So, as much as I hate admitting it, I’m the kind of guy who watches DVDs with the audio commentary on.
Turns out, some audio commentaries are actually pretty interesting if you’re into that kind of stuff, and I thought I’d share with you something I picked up when watching an episode of Family Guy the other day.
Seth MacFarlane, producer and actor on the show, stated that Family Guy was one of the first television series to reference an internet joke, something which had never before been done on a mainstream medium.
And I’m sure as you’ve experienced over the past few years, more and more everyday conversation often turns to references about things people have seen on the Internet. Sometimes it’s a funny picture of a cat someone saw on a website or it might be a really strange video about how to correctly open a banana someone emailed them. So to make sure you don’t show your age too much during your next conversation with the intern at the office, here’s a list of the top five viral videos and a little bit about them.
5. Evolution of Dance
Currently the most popular video on YouTube of all time with a staggering 123 million hits. Motivational speaker Judson Laipply recorded the end of one of his presentations and uploaded it in April 2006. It’s since been picked up by nearly every piece of mainstream media, lead to a number of parody creations as well as the official Evolution of Dance 2.
4. David After Dentist
One of the newest big players when it comes to viral videos, young David was recorded after dental surgery, still feeling the effects of the drugs he was given. Not the first video on this list where one might question its popularity, but there seems to this strange connection between kids being funny and viral content. David After Dentists is currently sitting on over 25 million hits, having been up for less than a year.
3. Charlie Bit My Finger, Again!
Again with the children, this one ought to bring a smile to your face. And it’s done so to over 109 million other people. A quick search will lead you to a number of parodies across the Internet and if you look hard enough you can probably find the official tee too.
2. Dramatic Chipmunk
My favourite video on YouTube, where the description sums it up perfectly, “The best five second clip on the Internet”. How is it that such a ridiculous piece of footage could reach 15 million views? Well, that’s the nature of the Internet and there’s often no explaining why some videos go viral. Turns out it’s actually a prairie dog from a Japanense television show, now I suppose it makes a little sense.
1. Rick Roll’d
Ever clicked on a link and expected one thing and instead this video appears? That means you’ve just been Rick Roll’d, the biggest internet meme of all time. Rick Astley’s video clip for Never Gonna Give You Up gained its popularity after the joke of sending a deceptive link to his video took over the Internet and given it over 18 million hits.
To get a video to go viral is certainly no mean feat, in fact marketers try and do it every day. And while there have been some fantastic branded virals that have gone around, for every one there’s at least twenty fails. Because that’s the thing about viral videos, it’s mostly random, much like their content as you can see above. So next time you’re standing around the water cooler, hopefully you won’t look like a complete tool when someone starts talking a video they saw on YouTube last night.
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