Gabriel Delahaye at Videogum has come to the conclusion that we may have already seen the golden age of internet viral videos, like the epic weirdo tour de force embedded above. "It was in 2006, and it was great," he says, "But it's all downhill from here on out" From his blog post:
In a recent post, I made a throwaway joke about how sometimes the internet works really hard to provide us with something new, and sometimes it just lays some Sarah Palin audio on top of some Miss South Carolina footage and calls it a day. As an example of a viral video in which the internet surprised us with its cleverness and ingenuity, I linked to the "Valentine for a Perfect Stranger" video. If you haven't seen it, it's one of the funniest and also weirdest viral videos in the short but storied history of viral videos. In fact, I would be hard pressed to think of another viral video that is as uniquely odd and wonderful.
In that same recent post, I linked to a few viral videos as examples of the internet's ingenuity. They were just the videos that stood out in my mind as being exceptional. You know, the viral video that is more than just some kid farting a powder cloud or a kitten that is also a ninja. The one you talk to your friends about. And what I discovered is that all of them were posted to YouTube in 2006. Begging the question, has the golden age of viral video already passed? Are we now living in its decline?
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Xeni, do you find yourself asking kids to get of your lawn lately?
I will admit that I find viral videos to be a bit underwhelming (thank you Sloan) lately, but I personally think it’s just the volume of terrible ones.
IMHO – the ninja-cat thing was very funny.
@RedMonkey and others, quit hassling me dude, just because I post someone else’s premise doesn’t mean the premise is my own. Gabe wrote this piece, it’s an interesting set of ideas, I’m blogging it, consider the argument and just enjoy the silly videos. I believe the best is yet to come. For fck’s sake, 2008 gave us La Pequeña Prohibida!
Maybe it’s just not possible for independently produced wacky vids to get much traction when they are competing against stuff like “…and this is the system we’re saving?”. That one has been making the rounds pretty heavily.
Or maybe you’ve been out of the loop since 2006? I dunno… I remember the old xerox underground that pre-dated the internet, where people passed around horribly grainy faxed copies-of-copies-of-etc. that had the latest viral visual on ’em. I was never “cool enough” to be in the loop, though, I just saw ’em on other people’s walls.
–Charlie
wow….
2006 gave us La Caida de Edgar!
I’ve mentioned the ninja kitten to several friends. The ones who have cats.
The auteur’s poignant invocation of Walter Benjamin led me to wonder if I had unfairly avoided the sit-com “Perfect Strangers” the whole of my life…
Gert orffff my lawwwwwwn!
The videos may have been posted to YouTube in 2006, but where they actually made in 2006? IMHO, the current wave of viral video began with South Park, and has only accelerated since.
If there’s a reason that so many videos were uploaded in 2006 it is because 2006 was the golden age of YouTube, not of viral video overall.
Maybe it just takes about two years for a video to go viral.
The valentine video was just dumb, junior high school humor dumb. I’m not sure I can listen to opinions from someone who thought that was the funniest, weirdest and most wonderful video ever.
The ninja cat made me laugh.
I totally do not agree with the above assessment that there has been a golden age/peak of viral videos. I feel that viral videos are, in and of themselves, unaware of being such. I think that people will are still and will still be generating true viral videos because the key ingredient in true virals, not post-modern Bob Odenkirk riffs on the form, but true viral videos incorporate the use of the technology of internet video/home recording without the goal of gaining influence or fame. Local Access TV personalities, grandmas who video tape something weird and bizarre only to have it pirated by little Johnny to be posted on the YouTube, etc.. Essentially, people aware of their ability to post video yet all together unaware of the fact that there are enough crazy youtubers to blow up their spot on the web, those will continue to generate true viral videos all thanks to the digital divide. I suspect the majority of these old-wave, non-post-modern viral videos will come from the aging boomers who still call their 24 year old sons and ask them how to copy and paste emails.
-youtube.com/blakebuesnel
Well, I do see what you mean…
But…But… The ninja kitty! XD
I laugh every time!!
Viral videos? Pffff… Those are SOOOO 2006!
Pssht. I’d say Dancing Baby or Viking Kittens were the first viral videos. And before the age of the Internet I remember seeing Bambi vs. Godzilla and The Wizard Of Speed And Time in grainy reel-to-reel copies. Kids today think video didn’t exist before YouTube (getoffmylan)
“The golden age”? . . . hmmmm. . . .
I think that after the first big blast of viral videos in early years of youtube, EVERYBODY thought they could make some internet-hit-video, and so people who were either lazy or just not very talented started putting up videos of their dog chasing his tail backed with any pop song that had “round and round” in the chorus (Ratt and Dead or Alive come to mind). So it’s not so much that a golden age has come and gone, but that it’s harder to find truly good videos now because there’s so much crap out there gumming up the works. There may in fact be more genius videos out there but they don’t “go viral” because they are ignored. If someone sends me a link to a video on youtube it might very well be a work of minor genius, but I’ve been burned before with so many “mildly cute” videos that chances are I won’t even click the link.
Gosh, this takes me back. Such a simple time. Such fond, sepia toned memories of a bygone era. Today’s generation just doesn’t understand. Sniff..
Several years ago, the people putting videos up on the internet were truly driven to do so. (These were the first videos to make it to YouTube in ’06, creating the illusion of a golden age.)
Now it’s easy to upload any old thing without a great effort. YouTube has proliferated, camcorders are cheaper, and more people have access to cheap/free video editing software like iMovie.
The good videos still exist–it’s simply harder to find them.
Xeni, do you find yourself asking kids to get of your lawn lately?
I will admit that I find viral videos to be a bit underwhelming (thank you Sloan) lately, but I personally think it’s just the volume of terrible ones.
IMHO – the ninja-cat thing was very funny.
@RedMonkey and others, quit hassling me dude, just because I post someone else’s premise doesn’t mean the premise is my own. Gabe wrote this piece, it’s an interesting set of ideas, I’m blogging it, consider the argument and just enjoy the silly videos. I believe the best is yet to come. For fck’s sake, 2008 gave us La Pequeña Prohibida!
Maybe it’s just not possible for independently produced wacky vids to get much traction when they are competing against stuff like “…and this is the system we’re saving?”. That one has been making the rounds pretty heavily.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=and+this+is+the+system+we%27re+saving
Or maybe you’ve been out of the loop since 2006? I dunno… I remember the old xerox underground that pre-dated the internet, where people passed around horribly grainy faxed copies-of-copies-of-etc. that had the latest viral visual on ’em. I was never “cool enough” to be in the loop, though, I just saw ’em on other people’s walls.
–Charlie
wow….
2006 gave us La Caida de Edgar!
I’ve mentioned the ninja kitten to several friends. The ones who have cats.
The auteur’s poignant invocation of Walter Benjamin led me to wonder if I had unfairly avoided the sit-com “Perfect Strangers” the whole of my life…
Gert orffff my lawwwwwwn!
The videos may have been posted to YouTube in 2006, but where they actually made in 2006? IMHO, the current wave of viral video began with South Park, and has only accelerated since.
If there’s a reason that so many videos were uploaded in 2006 it is because 2006 was the golden age of YouTube, not of viral video overall.
Maybe it just takes about two years for a video to go viral.
The valentine video was just dumb, junior high school humor dumb. I’m not sure I can listen to opinions from someone who thought that was the funniest, weirdest and most wonderful video ever.
The ninja cat made me laugh.
I totally do not agree with the above assessment that there has been a golden age/peak of viral videos. I feel that viral videos are, in and of themselves, unaware of being such. I think that people will are still and will still be generating true viral videos because the key ingredient in true virals, not post-modern Bob Odenkirk riffs on the form, but true viral videos incorporate the use of the technology of internet video/home recording without the goal of gaining influence or fame. Local Access TV personalities, grandmas who video tape something weird and bizarre only to have it pirated by little Johnny to be posted on the YouTube, etc.. Essentially, people aware of their ability to post video yet all together unaware of the fact that there are enough crazy youtubers to blow up their spot on the web, those will continue to generate true viral videos all thanks to the digital divide. I suspect the majority of these old-wave, non-post-modern viral videos will come from the aging boomers who still call their 24 year old sons and ask them how to copy and paste emails.
-youtube.com/blakebuesnel
Well, I do see what you mean…
But…But… The ninja kitty! XD
I laugh every time!!
Viral videos? Pffff… Those are SOOOO 2006!
Pssht. I’d say Dancing Baby or Viking Kittens were the first viral videos. And before the age of the Internet I remember seeing Bambi vs. Godzilla and The Wizard Of Speed And Time in grainy reel-to-reel copies. Kids today think video didn’t exist before YouTube (getoffmylan)
“The golden age”? . . . hmmmm. . . .
I think that after the first big blast of viral videos in early years of youtube, EVERYBODY thought they could make some internet-hit-video, and so people who were either lazy or just not very talented started putting up videos of their dog chasing his tail backed with any pop song that had “round and round” in the chorus (Ratt and Dead or Alive come to mind). So it’s not so much that a golden age has come and gone, but that it’s harder to find truly good videos now because there’s so much crap out there gumming up the works. There may in fact be more genius videos out there but they don’t “go viral” because they are ignored. If someone sends me a link to a video on youtube it might very well be a work of minor genius, but I’ve been burned before with so many “mildly cute” videos that chances are I won’t even click the link.
Gosh, this takes me back. Such a simple time. Such fond, sepia toned memories of a bygone era. Today’s generation just doesn’t understand. Sniff..
Several years ago, the people putting videos up on the internet were truly driven to do so. (These were the first videos to make it to YouTube in ’06, creating the illusion of a golden age.)
Now it’s easy to upload any old thing without a great effort. YouTube has proliferated, camcorders are cheaper, and more people have access to cheap/free video editing software like iMovie.
The good videos still exist–it’s simply harder to find them.
There’s no such thing as a golden age.