The Numa Numa: A Guy and A Good Time

Regardless of what it’s used for, the Internet has become a part of our everyday lives. We use it to augment research papers, connect with new friends and old through social networking sites and even play games. However, there is a great potential of abuse in contrast to all these uses. With the right amount of malice, people spread rumors through an international scale and upload videos that can hurt lives and reputations. Because of the internet’s open nature, anyone can access this content. On a smaller note, given the unwarranted self-importance of some individuals, we often see videos and blogs that showcase their startling arrogance and metaphoric exhibitionism.

Then, we have Gary Brolsma.

To the unfamiliar, Mr. Brolsma looks like the stereotypical internet geek; bespectactled, fat and probably a loser. He was also the creator of the “Numa Numa” video, released in 2004. The video’s contents showed him lip-synching to a Romanian Eurodance song, “Dragostea din tei”, complete with animated gestures of his hands, head and shoulders and the song pumping through his headphones. Not the best model of conventional success, but it has been proven that unconventionality wins the hearts of the so-called “net-izens”.

Three months later, the video had been viewed more than 2 million times at Newgrounds.com, the site where Mr. Brolsma originally uploaded it. By November 2006, impression figures had calculated that “Numa Numa” was the most second-watched video of all time at 700 million views, being beaten only by “Star Wars Kid”, the video of a teen waving around a golf club like the Jedi from “Star Wars”.

At first, Gary Brolsma was described by the New York Times as an “unwilling and embarrassed Web celebrity”, cancelling any media appearances. But by then, he had been covered by mainstream media, shows like Tonight with Jay Leno and Good Morning America.

His reluctance did not last. Since his video became popular he had been uploading new versions of the video, adding puns based on the lyrics and pictures. By September 2006, he, along with a band, reappeared with a professionally produced video “New Numa” which was hosted by Youtube. There was even a contest to see who could make a video just as good as Brolsma’s new video, with cash prizes up to $25000 going to the winner.

The video was reaching phenomenal heights. The controversial hit TV show “South Park” even featured a cameo by him and several other Web celebrities in one of their episodes. Granted, they were killed a few moments later but both fans and pundits loved their appearances. The video was also featured in the sixth season of the TV show “NCIS” and was even used for a popular variety show in Japan.

So where is this all going? It is true that the internet can seem to be a playground for those with no self-esteem to trash and badmouth one another. It is also the target of satire and alarmist journalism. But every now and again, there will be the one pure innocent person who will submit a funny video, just for the fun of it and then in an instant we’ll have the next Numa Numa phenomenon.

Viral Marketing and Mass Media

The scene opens with a gathering, a party. We have a close-up on Rob, the person whose honor the celebration is held for. There are various close-ups on his friends and co-workers, who ask where he’s off to or simply to wish him luck on his new job in Japan before we focus on Rob saying that this night “will be the best night ever”. Suddenly, the power cuts out and the scene shifts to a shot of the darkened New York skyline with a massive explosion. Scene shifts again, something big bouncing against buildings and crashes into the pavement right next to the camera; it’s the Statue of Liberty’s head…

All that more is what awaits viewers watching ‘Cloverfield’. Now, before you write off the experience as just another monster movie, one has to remember all that went to spreading word of this movie around, to say nothing of how it was shot.

Viral marketing.

Now, the definition of the above word states that this is advertising using pre-existing social networks. The process used to achieve this is akin to the self-replication of computer viruses. Not just websites are used to spread word or brand awareness around. Video clips are used as well like Youtube. Flash games add a level of interactivity to the advertisement. Then there are text messages and images.

Around 2008, viral marketing has been used to spread word or support of movies around. JJ Abrams’ movie “Cloverfield” used the popular social networking site MySpace, creating accounts for the characters in the movie. They even went out of their way to create websites for the companies alluded to, like the company Rob was going to work for, “Slusho!”. The movie itself was shot in this authentic home video style that looked like any amateur video uploaded to Youtube. It was so effective that in the darkness of the cinema, people got sick.

For the popular Batman film adaption, “The Dark Knight”, the marketing campaign combined real-life and online elements, resembling an alternate reality game. Techniques included mass gatherings of Joker fans, scavenger hunts on an international scale and even intricately-made websites telling fans and visitors how to vote for political offices in Gotham City. They used the queue lines for the Dark Knight roller coaster rides in the Six Flags amusement parks to hide phone numbers and websites. The final touch to the whole campaign was simulating Gotham News Network, the news website of Batman’s hometown. This site had everything, from information about the city’s railway transport system, a travel agency and the web pages of political candidates. Then there was the word of mouth from the Batman fans the world over.

Viral marketing shows how far multimedia has infiltrated the collective imagination of the populace-with-computers as a whole and how they influence everyone else. And this kind of marketing is only limited by the imagination. Who knows what they’ll come up with in a few years time?

New Numa and Numa Three: The Numa Numa Guy’s Return

The numanuma dance has already claimed the legendary status. Gary Brolsma, the creator and the star of that video has been 2008’s number one internet icon, according to American TV station VH1. The video is a clip of him waving his hands and making funny faces to the tune of Romanian hit song Dragostea din Tei. Watched by over 700 million people around the world, Brolsma’s gag turned him famous in a span of two years, and even now, his fame still echoes throughout the internet. Along with web fame, he also made appearances in various media: in television, in newspapers and radio programs. He also appeared in NFL’s Super Bowl XLIV back in 2005.

At the peak of the numa numa fame, Brolsma, along with Dragostea Din Tei’s composer Dan Balan, made another numa numa video. It featured Brolsma’s band mates in “The Nowadays” band dancing to the tune of a Russian song composed by Balan and the Variety Beats, and sung by Chad Russell. This started a phenomenon of its own, attracting over 14 million viewers to watch it in Youtube from the day it was released back in September 2006 to present. Ultimately, the New Numa is Brolsma’s way of telling the fans how he is doing after the first numa numa release.

Along with the release of the New Numa, Brolsma also opened a “New Numa Contest,” a competition on who makes the best video using the New Numa song. Prizes are: $25000 dollars for first prize, $10000 for second prize, $5000 for third prize and $125 as consolation prizes to those who sent videos anyway. With 26 submitted videos, the winner of this contest was keith3d from Arkansas, USA. It was a video that used a lot of stop motions and random things in a computer room singing the New Numa song.

A year after the new numa craze comes the part three of the video, Numa Three, and was also made by Brolsma. There, he’s seen dancing and lip-syncing around his house to the tune of “Crazy Loop,” another one of Balan’s good songs. The Numa Three did not get as much attention as the two preceeding numanuma videos, having only around a million views.

The numa numa craze changed the face of the internet for a couple of years. It entertained us to an extent and taught us that it only takes a good sense of humor to appreciate even the littlest things in life. All in all, the numa numa craze cracked open some smiles and laughs, and made the world, though in a small way, an even better place.

Viral Videos and Instant Fame: How Internet Redefines Stardom

Back in the pre-internet era, becoming an icon or a sensation proves to be very difficult. You will have to wait in long lines for auditions, enter singing contests, form your own band, do something really, really embarrassing in your neighborhood, or, with luck, be discovered by talent scouts here and there. And most take years to take a place in the spotlight.

Nowadays, you can achieve fame by having the right resources. With good use of a personal computer and your internet connection, you can now be popular. Nearly every bit of information placed in the internet spreads virally, even videos. Upload a really interesting video of yourself doing some crazy stunt, and in a few days, the rest of the world is watching you. Congratulations, you are now the star of a viral video.

A viral video is a video that you can find online that’s either funny or annoying, and will get you asking your friends to watch it. In turn, that friend will ask his friend to watch, and his friend to another, thus spreading like a virus, until it eventually becomes a craze.

Enter Gary Brolsma aka the Numa Numa Guy: he achieved instant fame by uploading the Numa Numa Dance, a video of him lip-syncing and dancing in newgrounds.com. It got over 13 million views two years after it was put there. The video also put him in newspaper stories and guest appearances in radio and TV shows. To date, he has been viewed by 700 million people.

Youtube.com is what you may call a nest of viral videos. You can find a lot of interesting clips there: dancing robots with the use of stop motion, documentaries about the emo culture, practical jokes, guitar solos and covers in front of a webcam, and even live clips of certain performances by anonymous people. Young international artists like Charice Pempengco and Justine Bieber got their share of fame in Youtube.

Rick Astley also had a share of rekindled fame with the video of his single “Never gonna give you up,” which was a hit back in the late 80’s. People use his video as a practical joke: a guy gives the victim a link and claims that it’s relevant to what they’re currently talking about. To the victim’s surprise, he’s already redirected to the video. Astley himself also enjoys and acknowledges this prank.

The internet is a source of limitless possibilities. With the right resources, you can be famous in a snap of a finger. Who knows? The next time you video yourself tripping down a staircase may be the next biggest internet thing. Numa Numa wasn’t a one-off…

Sing the Numa Numa! Lyrics and Translation

The Numa Numa part of O-zone’s 2002 hit Dragostea din tei is probably the most popular lines of any song, even now, after 8 years have passed. Thanks to viral video maker Gary Brolsma, this song has not only sustained its popularity, but also spread worldwide. Rekindling its fame, in 2004, Dragostea din tei is now better known around the world as the numa numa song.

Lots of adaptations, parodies, and revivals of the song were recorded in different countries, making the numa numa song a phenomenon, You can see a lot of people worldwide that do the numa numa dance. The song may be ridiculously popular, but only those who speak Romanian, or at least have an idea on how it’s spoken know what the lyrics really mean. What is the song saying? Let’s find out:

The title Dragostea din tei is Romanian for “Love of the linden tree,” where linden trees are mostly associated with Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu’s poems. The song is basically about a man’s unrequited love for a woman. Here are the lyrics of the song, followed by the translation:

Lyrics:

*Ma-ia-hii

Ma-ia-huu

Ma-ia-hoo

Ma-ia-haha

(4x)

I

Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc,

Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea.

Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso,

Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic,

Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

**Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei,
Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei,
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

II

Te sun, sa-ti spun, ce simt acum,
Alo, iubirea mea, sunt eu, fericirea.
Alo, alo, sunt iarasi eu, Picasso,
Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic,
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

(Repeat **, Repeat *, Repeat **)

Translation:

(* is just vocalization, no meaning to the words)

I

Hello [on a cellphone], greetings, it’s me, an outlaw,
I ask you, my love, to accept happiness.
Hello, hello, it’s me, Picasso,
I sent you a beep, and I’m brave,
But you should know that I’m not asking for anything from you.

** You want to leave but you don’t want don’t want to take me, don’t want don’t want to take me, don’t want don’t want don’t want to take me.
Your face and the love from the linden trees,
And I remember your eyes.

II

I call you, to tell you what I feel right now,
Hello, my love, it’s me, your happiness.
Hello, hello, it’s me again, Picasso,
I sent you a beep and I’m brave ,
But you should know that I’m not asking for anything from you.

Concert pianist plays encore with iPad

This is a pretty amazing video of a concert pianist playing his encore with only his iPad. It is a little difficult to be sure that it’s not a hoax and that there isn’t somebody playing the music as he pretends to play his iPad, but he does pull his hand away from the iPad at one point and the music stops. Right at the end, he hands it over to the conductor who also seems to play pretty well though so I’m really not convinced it’s legitimate. The crowd does seem to love it and the rest of the orchestra do stand by and watch so it probably was legitimate.

How viral will this video become and is it a numa numa style commercial for the iPad or some brilliant marketing scheme? Difficult to tell with the Internet these days. It does seem legit.

Chat Roulette piano improv guy video 2

The Chatroulette piano improv guy is back and funnier than ever. After Youtube banned the first video and he had to go back and make updates to the first video, he has recorded a new video which picks up where the first one left off.

I wonder if this video has been edited much or if this was a true session over at Chatroulette.com. It’s one thing if he went back and edited out most of the unfunny pieces, but if this was actually a single session with him making fun of the people on the other side and having fun with them, then it’s truly amazing.

The coolest thing about the video is the reactions of the people on the other side of the web. It shows what an interesting tool chatroulette is, because one minute you’re chatting with a bunch of gangster looking dudes and then next you’re looking at some hot girl who you’d love to date.

The coolest thing at the end of the day is that the piano improv guy had had millions of views and is now a non commodity on the web. This is something he can use to promote traffic to his own site and videos and possibly get gigs and make money off. Only on the web…

Chat Roulette Funny Piano Guy Improv

Everybody’s been talking about the Chat roulette piano improv guy video lately. Let me tell you, this video is downright hilarious. Lets get a little perspective first. For those that don’t know, Chatroulette.com is a site that lets you connect with other people using a combination of your webcam and an instant messaging window. Your match is chosen at random (hence the name roulette) and you can choose to spend some time talking to them or to move along and see if you have better luck the next time around. There’s plenty of people showing way too much skin and behaving like a bunch of idiots, but there’s also a lot of funny and cool stuff going on.

This video is by a guy who labels himself as ‘PianoChatImprov’. Here’s a video of him playing the piano and doing some freestyling improv with different people. Watch their reactions. This is a great video.

The reason I love this video so much is that it’s exactly what we’re always looking for in a viral video. It has all the ingredients of a movie that will be shared across the web on blogs, forums and e-mails. It also makes a star out of an average Joe, although I have to say he is actually pretty talented. This gives us all hope that we can also get ourselves or our sites or businesses spread across the web with one cool and viral idea. We saw it with Numa Numa and we see it time and time again. Cool stuff. Loved it.

Numa Numa ChatRoulette

Chat Roulette is one of the most talked about sites on the web right now. It’s a site where people hook up with one another using their webcams. You are randomly matched up with another user, see their face on the screen and have the option to chat with them or just click the next button to be paired up again randomly with different user.

Now we all know how much everybody loves the Numa Numa Dance Song, but one user wanted to see what the reaction would be from people when he put the Numa Numa guy on ChatRoulette and played the NumaNuma song.

It’s cool to see people smiling and dancing in response, but what I loved was the classic hand pump that Gary Brolsma does in the Numa Numa video. If you use the Internet, you’ve definitely seen this video and if you listen to the radio, you’ve definitely heard some cover version of it.

On the subject of Chatroulette, it seems to be one of the weirdest and wildest sites that have ever been invented. Some people have an amazing experience while others come across as a bunch of naked perverts. They need to find a way to weed out the perverts and to keep things fun without the sick factor.

Congrats to the person that made this video and posted it. As always, when we hear the Numa Numa song it brings a smile to our faces.

Numa Numa Flashmob in Amsterdam Theater

This is such a great video of a group of people in a Theater in Amsterdam Holland doing a group song and dance of the Numa Numa dance. It’s almost like a flashmob experience where all of a sudden a whole group gets involved in a cool and crazy activity.

What’s amazing about the Numanuma dance song is that it is so catchy. A lot of people who have never even heard of Numa Numa hear the song once and they’re completely and utterly hooked. It is without a doubt one of the catchiest and most entertaining songs that hit the Internet and is a clear cut winner when it comes to famous viral videos that have made their way across the world wide web.

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