We here at the Flip are sometimes so focused on the next new thing, that what was new even five years ago is long-forgotten. But I’m going to change that right now, and take us back to what most people consider the original YouTube viral video. Since it was first uploaded in late 2004 (that’s like the pleistocene, right?), its many iterations have been viewed more than 700 million times, and made a certain Moldovan musical group (and one teenage American) famous overnight.
What’s the first viral video you remember? Leave a link in the comments.
Hi Kat,
I certainly agree that this rather unusual and entertaining video have the possibility of becoming viral and this video proves just that!
Kind regards
Kevin
GAH!!! I will not be tricked into watching this one again!
My coworkers and I tortured ourselves with this video a few months ago. Gave me nightmares and uncontrollable twitching anytime I heard the song.
@Kim: really? One of my friends went out and learned everything about O-Zone after this–my kids even have them on their playlists even (Europop alongside Deathmetal and Broadway show tunes–it makes a mama proud
Hah! The first viral video I remember wasn’t a video at all, it was the hampster dance web site ca. 1997. A whole page of animated .gifs of hamsters dancing.
Luckily someone has preserved this iconic piece of Internet history:
http://www.hampsterdance.com/classics/originaldance.htm
What a blast from the past. This is probably the first “viral” video I remember, especially since I moved to South America soon after and was a little detached from the U.S. mainstream culture for a while.
While this is not a first viral video, this is one of my favorite viral videos from my time there….It is from about 2 years ago, was done (I believe) as a final project for university students, and has been seen nearly 8 million times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASU0oadRcxs
What a blast from the past. This is probably the first “viral” video I remember, especially since I moved to South America soon after and was a little detached from the U.S. mainstream culture for a while.
While this is not a first viral video, this is one of my favorite viral videos from my time there….It is from about 2 years ago, was done (I believe) as a final project for university students, and has been seen nearly 8 million times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASU0oadRcxs
p.s. It’s in Spanish (mostly)
Oh MAN! I haven’t seen this video in a while, but I definitely still remember the night I saw it along with some other videos…
(Aicha-Aicha-2006) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlurgF8KhsU
(Peanut Butter Jelly Time! originated as a flash site but can dated back to 2000!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MDNFaGfT4
I don’t remember watching these videos on youtube when I first saw them. I believe I was getting most of my entertainment from http://www.ebaumsworld.com
Looking at the most famous viral videos, and their release dates, you can’t help but think about how crucial Youtube really is to the viral video. In 2005, things got way easier to share, and you can see that in the view counts of some of the most popular you tube videos.
Thanks for the nostalgia, I’m gonna go watch videos all now
Oddly enough, I’d actually never seen this one before – and I think it’s a hoot! I would totally buy that guy a beer. Great example of what we all do when nobody is around (don’t we? is it just me and this guy?), but he had the guts to make it public.
Corey, I also think of the Hamster Dance as one of my first “viral” internet experiences. Or perhaps Badger Badger Badger. Yes, I will link it to torture you all mwah ha ha: http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/.
As a fellow Moldovan born and raised in Chishinau, I should be embarrassed to admit I have never heard of this video or this group before. But at least I understand the lyrics!
I was a YouTube late-comer. So I don’t if this is the first viral video I liked, but it’s my favorite, the OK Go’s “White Knuckles” single-take. Those dogs are adorable and if I recall, they had to do zillions of takes before they could get it all “perfect” in one shot (does that defeat the idea of “single” take?). Top that, catvertisers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHlJODYBLKs
Oops sorry for the typo “I don’t” meant to say “I don’t know”
@Corey and Heather: I was wondering if anyone would bring those two up; those are the first ones I remember, too (and pretty commonly the first ones on all the sites I looked up for this article). The other commonly cited one was an email-sent video that spawned an entertainment monolith: Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Santa versus Jesus video.
@Rodika: I LOVE OKgo. Because they are really good musicians as well as being totally ready to experiment with their videos.
oh gosh. my first viral video? Does my memory go back that far? I’m not sure… it all gets fuzzy, but I”m probably with @Kat and Heather on the Hamster Dance. There may Have been others. I also remember this one; so classic!!
These videos always make me wonder though; what was his motivation for submitting this online? I mean, we all view it as awesome now, but it takes a lot of guts to make something this personal out in public. He could easily have been just a laughing stock.
… I hear a very faint and annoying voice compelling me to write a paper on why viral videos like this are successful. Something about revealing the human condition, catharsis, making us feel okay with ourselves, and the sort of mind numbing sweet spot we’ve been talking about in regards to online gaming.
Like Rodika, I also was a late-comer to YouTube. But, I have been in the workforce for a long time. Before YouTube, which according to Wiki was first launched in 2005, some older technologies, like an animated .gif file embedded into an e-mail, went viral.
I don’t think we called those “viral,” though. We just thought the snippets of humor that broke up the monotony of what, at that time, had already become an overabundance of information streaming through the rudimentary digital landscape of e-mails and corporate intranets complete with horrendous “FrontPage” design templates and dancing bears.
Here’s what I’m talking about: does anyone remember the dancing Spiderman animated gif? http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f82/xana17banana/dancing/spiderman.gif
Apparently, it was uploaded in London the summer of 2002. That seems about right. It was circulated around my office via e-mail at a time when we were going through a painful, drawn-out reduction in force. The animation was humorous and light-hearted. I saved it for years for a good guffaw.
It doesn’t seem so funny anymore, but it sure does elicit a time and a place. Ahh, life was so much simpler before YouTube: the halcyon days of, what? I guess it is human nature to think that what went before was somehow more innocent or better. Although in the case of the viral YouTube Kat invoked, maybe the present ain’t so bad, after all!