Candace Payne, a devotee of Star Wars, achieved widespread internet fame and became known as Chewbacca Mom. A video she made, featuring her wearing a Chewbacca mask that made sounds, and her uproarious laughter as the mask "spoke" when she moved her jaw, was uploaded to her Facebook page on May 19, 2016 and has since garnered over 140 million views.
Candace Payne shared a video to her Facebook profile on May 19, 2016, after she had purchased a Chewbacca mask from a Kohl's store. The video shows Payne displaying the mask to viewers; it growls and emits Chewbacca-like sounds when the wearer manipulates their mouth. As Payne demonstrates this, she erupts into uncontrollable laughter at the sounds produced by the mask. Payne, a stay-at-home mother, uploaded the video just prior to collecting her kids from school, wanting to show her Facebook friends that she had the mask—anticipating that her children would likely try to claim it. After posting it, Payne was taken aback to discover the video had quickly amassed 1,000 views. By the close of May 19, the video had been watched over a million times. By May 24, a mere five days after its initial posting, the video had exceeded 140 million views.
On May 23, Payne made an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. They created a comedic segment where Payne drove James Corden to his workplace while she wore the Chewbacca mask. They were later joined by J.J. Abrams, the director behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Corden also shared a message with Payne from Peter Mayhew, the actor who portrays Chewbacca in the Star Wars films, who called her an inspiration and invited her to a private meeting at Dallas Fan Expo.
On May 25, Payne was featured on the third installment of The Star Wars Show, where she was interviewed by the show's co-host, Andi Gutierrez. They discussed her passion for Star Wars, her viral "Chewbacca Mom" video, and her tour of the Lucasfilm headquarters located in San Francisco, California.
Her cultural phenomenon was satirized in the 2018 Disney animated movie Ralph Breaks the Internet, which is the sequel to 2012's Wreck-It-Ralph. In the movie, Yesss and her assistant Maybe are seen watching a video titled "Chewbacca Dad" before Ralph and Vanellope encounter Payne; this happens while they are deciding which videos should be featured on BuzzzTube.