[Note: The following should have posted on Dec 30.]
There’s nothing like a good viral video to add a chuckle to your day, and 2010 had a lot of chuckles to share. This was probably the first year that I noticed YouTube videos making it onto the “real” news fairly regularly. As we now live in a world in which documenting our lives is de rigueur, lots of the small moments of victory and humiliation (that used to be private moments) are up for public consumption, ridicule, imitation and inspiration. Just a quick upload to YouTube and a forward to a few well-chosen email lists and voila!, fame or infamy is yours. Many times, we watch these videos because they provide some minor evidence that, comparatively speaking anyway, we’re not as crazy/weird/unlucky/ idiosycratic as we thought we were. (I like to call those the “Above-Average Confirmation Videos.”) Other times, though, we are drawn to the ones that seem to validate our place, great or small, in the world and in that beautifully odd race of advanced monkeys that we affectionately call Humanity. Here are my picks for the best viral videos of 2010:
1. Bad Sportsmanship Never Looked So Good
You don’t even have to know much about the rules of football to appreciate the Bad News Bears brilliance of Driscoll Middle School’s football play. The offensive coach protests from the sidelines that a five-yard penalty hadn’t been counted. So, the quartback takes the ball from the center and pretends to walk off the five yards. Only, once he’s past the defensive line, he takes off down the field and runs for a touchdown. Bad sportsmanship? Maybe. But awesome nonetheless. Special kudos go to the pint-size defensive end who realizes the play is live and chases– almost catches!– the sly quaterback. I can just see the coach at the post-game meeting, taking a slug from a can of Natty Light, turning to his team and slurring: “JUST like we drew it up in the locker room, boys!”
2. Making an Entire Mountain Range Out of a Molehill
You may not know where Stark County is. (It’s in Ohio.) You may not know what the problems with the Stark County Treasury are. (It’s corrupt.) You may not even know who Phil Davidson is. (A complete loony-tune.) But, by God, Davidson is here to tell you everything you need to know, and HE WILL NOT APOLOGIZE FOR HIS TONE. Desparate times require desparate measures, to be sure. And there’s no one more desperate than Phil Davidson.
3. They Rapin’ Errrbody Out Herr
You know, it’s really not right to find humor in other people’s misfortunes. But when said unfortunate people’s brothers show up and put on a performance like this… well, just watch for yourself. Almost better than this video is the Antoine Dodson remix, which became so popular that you could even purchase it on iTunes. That’s, like, double viral.
4. Bieber Fever
I’ll admit it, I just don’t get what all the hoopla over Justin Bieber is about. However, I have a 7=yr-old niece with a full-blown case of Bieber Fever and so I’ve seen the symptoms up close and personal. This little girl was almost lost to the disease until late-night host Jimmy Kimmel stepped in with the cure for what ailed her: the dreamboy himself.
