewers over, Slate reports. Payne talks about posting the video for her "friends on the Internet webs" and says her son will probably "confiscate this from me... confiscate, that's a word, right?" And when she puts the mask on, she can't stop laughing. "In all honestly, I think the world as a whole is in need of a good laugh. ... and to maybe break some cynicism worldwide," she says on GMA. "It just needs to stop, and somebody needs to have a good belly laugh with somebody, and it happened to be me that day." She benefited too, with Kohl's coming by her house with toys and $2,500 in gift cards, the Huffington Post reports, while Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew gave his approval on Reddit: "Absolutely wonderful!" he writes. (More Chewbacca stories.)

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