When I tell people that I have the (totally enviable) plum job of finding the weekly Viral Video here on the Flip, they often give me suggestions–which is ever-so-groovy. I love when people give me video ideas–it’s so much more fun to get the video virally than it is to find it on a “what’s popular this week?” web search. It makes me feel like some big-game video hunter, stalking my prey in its natural habitat–the Facebook status update.
This would be one of those videos. Not even a month old, and almost two million hits. Boy-howdy.
Thanks to this video, any parent who has ever been at their wit’s end (which means, every parent) now has a new weapon in their “oh-please-just-make-it-stop-crying” arsenal: The Notorious B.I.G.
I like your idea of crowdsourcing versus searching for popular videos. I think this better captures the essence of viral video, something that should be shared through WOM messages, not through a search engine.
Speaking of crazy viral videos, this one went around our office the other week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9oxmRT2YWw
I agree with Kim that the most important factor about successful viral videos is often that they circled the web through word-of-mouth reference. I also feel like viral videos serve as inspiration for spin-off concepts which can give rise to some of the more popular internet memes. Within a week of seeing this baby B.I.G. video, friends sent me at least 5 other hilarious baby crying videos inspired by the original.
I’ve also noticed a trickle down effect with these videos. It takes a while for national news organizations to pick up a video, sometimes even taking months to recognize the popularity (and by that time the rest of us have moved on to the next big thing).
I am not surprised that this baby is soothed by music and not sure how this has gone ‘viral’, as I feel like I have seen it before with different kids.
A recent article (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/11/22/toddlers-flour-avalanche-video-goes-viral-on-youtube-but-was-it-staged-by-mum-115875-23580668/) highlighted this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNyK7XTy6o) of toddlers getting a hold of a 5lb. bag of flour and making a mess around the house. It also mentions that some of the followers have deemed it staged or fake. After watching the video, I might have to agree that it is staged. For example, some of the flour seems to evenly distributed or high for two small boys to do. Also, her reaction to the whole mess is so calm and she doesn’t attempt to stop they boys from playing in it, plus walks through the mess multiple times.
While, I have no problem with parents posting videos of their kids and may be making even a little side cash (used to be Americas Funniest Videos), I think truly hilarious videos will go viral and the community will appreciate that moment that is shared. It can’t be forced!