Memes and Mainstream Media

Memes and Cartoons

You know how much the internet has come to influence our lives when a lolcat makes an appearance in a commercial. Alright, that has not happened yet, but many other memes have become known to the general public due to more mainstream media like television, particularly cartoons.

According to Wikipedia, an internet meme “is simply the propagation of a digital file or hyperlink from one person to others using methods available through the Internet”. It usually contains, but is not limited to, a joke, a saying or a rumor. In short, it’s an inside joke shared by a community that spans the globe. And thanks to the comedy-based writing and animation of cartoons, the rest of us have begun to get the punchline.

The most common medium would be television, particularly cartoons like South Park, Family Guy and American Dad. It is one of the most established and popular mediums.  Many memes and viral internet stars have made appearances on the aforementioned shows due to many things, least of which was the popularity of the memes. Some memes were used for the comedic results, some would highlight and break down new social issues that pop out during the year. One of which was the Star Wars kid, a Canadian student who’d been secretly videotaped while he swung a golf club around in an impression of the Jedi of the Star Wars franchise. He made an appearance on American Dad, doing the moves that him popular to a group of costumed convention-goers.

There was also the instance in Family Guy, where Brian, who was an anthropomorphic dog,, dressed up in a banana suit and shook a pair of maracas while singing the viral hit “Peanut Butter and Jelly Time” in order to cheer up his best friend, the protagonist Peter Griffin (the attempt was unsuccessful).

Not to be outdone, South Park, whose makers were never known for pulling any punches, laid the jokes on very thick with a wide cast of internet stars like Chris Crocker (a rabid Britney Spears fan known for his impassioned and tearful outburst in defense of his idol), the Numa Numa Guy Gary Brolsma and others lined up in front of a fictional department in order to reap the profits they earned from their stardom in the episode “Canada on Strike”. The lot of them then proceeded to brawl amongst one another, leaving each other very much dead. The show would do it again in the episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” when the boys would play World of Warcraft, the most popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) as of yet, with our gang of protagonists facing an opponent named Jenkins, after the person who famously rushed into action, only to get himself and his group killed.

Now, cartoons are more well-known as shows the younger demographics watch a great deal of the time, thus leading people to underestimate the persuasive potential hidden in the cel-shaded antics.

Why Use Viral Videos

Just the two terms would make one want to use them. Viral means it acts like a virus and spreads by itself. Video means the top tier in media since it combines audio and visual communication, and is the nearest to the 3D or real experience. When you bring them home to your online marketing campaign, viral videos can help boost brand and site recognition, while also building up your supporter and customer base. When you have those, getting sales and conversions won’t be lagging far behind.

If you’ve seen an email or message with a link directing you to a video in YouTube or some other site, then you know how viral videos work. If you clicked on it and distributed it to other people that you know, then you should appreciate how it spreads almost automatically by making use of people’s social networks. Aside from sharing the fun, what you’re doing is also spreading the word about the site or product that started that viral video.

The neat thing about this is when your viral video is successful, a lot of people would be exposed to your site in a quick and cost-effective manner. Since the spreading of the video happens almost naturally, you don’t have to pay people to build links to your site. Aside from that, your viral video might get posted on high-ranking sites, which would also help your site’s rankings and traffic. In short, having a successful viral video is a winning situation.

What are the characteristics of a good viral video? First is the video should be interesting. You can’t have people spread them for you if they’d be just bored with it. Ways to make your video interesting is to include humor, give tips or advice, messages with “shock” value, and themes that ride on popular trends of the season. If you’re able to create a video with one or more of these characteristics, them more likely than not, people are going to spread your videos around.

Presentation is also a key factor. Flash format is ideal for compatibility with almost any browser. You would also consider the video length. The shorter the better. People are more likely to enjoy a three-minute video that gives them the message immediately rather than a video that’s seven minutes long. You also need to consider that not all people viewing your videos would have the time or bandwidth to spare to watch your videos.

It would also help if you have some widgets that entice people to share your video through social networking sites or email. Another strategy is to set gadget where people can copy a code and paste it on their own sites or blogs.

The key thing about viral videos is that when done properly, they spread like wildfire without you even lifting any additional finger. And once they do, you can expect higher recognition of your site, and increased site traffic. These would then place your site in a better position to get potential buyers and conversions.

Viral Videos we love or hate

There are a lot of viral videos we can pick up in the internet, and they can either be hilarious or annoying. Some can be found in your inbox, or in some blog post, and most commonly in video streaming sites such as Youtube.com. Those videos come in many different kinds and lengths: it may be a short clip of some goofy antic, or live performances which has given birth many internet idols. Here are some of the examples of videos that somehow reshaped internet in their respective times:

1. The Numa Numa Dance: here, you can see Gary Brolsma dancing and lip-syncing to the tune of Dragostea din tei, a Romanian song that hits back in 2002. With his funny facial expressions and frantic hand movements, the numa numa video has entertained over 700 million people worldwide, and boosted Brolsma to internet fame. Brolsma appeared in several newspapers, radio and TV shows, and was even voted as the number 1 internet icon in VH1’s top 40 Internet Superstars.

2. The “Hitler” Meme: Have you ever seen Adolf Hitler bashing Hannah Montana, or complaining about his friend’s absence in his birthday party? Several of Hitler’s complaints are found in Youtube.com, and as the time passes, he tends to make more complaints. This video is actually a parody of a scene in the German movie Der Untergang, a movie about the final days of World War 2 in Berlin. Irrelevant subtitles are added to the scene, making it seem like Hitler is ranting. As a result, Der Untergang became famous worldwide. However, it is ironic that Youtube pulled out all Hitler parody videos because of copyright.

3. The Annoying Orange: This is a video of an orange in a regular kitchen, annoying the hell out of every other fruit and vegetable he sees. Created by Dane Boedigheimer, the first video entitled “Hey Apple!” that was uploaded in October 2009 has reached over 18 million views in Youtube. There are currently around 10 million views and over 600 thousand subscribers of the Annoying Orange’s Youtube page that began in January 2010.

And of course,

4. Rickroll: Your friend is telling you about a movie you’ve always wanted to see. You’d get all excited, psyched up about the movie! Your friend then gives you a link of the trailer. Then you click the video—

“We’re no strangers to love,

You know the rules, and so do I

A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of

You wouldn’t get this from any other guy”

Oh no… you’ve been Rickrolled. It is a practical joke using Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” back in the late 80’s. The prankster will give the victim a link, claiming that it is a relevant video. To the victim’s surprise, it is a link to the “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video! As of today, there are nearly 35 million people who were rickrolled.

There are actually a lot of viral videos. Love them or hate them, they have caught the attention of web surfers worldwide.

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…

Some crazy Fingerboarding tricks

If you haven’t heard of fingerboarding before or you’re under the impression that it’s something little kids do, then you obviously haven’t seen some of the videos on Youtube.

Here’s an example of how crazy some of the fingerboarding tricks out there are:

Of course you need some good equipment and a lot of practice to get anywhere near this level, but it’s really cool to see what sort of tricks one can do with a simple fingerboard and a skate ramp or railing. Start by reading a quick and interesting history of fingerboarding and then check out some of the other cool videos on YouTube. I recommend buying a simple fingerboard to start off with and just practicing on a desk or floor, just to get a feel for it. At first you’re going to wonder if you will ever be able to do anything more than just move the fingerboard from point A to point B, but after a little practice you’ll see that there’s a lot more to it and that fingerboarding is an art that is discovered and shared by thousands across the world.

Grab a fingerboard today and get started fingerboarding. It’s great fun!

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.

Amazing Baseball Superman Leap Fordham player Brian Kownacki

This video is incredible even if you’re not a Baseball fan. Fordham college Baseball player Brian Kownacki leaps over the catcher and scores an incredible run.

This was also part of an amazing comeback by Fordham. They scored 9 runs in the eighth inning to overcome a 9-1 deficit and win the game 12-9.

This video is going viral like crazy and has already been watched by lots of people. As usual, the power of the web and viral videos helps people broadcast and discover amazing videos within minutes of them happening. Google and YouTube already have this video searchable and indexed in their systems.

Watch the video above and then decide for yourself whether this is the next Numa Numa video or if it will just be hot for a while and then cool off like most viral videos do. I have a feeling this one is going to be around for a long time because it’s rare to see such an amazing feat and the video is just downright cool. It’s also part of an amazing comeback and we all love a good comeback, don’t we?

Why the Numa Numa Song is still popular

Every day on the web there are thousands of new videos that crop up. Do a quick search on Google for the terms ‘funny videos’ or ‘viral videos’ and you’ll see how many there are. Youtube is also full of viral videos. These videos are being emailed and shared on social networking sites on a daily basis, but there is one common problem with 99% of these videos and that is the fact that they don’t have longevity. They are funny, cool or interesting for a period of time, but then they reach the end of their life span and end up going nowhere. This is where the elite viral videos stand ahead of the crowd and there is no viral video more powerful and catchy than the numa numa song. From little kids to teens to business men and women, just about everybody has heard the numa numa song before.

So the burning question is why? What is it about the numa numa song that made it so powerful and viral that everybody keeps listening to it and searching for it? We get lots of people coming over to the site daily to listen to the song and read our blog posts. There are 2 key elements to the Numa Numa video that make it tough for people to stop loving the numa numa video and keep coming back for more:

1) The video features a very catchy song. Once you hear that numa numa tune it sticks in your head and you can’t easily get rid of it. It’s also a song that gets played on the radio so people hear it when they are away from their computers which makes it extra sticky and catchy.

2) The “hero” in the video could be any one of us. Unlike a lot of the made up videos that have edited footage, trick photography and other types of tricks, this one is a real-world type video. No stunts or made up footage. This is good old webcam footage that reminds us how powerful the Internet is and how an average Joe can become a hero overnight.

Long live the Numa Numa song.

UFO. The Greatest Story Ever Denied, and it’s not Numa Numa!

Millions of people continue to watch famous viral videos, of which Numa Numa is unarguably one of the most popular of all time. Now view something not quite so well known…this full length documentary reveals incredible scenes, interviews and revelations. Believe it or not, you have to see it at first hand, and then make up your mind!

Vizio Super Bowl ad with Gary Brolsma Numa Numa

We’re proud to say that one of the commercials from this year’s Super Bowl included Gary Brolsma the Numa Numa guy. Vizio’s commercial basically pans around a grid of blocks each of which contains some sort of character, show or logo. There are a series of robot hands (really made me think of Google’s Android phone “Droid Does” commercials) that are grabbing the characters and dumping them into some sort of hole in the middle of the floor. The message of the commercial is that Vizio has True LED performance TVs and a suite of Vizio Internet apps that let you experience the best of the web on your TV. The Numa Numa piece comes around two thirds of the way through as you see Gary doing his classic dance while being shifted away by the robots.

Devices like the Roku are also jumping on board with web related channels such as Pandora. I can’t say I’m in love with using a TV remote to post on Twitter or Facebook, but the general idea is awesome and obviously the future will definitely consist of a world where the web and TV are tightly integrated.

Now all we need is a new Numa Numa song and video to keep us happy.

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