My Favorites

            For my last post I would like to share with you some of my most favorite videos- that I haven’t showed you already of course. I think that now and in the future YouTube is going to become more and more of an integral part in our daily lives and time spent on the computer. Like I said before, Gmail, Facebook and YouTube and the three most visited sites and I probably go on each at least five times a day. One of the best feelings is finding a great new video and being able to watch it over and over while laughing every time, or being able to bond with someone new over a YouTube video that you both love. This is something that I experienced the other day. One video that I have not fallen out of love with for the past two years is of an episode of WifeSwap, which features a little boy named King Curtis. Curtis is one of my most favorite people to quote; he is young, sassy, loves chicken nuggets and is “king of the house baby.” I think I laugh at him because he has such attitude. When asking my newfound fellow lover of Curtis why he is so awesome they responded, “probably the way he asserts his authority for being such a small and innocent chubby looking kid…and the fact that he is the boss.” Another reason why I think this video is viral is because people are always looking for something to quote. Like bonding over videos, if you can quote something and have people actually recognize it, an instant connection occurs. Curtis is one of the greatest kids to quote… even at such a young age. Amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HQ0sfOCabg

            One of my other favorite videos is of the Atlanta Grape Lady. This is a video set at a wine festival and the newswoman is demonstrating for her audience the age-old tradition of stomping grapes for a prize. It is obvious throughout the video that the woman is not very happy with putting her feet in buckets full of grapes and then the epic moment of failure occurs and which is only made worse by her reaction and the reaction of the other anchors. I don’t want to spoil the entire video but it does not get old for me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it but it always makes my day a little better.  The crazy fall, her reaction, the reaction of the other anchors makes this one of my other all time favorites. Videos like this capture one moment in time that would probably be lost forever and only watched by the small local audience and give them eternal fame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THfiHQZVSw0

One thing that always crosses my mind is I sometimes feel bad for laughing at these people. If they knew that whenever I was having a bad day I knew that I could go to their specific video and it would make me laugh every time I think they would be even more embarrassed. But that is what makes YouTube so great, the poor grape lady will never know, and having over 1 million views is not too shabby.

Here is one final video that is under the classification of will always make me smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_CKtYCRIc

The Art of the Parody

            On of the greatest things that has ever happened to YouTube is the parody. Parodies usually take something that is popular is modern culture and poke fun at it. I have come to realize the things that are usually most popular are in some way ridiculous. Let’s look at the modern infomercials, I can get mesmerized in watching those because who wouldn’t want a little tool like the Slap Chop that dices all the food that you need to cut up in a matter of seconds! How cool is that! But then I think about it and it strikes me that I can easily just cut up my vegetables and it will take an extra two minutes…. So why do I have the urge to spend $19.99 (plus shipping and handling which probably doubles the cost)? I can’t really answer that question yet but I can tell you that the brilliant uploaders of YouTube have taken these (mostly) useless inventions and turned them into hilarious Internet sensations.

I don’t know about other people but at first when I watch these videos I feel a little offended because secretly (I guess not so secretly anymore) I think my life would be much easier with all of these new gadgets. But, I cannot resist them because they are so funny. I want to talk about the Snuggie parody first. Everyone knows that when the Snuggie came out there was a moment of “What loser would ever buy that piece of crap?” but then everyone realized how freaking cool it was and then couldn’t wait to buy their own. The WTF Blanket is one of the most popular parody videos on YouTube and the Snuggie is the subject of its ridicule. Poor Snuggie. The WFT Blanket is so appealing to the viewer because it points out everything that is absolutely ridiculous about the Snuggie. I think that no matter how proud someone is there is always a little room to laugh at oneself and that comes into play in this video for everyone who has ever thought about buying (or actually bought) a Snuggie. One of the first lines of the video is “Do you struggle when trying to put [a blanket] on?” comments like this are so ridiculous that the viewer cannot help but laugh. The key element that makes these videos so funny is that they give the consumer a practical view of what they are now drooling over. Another parody that does this effectively is that of the MacBook Air, a computer that is so thin, it can fit into a manilla envelope. The parody by robbechizza sums it up by pulling out a piece of paper instead of the laptop and stating, “A piece of paper, this as hell and also not $3,000.” Hilarious.

These videos have become viral because they take products that are relevant and usually in high demand and make the consumer feel like an idiot for actually considering spending money on them. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqHSIiAXdSU&feature=&p=A1534B5D49CB9034&index=0&playnext=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05ZQ7WHw8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E98Eyl5Et0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQiiszIthx4&feature=related

Failure

            This is sort of, but not really a follow up to the post about not being able to stop laughing at people getting hurt. It’s sad, but true. Another sad but true moment that I face on a daily basis with YouTube is that of the fail. Failure has become a nationwide obsession. When something goes wrong is everyday life the first reaction is to simply state, “fail.” There is even an entire website dedicated to “fails” as we call them that include videos and pictures. Let’s focus on the videos that feature these fabulous fails.

            It’s not hard to find a fail video on YouTube, all you have to do is type the word in and about 1,400,000 results pop up. Obviously the most popular video would be the one entitled “Stripper Fail” and it doesn’t take a genius to guess why. But let’s skip that one because I feel like keeping it PG today and honestly it makes me a little uncomfortable. There is a fail for anything your little heart desires; soccer, dancing (the Michael Jackson Fail happens to be one of my all time favorites), parking, language, Wii, slide, you get the point. I think that like watching people get hurt, viewers are looking for a laugh but also a confidence boost. Being able to laugh but at the same time say “holy shit” is pretty much what everyone is looking for. This make us feel a whole lot better about our own problems because at least you weren’t the lady that was filmed while trying to park her car for FOUR MINUTES STRAIGHT and had to be helped by the nice man in the parking lot… then the video was put up on the internet and accompanied by the ever so classy hamster dance song and had to privilege of being viewed almost 6 MILLION times! Yay! Don't you feel much better about your life now? The answer is yes. Unless you are that lady, in which case I suggest you become friends with the kid who got nailed in the face with a soccer ball. You two would get along nicely!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMMFSCMR0Dc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uLECuGK07U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lP0CmEA6PA&feature=channel

People Getting Hurt

I thought for a while that maybe I was just a downright terrible person… that was until I realized that all my friends loved watching these videos just as much as I did; people getting hurt. As I am writing I am starting to see that this is probably not going to be the most politically correct post ever but I don’t like to lie and I love to laugh even more. I sort of feel guilty at times, watching people get hurt and writhe in pain while I sit in my bed laughing but I realize that is the purpose of entertainment to a certain extent. Yes, it is embarrassing to have a video put up on YouTube of someone shooting you with a paintball gun and screaming like a little girl but 1,639,661 views is nothing to scoff at either.

            But why do we laugh at these videos? Why is watching a child, obviously terrified on a rollercoaster so hilarious? I think for most people our first reaction is of pity because the last place on earth we would want to be is in their position. But there is a deeper meaning in our laughter and that is we find it entertaining when someone inferior to us is hurting, in pain or embarrassed. The American culture feeds on this concept because of out obsession with appearance and honestly we are just plain vein. When we see someone getting hurt, and even more so if they are fat, we are relieved that we are not in their position and that just adds to our laughter. All this said, I can’t help myself. Every time I see a video, especially the compilations (those are the absolute worst), I can’t hold it in. I even just performed a little experiment with my suitemates and they couldn’t help themselves either. These videos are downright funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQnwto3zXE0

The Animals

            As I was thinking about the most recent viral YouTube video it really wasn’t hard at all for me to come up with a handful. So the theme for this post is… cue drum roll…  animal edition! Personally I am a fan of anything that is not of the human species, especially if you can pet it or if an “aww” is appropriate, and preferably in the baby form. I think we are drawn to these videos initially because of the “cute” factor. My suitemates can attest by the renowned “Cute List” that graces my door, I like the word cute and nothing makes me more happy than to laugh at something small and awkward. But why are they so funny? Even if you are the masculine type and refuse to give in to the inner cuteness, these videos also have the funny factor.

            Let’s look at my favorite, “Kittens Inspired by Kittens.” The plot is simple; a small girl looks through a picture book of kittens and gives her own caption for each picture. Its debatable whether this video is scripted or not but either way I can laugh and “aww” for hours. The kinds of people that are initially drawn to this video are the ones that have ten cats (and not the barn kind). But with 10 million views there has to be something more to this video than just the kittens. It’s the combination of adorable and funny. The girl introduced at the very beginning is very young and therefore the element of surprise is also a factor because the viewer is not expecting her to say, “I want pie! I want beef jerky!” when looking at two kittens sitting next to each other. So let’s bring it in, we are initially attracted to things that look like they are going to be cute and can be deadly when combined with any sort of humor. I can attest to this because I have been talking in the “little girl kittens” voice for the past month… Everything is just much more fun when it is said in a high voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtX8nswnUKU

The Beginning.

Over the past five years YouTube has become more than just a trend. YouTube is an American obsession. I was in seventh grade the first time that I tried to find a video on YouTube. It was something that everyone was talking about so my little twelve year old self thought I would search this new phenomenon and find my music video that I was dying to see, probably the equivalent of some Justin Beiber song with which I had become obsessed. So I go to my computer and type in on Google “utube.” Obviously nothing came up under that name but I had a little common sense at that time and after a few searches I found what I was looking for, the illustrious YouTube.  For reasons you can probably already tell, that day changed my life. Had I known the countless hours I would spend searching and watching and laughing at videos, I think I would have been more excited than embarrassed that it took me a while to find the site that I probably visit at least once a day five years later.  

So what makes YouTube so great? What makes people take their video cameras into the car while they are driving or film themselves doing anything to get another view (aka GloZell)? What makes people want to make an account with no intention of ever posting videos but simply to “favorite” them (aka me)? Why can I waste hours watching and laughing so hard my stomach hurts at two minute clips when I should be doing my English homework? And finally what makes a video viral? How is it even possible that my friends who live hundreds of miles away are watching the exact same thing that I randomly come across? These are some of the questions I want to explore and hopefully answer in my blog on top of watching some downright hilarious stuff.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorites and one simple question. Is this real life?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs