Malden man basking like a sunfish in Internet fame

All it took was a single trip on Boston Harbor, more than 50 expletives, and a strange-looking fish to turn Michael Bergin into an Internet sensation.

As of Thursday night, his video of an encounter with a large sunfish had garnered nearly a million views on Facebook.

Bergin said he was trending like the “Pope right now, dude.”

“If you look on Facebook, it says, ‘The Pope,’ and then it says ‘Michael Bergin.’” the 41-year-old said in a telephone interview. “It’s overwhelming. I would have never thought this would happen, bro.”

Michael Bergin.Facebook photo

Last week, Bergin posted a video to Facebook of himself and a close Malden friend, Jason Foster, puttering around on the ocean near Graves Light Station. In the video, the pair suddenly come across a giant sunfish floating near the water’s surface. It’s then, having never seen a sunfish before, that Bergin goes wild, and launches into a swear-fueled narration about their discovery.

Bergin’s Boston accent and profane commentary proved to be a perfect combination to attract amused viewers on the Internet.

Since it went viral, audio from Bergin’s video has been set to clips from the television show “Family Guy” and the film “Jaws.”

Bergin said the sudden media attention — he did interviews with radio stations in Atlanta, and appeared on local channels as well — has been “un-[expletive deleted]-believeable.”

“Everything has been crazy today, man. I’m amazed man, I really am,” he said.

Bergin said he hasn’t read the clutter of comments that have been piling up on his personal Facebook page, where the original video, and a second one, are posted.

But when he finally does, he plans to ignore any negative feedback from people who took aim at him for his Boston patois — and lack of knowledge about ocean creatures.

“I don’t think those people have almost 1 million hits yet on a video, do they? This kid is only 200,000 away!” he said as the view count climbed over 800,000, with no sign of stopping any time soon.