Matt the Radar Technician
Published September 6, 2026
Matt the Radar Technician is Kylo Ren's undercover alias from a January 2016 Saturday Night Live sketch, in which Adam Driver's Star Wars villain infiltrates Starkiller Base wearing a blond wig and glasses to hear what his employees really think of him. The character escaped the parody within days and grew into a two-year run of custom action figures, in-character Tumblr posts, and a Star Wars Battlefront II mod scene that drew coverage from Kotaku and PC Gamer.
Overview
Matt the Radar Technician is defined by one very specific look: a floppy blond wig, thick black-framed glasses, and a plain gray Starkiller Base uniform, worn by a visibly sulking Adam Driver trying and failing to blend in with rank-and-file First Order techs1. The gag is that Matt is Kylo Ren in a paper-thin disguise, and every attempt to gather honest feedback about his own management style ends with him lightsaber-slashing a computer console or shoving a coworker across the room.
As a meme, Matt shows up in two lanes. Fans treat him as a legitimate Star Wars character in his own right, sculpting custom action figures, Funko Pops, and Battlefront skins, and running a long-lived Tumblr blog written from Matt's point of view3. In parallel, screenshots from the sketch feed image macros riffing on Matt's forced-cheerful introduction line and his awkward attempts to make small talk about radar equipment.
Origin & Background
How It Spread
How to Use This Meme
Typical Matt jokes lean on the visual: pair a still of Adam Driver's blond, bespectacled Matt with a caption that pretends he is a real First Order employee, or drop the introduction line ('Hi, my name is Matt, I'm a radar technician') over any awkward workplace scenario. The other common convention is to treat Matt as a canonical Star Wars character, whether that means building a custom figure, modding him into a game, or running an in-character social account that never breaks the bit.
Frequently Asked Questions
References (6)
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