Deke Farrow | The Modesto Bee
Mariposa, Calif. — Paul L. Vasquez, who in the summer of 2010 became an Internet sensation when late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel tweeted about the Mariposa resident’s “Double Rainbow” YouTube video, died Saturday. He was 57.
The celebrated video was shot by Mr. Vasquez from his mountainside home in January 2010 and shows a set of rainbows. He notes in the caption that the camera could not capture the rainbows’ intensity and brightness, but that’s not what’s had 46 million people watch it. It’s his reaction.
In the 3-minute, 29-second video, Mr. Vasquez cries out things like, “It’s a double rainbow all the way across the sky!” And, “It’s so bright!” And, “What does it all mean?” There are lots of whoas, and whoos and oh-my-Gods. He laughs during it. He sobs.
The exposure catapulted the apparently laid-back, good-natured guy, called “Bear” by friends, to far more than 15 minutes of fame. For instance, he and a famous “Friend,” Jennifer Aniston, did a Smartwater commercial together. He also did ads for Microsoft and Delta Air Lines.
He was a guest on a number of talk shows, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and Comedy Central’s “Tosh.0. An Auto-Tuned remix version of the video by Brooklyn, New York-based band The Gregory Brothers became a hit. Mr. Vasquez was a nominee when the People’s Choice Awards introduced the category Viral Video Star.
“His ‘Double Rainbow’ basically wrote the book on what a viral video was,” Robert Borchard, a friend of Mr. Vasquez’s, said Sunday. Borchard called Mr. Vazquez an “amazing character.”
“No matter where I was or what I was doing, Paul was a bright spot, always enthusiastic about the world,” Borchard said. “I tend to be a guy who hangs a lot of crepe and manages to focus on the bad things going on in the world. We were a good balance to each other.”
Mr. Vasquez had been in ill health recently and posted about it on his Facebook page. On May 5, he was tested for COVID-19 and posted a picture, captioned in part, “I’ll get my results in two days, however at this point I’m fairly certain that I don’t have it. I didn’t have a fever. Something else is going on with me.”
Two days earlier, he had posted that he was feverish and was having trouble breathing, but had no intention of visiting a hospital, let alone dying in one. “Whatever happens I’m ready for it, I’m happy to experience it all, it might only be pollen and I’ll have more time in my apartment, if it’s the virus and it’s my time to recycle I look forward to coming back to a new body and starting over, whatever happens I’m enjoying the ride,” part of the May 3 post reads.
The Mariposa County Coroner’s Office said Mr. Vasquez died early Saturday afternoon in the emergency room of John C. Fremont Hospital. His loved ones began posting on Facebook later Saturday about his passing. “Somewhere over the Rainbows, Paul,” friend Jeanne Miller commented on his last photo.
Mr. Vasquez was born in East Los Angeles, according to CNN, which caught up to him for the November 2015 report “‘Double Rainbow Guy’ of YouTube fame: Where is he now, man?”
The report told of his self-described “interesting life.” He worked as an LA County firefighter before moving in 1985 to Yosemite, where he worked for a park concessionaire as a security officer, emergency medical technician and a firefighter again. Then he worked for the National Park Service, posting public signs and fixing utilities as a seasonal worker.
For 10 years, he was a truck driver. CNN says he gained 200 pounds and then lost 180 while training to be a professional cage fighter. “His official record as a super heavyweight fighter: 0 victories, 1 loss,” the report says.
Vasquez was divorced and has two grown children, a son and a daughter. For decades, he lived alone in a mobile home on mountainside property 10 miles from Yosemite. He told CNN that his solitude allowed him to connect to nature on a deep level and gave him a freedom most people never could understand.
He also noted in the report his “Double Rainbow guy” fame: “You can’t look at a rainbow anymore and not think about me. That’s just the way it is.”