Viral Videos: Five Internet Phenomenon of Internet Past

Tue, Oct 7, 2008, by ChainPrayer

Video

The internet is cluttered with useless material. Every once in a while a video will become a huge hit, even if it is the most ridiculous video ever. I have compiled the most popular videos that have come and gone over the years.

The internet is cluttered with useless material. Every once in a while a video will become a huge hit, even if it is the most ridiculous video ever. I have compiled the most popular videos that have come and gone over the years.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

[Watch]

This video came around in 2001. It was inspired by a very bad translation of the Japanese video game Zero Wing. Its poor quality led to the animation and song that became so popular all over the net.

The Hamster Dance

[Watch]

This one has a very interesting story. Back in 1998 three friends had a competition to see who could generate the most traffic on a web page. Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte decided to create a web page based on her pet hamster Hampton. Using a series of animations and an audio clip from Disney’s Robin Hood, she created her simple but hit web page.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

[Watch]

Based upon a song of the same name recorded by the DJ Chipman, the best known version of the animation shows a heavily pixelated animated dancing banana moving back and forth to the song’s repetitive chorus. In some versions of the animation, the song’s lyrics are displayed on screen.

Badger Badger Badger!

[Watch]

Hitting one of the Top 5 Fads by PC World, this animation first came to the net in 2003. It is a short but looping animation consisting of badgers, mushrooms, and snakes. There have been several follow ups to this animation which can be found all over the net.

Numa Numa

[Watch]

Our last video is possibly one of the best known videos online. The Numa Numa Dance, as performed by Gary Brolsma, was viewed more than two million times just months after it was posted online. Gary dances and sings along to the song “Dragostea din tei” by the Moldovan pop group O-Zone.

Keep watching for those new videos that crawl their way to the top. Competition is fierce now. A video has to have all the right (or wrong) stuff to make it online. You never know what you might find, but you know it will make you laugh!

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6 Comments For This Post

  1. BC Doan Says:

    Great collection, and fun to see!

  2. thestickman Says:

    I liked Hamster Dance. :-)

    re:…”Deidre LaCarte decided to create a web page based on his pet hamster Hampton. Using a series of animations and an audio clip from Disney’s Robin Hood, she created her simple but hit web page.”

    ..”based on HIS” versus “SHE created HER…”

    Which is it? ;-)

    Kewl article, saw a few favorites.

  3. chainprayer Says:

    lol oops. correction submitted :)

  4. goodselfme Says:

    Hamster dance was so much fun to watch. What a talent to create something like that. You state many unique things here. Thank you.

  5. C. Jordan Says:

    Thanks haven@t seen any of those before except for the last one in a TV programme

  6. Oliver Treend Says:

    RickRoll would have to be the 6th viral video. But it probably wasn’t popular when you wrote this article, so I’ll forgive you ;-)

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