Greatest hits of viral video

by Mark Sullivan

November 14, 2007 —

There's no formula for creating a video that millions of people will be inspired
to watch and tell their friends about, but if there were, it would have to include
some portion of humor (often unintentional), embarrassment, obscenity, and plain
old goofiness. Since the advent of YouTube in 2005, many viral videos have been
made, but few surpass the popularity of these 25, um, classics.

Bush and Kerry sing "This Land Is Your Land"

Remember this goody from the 2004 Presidential campaign? One of the first truly
viral videos, JibJab's "This Land Is Your Land," created by brothers
Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, recasts the Woody Guthrie classic with places and
faces of the 2004 presidential campaign. The original was about pride and national
unity, themes that sounded completely out of place in the context of the election,
when the cultural gulf between Democrats and Republicans couldn't have been
much wider. But for all that, the big heads of George W. Bush and John Kerry
sitting on top of stick-figure, Shockwave-animated bodies was funny in and of
itself, never mind the digs that the filmmakers throw at both candidates throughout
the video. The 2004 election seems like a decade ago now, but JibJab's video
brings it all back, and it's still good for some laughs.

Bush and
Kerry sing

The Coke and Mentos experiments

Who'd have thought that an eighth-grade science experiment would become the
object of worldwide fascination? That was the effect of this viral video classic,
and people are still checking it out on YouTube and a hundred other viral video
sites. You simply drop seven or eight pieces of Mentos candy into a bottle of
Diet Coke, stand back, and watch the geysers shoot out. Hundreds of people have
now duplicated the experiment in their own versions of the original video, and
the original's creator, Steve Spangler, has done numerous live performances
of the beloved trick. Following is what we think is one of the first Diet Coke/Mentos
videos to have appeared in shared video land.

Diet
Coke and Mentos

Back Dorm Boys, Lonely Girls, and One Mad Man; Asian kids lip-synching the
Backstreet Boys

One of the first viral hits, the video features two Chinese students (Wei Wei
and Huang Yi Xin) passionately lip-synching to the Backstreet Boys' "I
Like It That Way" to a cheap Webcam in their dorm room. I can't tell whether
I hate or love these guys, especially the freaky one on the left (Wei Wei),
but I keep watching because I like the guy in the background playing Counter
Strike. According to Wikipedia, the "Back Dorm Boys," as they've come
to be called, were later signed as spokespeople for Motorola cell phones in
China.

The
lip synchers

lonelygirl15

Lonelygirl15 is a fake video blog cooked up by Marin County, California, screenwriter
Ramesh Flinders and his friend Miles Beckett, a physician turned filmmaker.

The star of "lonelygirl15," a fictional teenage girl named "Bree,"
is played by New Zealand actress Jessica Rose. For a long time, people thought
the series was a legitimate video blog, until some Los Angeles Times reporters
finally outed the creators and the star in September 2006. There's just something
about Bree and her so-called life that keeps 'em coming back for more, even
after the series' cover was blown.

Here's
a sample

The World's Angriest RV Salesman

This viral hit consists of a bunch of outtakes from a 1988 industrial film shot
for Winnebago by one Jack Rebney, also known as The Angriest Man in the World.
In the video, Rebney loses his temper over everything from forgotten lines to
too many flies on the set. According to Wikipedia, the outtakes first surfaced
around 1990 and circulated from person to person for years before it ever showed
up on the Internet. "The Angry Winnebago Man" is one of those videos
just waiting for the YouTube age to begin: Once it hit the viral video circuit,
it spread as fast as an RV going down a mountain pass with no brakes. (Warning:
This video consists of pretty much nothing but foul language.)

Winnebago
man

Awkwardness and aggression; the Numa Numa dance

"The Numa Numa Dance" features a young guy named Gary Brolsma sitting
in front of his PC lip-synching, and doing some seated interpretive dance, to
a Romanian pop song. The video debuted at one site back in 2004, and was viewed
by more than 2 million people within a couple of months. As viral video sites
like YouTube got up and running, millions more saw the video. For many, many
people, when they hear the term "viral video," they see the ecstatic
face of Gary Brolsma.

Numa
Numa dance

The Star Wars kid

This kid had what he thought was a very private moment in the high school production
studio. Oh, except that it was taped. A tape rediscovered months later by friends
of the Star Wars Kid, who then posted to file-sharing site Kazaa. Within two
weeks of its posting, about 2 million people had downloaded the video. The Star
Wars Kid didn't think it was very funny--he sued the families of the "friends"
who posted the video. From the lawsuit: The Star Wars Kid "had to endure,
and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates
and the public at large," and, he "will be under psychiatric care
for an indefinite amount of time." The Viral Factory, an ad agency specializing
in Web marketing campaigns, estimated last year that the "The Star Wars
Kid" video had been viewed over 900 million times, making it the most popular
viral video ever.

The
kid

Ask a ninja

The concept is simple. This series of Web videos, created by Los Angeles comedians
Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, features Nichols dressed up in a black ninja
outfit. He is dead serious as he answers questions sent in by "viewers."
"The Ninja is known for his emphatic declarations, as well as his expansive,
spontaneous, and often extremely exaggerated hand gestures," says Wikipedia.
"Ask a Ninja" episodes are usually about 3 minutes long, and always
end with the Ninja signature closer: "I look forward to killing you soon!"
(or some variation).

The
ninja

"I'm your manager, Luke" -- Chad Vader, day shift manager

In this video series, creators Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda imagine Darth Vader's
kid brother, Chad, as the manager of a grocery store. Hollywood, take note:
You can't miss with a premise like that. "Day Shift Manager" is the
most popular of the eight videos Sloan and Yonda have produced so far: It's
been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube, according to the Chad Vader
Wikipedia page. The series was also discussed on a Good Morning America segment
last year.

Chad
Vader

George Lucas in Love

"George Lucas in Love" is a humorous short film made by Hollywood
screenwriter Joe Nussbaum, with help from some of his pals from the University
of Southern California film school. The film combines and spoofs both Star Wars
and Shakespeare in Love. It's pretty "inside Hollywood" stuff (Nussbaum
used it as his demo tape for the studios), but despite that, it has proved to
be a huge hit on viral video sites like YouTube. The film portrays a young George
Lucas in college struggling against writer's block to write a movie that sounds
a lot like Star Wars.

Lucas
love

Kramer's racist freak-out

Michael Richards--Kramer of Seinfeld fame--is a funny guy, but he became totally
unhinged during a comedy gig in Hollywood. Richards apologized for his racial
comments a few days later, but he learned that in the age of Internet video,
once you say something scandalous, there's no taking it back. (Warning: This
video includes profanity and racial epithets.)

The
freak-out

Seemed like a good plan ... Leeroy blows the plan -- dorks playing World
of Warcraft

This is a way-too-close look into the massively multiplayer online game World
of Warcraft and the people who play it. The video features real footage of a
botched raid by a team of players, with audio from their teleconference before
and during the battle. Long story short, LeeRoy skips the ultra-serious pre-attack
planning meeting (very funny), and attacks prematurely, leading to the deaths
of everybody on his team. (Then again, the team's number cruncher estimated
that even if they'd followed the plan, they had only a 32.3333, "repeating,"
chance of survival. Even more disturbing--the captain reports these are better
odds than they usually enjoy.) The video was originally posted to some World
of Warcraft forums, but because it's both pathetic and hilarious, it spread
on viral video until millions had seen it.

Dorks
playing

The grape-stomping lady (with face-plant)

Lights. Camera. Face-plant. Pain and humiliation are staples of the YouTube
genre, and this clip is one of the best-known examples. A reporter is out on
assignment at a winery somewhere. In a live remote, she is shown on a 5-foot
high platform stomping grapes in a small tub. Then she starts doing a little
dance with her upper body, and the next thing you know she's falling forward
and lands on her face on the ground. Almost as painful is the look on the faces
of the anchors when they cut back to the studio.

The
stomper

The Christmas lights house

This viral smash, which began circulating in 2005, features the 2004 performance
of a Christmas lights and music show at the house of Carson Williams of Mason,
Ohio. Not only did Williams put up about a billion Christmas lights on his house,
but he makes them blink on and off in sophisticated patterns to music by the
Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The music was broadcast on FM radio so visitors could
listen to it as they drove by the house in their cars. January 1 electricity
bill: probably about $273,000.

The
house

"Here's Johnny!" Shining -- the feel-good movie of the summer

Remixes are another mainstay of viral video, and this is one of the best-known
examples of the art. The video cleverly reassembles scenes from Stanley Kubrick's
horror classic The Shining, and sets it to the feel-good sounds of Peter Gabriel's
"Solsbury Hill." The result turns one of the scariest movies ever
made neatly on its head. It's said that the video has now been viewed by an
estimated 50 million.

"The
Shining"

Tom Cruise aaps Oprah

The clip of Tom Cruise's blissed-out 2005 performance on the Oprah Winfrey show
is creepy enough as it is, but this remix adds a scary animation of what he
might really have been thinking.

Zap
her!

Stephen Colbert roasts Bush

Comic Stephen Colbert uses his super-serious faux conservative talk-show host
persona on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to give one of the bravest, edgiest
roasts of a president in Washington history at the 2006 White House Correspondents'
Dinner. Colbert lampooned Bush and the Bushites from all sides and all angles,
while Bush sat looking clearly uncomfortable and at times stunned. The day after
the dinner, footage of the Colbert speech showed up at YouTube and other viral
video sites, and has been viewed millions of times since.

The
roast

Littlest King Kong -- the little superstar

Not much is known about the star of this superviral hit. It's a clip from a
Tamil Indian movie called Adisaya Pirari from the 1980s. The clip stars an actor
who apparently has the moniker "King Kong." King Kong is a midget,
but one with an odd, childlike look. He's got some crazy dance moves and he
smokes a cigarette. Watch at your own risk--it's truly strange.

Superstar

More cowbell

This April 8, 2000, Saturday Night Live sketch starring Will Ferrell and Christopher
Walken features 1970s band Blue Oyster Cult in the recording studio cutting
their big hit, "Don't Fear the Reaper." Walken plays the hotshot record
producer who's convinced the success of the track depends on how much cowbell
(the cowbell played with abandon by Ferrell) can be put into the mix. Largely
because of this viral video, Generation Y kids could be heard uttering "more
cowbell" to each other and giggling in shopping malls across America in
2004.

Cowbell

The worst newscaster in history

It was young Brian Collins' first night on the sports desk. The teleprompter
malfunctioned. The teleprompter started rolling too fast. This viral video is
a painful (and funny) recording of what happened as a result: one of the biggest
broadcast bloopers ever. The video became so popular that Collins appeared on
the CBS Early Show and Letterman. ESPN did a story about him too.

Newscaster

Bad day at the keyboard: The angry German kid

The Angry German Kid apparently left his Webcam on as he prepared for another
gaming session at the PC. Well, first the game wouldn't load properly, and the
kid starts getting very angry, cursing at the computer. After the game finally
loads, the kid gets offed in the game several times in quick succession, which
really sends him over the edge. He continues screaming obscenities and bangs
the keyboard on the desk until it breaks.

It seems young Dieter needs far less sugar in his diet, and maybe some Ritalin.
The performance apparently made for a very satisfying viral video, because millions
of people have watched it. (Warning: This video has almost as much profanity
as the "Angry Winnebago Guy" clip, though this time it's translated
from the German.)

Angry
kid

Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday

Tay Zonday is a graduate student from Minneapolis, Minnesota. His YouTube song
and video, "Chocolate Rain," is a little odd, but strangely appealing,
and became very popular very quickly in the Summer of 2007. This led to appearances
on VH1's Best Week Ever show and the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. The song's not
bad, and the lyrics are cool, but it's the strangeness factor (his head movements,
his short body and low voice) that makes this viral video click.

Tay
Zonday

The Farting Reverend

The Reverend Robert Tilton TV Ministries program was a real televangelism series
based in Texas in the 1980s. On his show, Tilton talked about praying to Jesus
for the growth of one's bank account and for success in business ventures. But
the show was "reborn" and became a bona fide viral smash when somebody,
uh, "augmented" the show's sound track. The reverend and his people,
we're told, have busily been taking down these videos as fast as they appear
on viral sites like YouTube; so if the embedded video below goes dark, just
do a Google search for the Farting Reverend.

The
farter

High drama: The dramatic hamster

Millions of people have watched this 5-second video, which consists of a zoom
shot of a hamster in a cage as it turns around and looks wide-eyed at the camera.
It's unclear who the original author of the video is, but "Dramatic Hamster"
is one of the most remixed videos on the Web. One remixer gave the hamster a
James Bond theme, somebody else added a Kill Bill touch--and the possibilities
go on from there.

The
hamster

Chris Cocker sez: "Leave Britney alone!"

The most recent entry in this greatest hits list of viral videos is also one
of the most pathetic: It's the androgynous-looking Chris Crocker's impassioned
plea that people "Leave Britney Alone!" Huddled under a sheet, with
the camera inches from his face, 20-year-old Crocker pleads, begs, cries, and
whines. It's up to you to decide whether Crocker is serious or is doing some
kind of weird performance art. Regardless, Crocker signed a development deal
with 44 Blue Productions to make a reality-TV series about his life.

Leave
her be!

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