With over 1,000,000 downloads, Fruit Ninja is one of the more popular gaming apps on the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms. In the game, you basically have to swipe and slice fruit that’s tossed onto the screen – the more fruit you dice, the higher the score. But avoid the “bombs” or you lose immediately.

Now meet the “real” Fruit Ninja…and guess what, he’s Israeli. Fruit Ninja guy appears on a YouTube video where gets fruit thrown at him which he has to fight off with a large kitchen knife. He does pretty well – that knife is sharp – until his off-screen tormentors pelt him with mangos, bananas and cucumbers (hey, that’s not a fruit!) to the squeals of laughter on both sides. Some “slicing” sound effects round out the show.

It’s not a high quality video – just a few guys goofing around in what looks like an army bathroom – but remarkably, the video has been viewed over 97,000 times – more than TechTechManTV’s video review of the app itself (which garnered only 85,000 views). It also has 197 comments. That makes this one of the unlikeliest viral videos of the year.

Well, not quite. The Israeli Fruit Ninjas were probably inspired by another “real life” Fruit Ninja. This guy, with his own ninja headband, has more than 650,000 views and even has a sequel.

But the Israelis have one up on the competition: our blue and white ninja hits his mark more often. Perhaps the result of some super secret army commando unit that trains against infiltration of foreign fruit?

Here’s the official trailer from Half Brick Studios.