viral videos

Featuring some of the latest Twitter and Facebook comments about Tosh.0.

That's a good one.

On Friday afternoon, we postedabout the painfully awful Rebecca Black song, "Friday."

I'm on the Internet all week.  So when the weekend hits, I pull my router out of the wall and enter a two-day red wine and Valium-induced coma.  I ended my workweek by putting "Friday" on Facebook, I shut down my computer and that was that.

But the Internet keeps rolling while I snooze, and a star was born.  The original vid racked up over 2 million views.  And here we are on Monday and Rebecca is still a trending topicon Twitter.

The web was flooded with earnest acoustic covers, remade music videos and all sorts of remixes.

Certainly it would be remiss of me to not provide at least a glimpse into all the fervor for those who didn't get their Rebecca Black fill over the weekend.  So I've put together a round-up of some of the best and most bizarre "Friday" covers.

But then I think it's time to lay this one to rest.  I was even inspired to write some parody lyrics of my own for a song called "Monday"…

It's Monday…  Monday…  I don't give a fuck on Monday…
Everybody's lookin' forward to the next thing… next thing…

Tons of links after the jump…

more...

The Fine Bros showed a group of kids popular viral videos then filmed their weird, funny, cute (and sometimes racist) reactions.

Boy do these kids say the darndest things! Like, in reference to killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan: "Who cares about them! They're not Americans!"

Young America! FUCK YEAH!

Please enjoy this mash-up of some of the best moments in Web Redemption. And get excited to see all-new Internet legends right their wrongs starting June 2nd!

Tay Zonday, the mastermind behind 2007's viral hit "Chocolate Rain" has released another song on YouTube called "MUSICOLIO" and let's just say it's no follow-up to a video with 49 million views.

I am afraid Tay has fallen into that trap that so many celebrities do. They make one blockbuster and then they're all like, "I'm Cuba Gooding, Jr., I have an Oscar. Check out my latest film, Daddy Day Camp. It's a sequel to an Eddie Murphy comedy!" You know that trap? Yeah you do, Nicholas Cage.

I hope Tay can find his Chocolate Rain magic again before the Internet dismisses him as a one-hitter.

T.Z. should stick with the deep manly-voiced singing we all know and love him for. Also, if he's figured out how to breathe without leaning away from the mic then I'm just not interested in watching.

Oh, Coffee Bean.  You came so close…

The grainy, shaky footage from a hand-held recorder.  The across the street choice of location.  The simple, improvisational acting and choice of performers.

You almost created a believable "viral" video with your "Coffee Bean vs. Tea Leaf" fight.  Almost.

But you made one big slip up.

You posted the video to a YouTube account called TheCoffeeBeanTeaLeaf with your corporate logo attached to it.  An account littered with other corporate videos like "Coffee Roasting @ The Coffee Bean®."

Well done.  That's like doing perfect clean up after you kill someone, but when you get called in for questioning, you have the murder weapon in your pocket.

Well done, marketing team.

[via Amy Oops]

Alright, follow me on this one…

Golden Grahams — yes, the cereal — has started their Golden Grant program at GoldenGrant.com.

The idea is — and pay close attention because this is TOTALLY LOGICAL — that it's hard to find a job in these tough economic times, so Golden Grahams is giving you the opportunity to win 12 free boxes of Golden Grahams — since you "can't succeed on an empty stomach" — if you share with them your "ridiculous job search story," which, by the way, they might animate into viral videos "so that other jobseekers can laugh along too."

Yikes.  Apparently, the stoners who eat Golden Grahams actually work for Golden Grahams.

Though I guess there is some inherent rationale to this whole mess.  The kind of people who can't handle getting a job probably are the same kind of people who would prefer to watch goofy animated videos online all day.

And if you are watching animated videos all day, you probably have a child-like mind-state, whereby regularly consuming Golden Grahams is a perfectly logical meal choice.

And awarding these people 12 boxes of Golden Grahams as a prize creates a "feedback loop" whereby these unemployable loons never fully progress to adulthood, allowing them to create more job search fail stories for Golden Grahams to animate, keeping these Golden Graham eaters watching online videos, assuring that they will be brainwashed into eating more Golden Grahams.

It's so stupid it just might work!

But seriously, Golden Grahams, you can't get away with calling 12 boxes of cereal a "grant."  That's just insane.

[via YepYep]

OK Go's lead singer Damian Kulash created the video above of 700 people doing the "Surprise Kitty" reaction at a SXSW seminar on "how to create a viral video."  I guess this is him showing one of the ways to do it?

Obviously, riffing on a previously established viral phenomenon is a great way to up your video's chance for viral success.  But it also doesn't hurt that 1) he's doing it at a major event like SXSW, 2) 700 people are watching it happen and can spread the word, and 3) he's the lead singer of a band already well known for creating viral videos.

It's similar to how having a website is a great way to promote yourself, but it's an even greater way to promote yourself if you are Justin Bieber.

Something makes me think if the A/V Club at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota tried this stunt it wouldn't have the same legs.

[via The Daily What]

Ever since hitting the web a year ago, any Net n00b would probably be advised to make Greg Rutter's Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet one of their first stops.  Featuring quick links to things like Grape Stomp Lady, Charlie Bit My Finger and Chocolate Rain, readers of YouShouldHaveSeenThis.com can catch up on a lifetime worth of Internet time-wasting in one easy-to-browse location.

Now, a year later, Greg is back with his "Second Definitive List" of 99 more things, not so surprisingly called YouShouldHaveAlsoSeenThis.com.

Have 99 must-sees really popped up in the past 365 days?

Well, some — like Play Him Off Keyboard Cat — are gimmes.  But can I survive without seeing the Flagpole Sitta Lipdub?  Probably.  (Though I think it's been well established that I am definitively against lipdubs.)

Still, for most people, narrowing down a year's worth of web into 99 links is probably preferable to searching the web for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Greg's actually doing us all a service, giving people back their free time so they can have a job, appease their girlfriends and attend their grandparents' funerals.  Thanks, Greg.

My only gripe about the list…  Where's Demi Moore's bush?!

While we were on hiatus, Surprised Kitty became a huge viral sensation, pushing towards 17 million views as I type this.

Last night, Daniel wondered aloud, "Is that all it takes to get a million hits?"

He's in!

Grab the embed code from the clip above and spread it all over the blogiverse!  (Now that the guy who coined the term blogoshpere died, I think it's time we moved on.)