“The Dancing Baby”, a presentation by Frances Young and Matt Harris, was about one of the first viral videos, and the rise of these videos on sites such as youtube since then.
Software programmer Michael Girard wanted to show off his Kinetix Animation Software in a creative way that would interest viewers. He developed a 3D character animation of a baby dancing. This animation did more than he had hoped for when it spread throughout the web as a highly popular video- not only did people find it amusing to watch, but they took on adaptations of their own. Because this video was royalty free, people were able to remix it, and upload it all over the web. This phenomenon is especially prominent in the internet world, because it was one of the first pieces of widespread media that was not backed by an advertiser, but shared between users for their own personal enjoyment. Since then, this video has been seen in broadcast television, video games, and email across the globe. This marks the beginning of a new era of entertainment- the viral video. Below is a link to the dancing baby video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5x5OXfe9KY
Many other viral videos have become popular in the last few years with the help of youtube. With an element of humour, and a catchy image, these videos have become well known, especially in developed countries where almost everyone can be found with a mobile phone and an internet at home. Some of my personal favourites are as follows…
Trololo Guy
Eduard Khil, a Russian baritone singer from the 1960’s regained his spotlight in 2010 after a video of him singing went viral on youtube. His song, a mixture of random sounds and awkward faces, made for comedy gold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z4m4lnjxkY
Grape Lady Falls
Originally aired as a news clip in MyFox Atlanta, this gem first aired on youtube in 2006. It starts off depicting two women in a grape-stomping contest. After one makes a playful attempt at cheating, she quickly trips and falls flat on her face. Ohh the karma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMS0O3kknvk
The next few videos have become famous both from the hilarity of the original, and from the amount of times they have been remixed. These are a few of the most popular…
Keyboard Cat
This footage was from 1984 of a cat owned by Charlie Schmidt, who moved the cat to look like it was playing a simple tune on the piano. This meme became famous after it was added to the end of various blooper videos to “play” that person off screen after their mistake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAepgZ5iM5k
Bed Intruder
Antoine Dodson’s flamboyant and passionate interview on the local news became an internet sensation after it was made into an auto-tuned song by The Gregory Brothers on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw
-Lauren Friesen