By: Lili Samios, Dagney Palmer, and Erica Walker
LEESBURG, VA- No matter how pointless a viral video can be, the number of views it has can be as high as 3,130,000. YouTube was created by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen; according to an article called “The YouTube Gurus” in Time magazine, the three founders first met each other at PayPal, an internet designer’s ideal job. YouTube’s first video was uploaded online in February 2005. Within the year, YouTube received a large amount of sponsors for the website and in December of 2005, about 500 million people had visited the website. Since then, YouTube members have been uploading a video each 24 hours (according to the YouTube channel itself). Some videos that are completely pointless turn into internet sensations, such as the viral videos that we have selected below…
“Nyan Cat”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4
The Nyan cat includes a non-stop singing cat/pop-tart that is flying in the night sky. The video was made on April 5, 2011 and has over 58,000,000 views. Since this video was uploaded, the once tiny pop-tart cat has been re-created by other users to extend the length of the video. Someone uploaded a video of the Nyan cat singing for 10 hours. Some people have too much time on their hands.
“EHarmony Video Bio”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTwcCVajAc
You think the Nyan cat is annoying? Think again. This video is made by a girl named Debbie who is looking for somebody to love; she starts to explain her personality when all of a sudden she brings up her love for cats. During the process she bursts into tears and describes her need for a furry feline friend. Apparently, like other YouTubers’ viral vids, this video isn’t real. Despite the non-reality of it, the video has received almost 20,000,000 views.
“Chuck Testa”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJP1DphOWPs
Chuck Testa is a real man who owns a real taxidermy business. Early last year he decided to post an advertisement for his business on YouTube. This video is his real advertisement. The video soon went viral, with many remixes, parodies, and even a meme. The original video has 9,893,097 views.
“Honey Badger”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
“The Crazy Nasty*** Honey Badger” is an original narration by Randall, an emerging YouTube star who narrates nature videos in an entertaining way. This video, with 31,558,853 views, is about the honey badger and its many talents, including fighting snakes, chasing off hyenas, and taking what it wants. Honey Badger don’t care if you like the video. (Caution: this video contains language that may be inappropriate for some viewers.)
