Webbies and Viral Videos

The 30-second bunnies theatre was nominated for a Webby award for animation. Other nominees include: the Heavenly Sword series by Ben Hibon from Blink Productions which are actually cinematics for a video game of the same name (Ben Hibon also did the short film Codehunters for MTV), New Yorker animated cartoons from Ring Tales, and Samurai from GE Imagination Studios.

Why mention these you ask? To explain how I came across the interesting Webby category of viral videos. Internet videos that have become so wildly popular so fast that it's like, well, a virus. They don't have to be good, it's a popularity contest pure and simple. Anyway, the nominees were BalconyTV, Chocolate Rain, Here Comes Another Bubble, I Got A Crush On Obama, and Tony vs. Paul.

Chocolate Rain seems to be the Mom fave pick. The Obama girl was actually featured on Saturday Night Live a while back (that's the only one of these that I've seen referenced in outside pop culture). The bubble one is fun, try and pick out how many of the pictures you recognize. I would add some videos like the Facebook Anthem, the Leave Britney Alone guy, the Daft Hands video, that kid who can play Guitar Hero on expert, and of course the Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See and those are just some of the 2007/2008 recent ones that I know of. Remember old ones like the evolution of dance, the star wars kid, or OK Go on treadmills? There are several websites out there dedicated to spreading viral videos (just google "viral video" and you'll find some). I didn't bother putting links to any of these videos because they are so extremely easy to find (that's the point so YouTube it yourself dang it). Hey, and maybe comment with your favorite viral video or any obvious ones that are sweet that I missed!

Most viral videos are either about sex (surprise surprise), or showcase some sort of football-in-the-groin-esque mockery of intelligence and have only gained popularity because of same (hey it's what sells). However, the ones that last more than a day tend to be funny (even clever), showcase some sort of obscure talent (stupid human tricks), or even make us think about issues (*Gasp*). Some have even managed to enter into more mainstream pop culture references so you end up watching them in order to avoid giving a blank stare to the world when you encounter them. It goes the other way around too, many viral videos are commercials, music videos, TV and movie clips, or spoofs of all of the above. It seems, like the common cold, you can try your best to avoid them but you'll catch one once in a while.