86 YouTube Memes

Posted by Miel | Inspiration, Musings, Social | Saturday 28 November 2009 4:37 PM

I first joined YouTube when it was just a few months old, and I’d spend days and days uploading all the videos I came across on the web, just to have them all in one place. But then in May 2006 I closed my account because the service became waaaay too slow because of the increase of popularity (which for YouTube was a good thing, I agree). A little while later my account was deleted because of a cofyright infringement things. Well, actually an advertising agency asked YouTube to take down the clip I had uploaded because they owned the rights to it. It was an awareness clip to prevent drunk driving. That was my strike three at YouTube, so I got banned and all content got removed. Back then, agencies were not really aware yet of the power of social networks, I guess. So they didn’t like extra publicity. Anyway long story short, I joined again a while ago and I have to agree now that Google has taken the wheel stuff is going smooth as a baby’s behind. A couple of hours of tubing every here and there, I archived all the video pages I had bookmarked for reference in a dedicated fav folder.

The most interesting playlist when it comes to the field of my professional activities, and I assume that’s the reason why you’re here, is the Memes playlist. I’ve archived 86 YouTube memes over time. These are -the- clips that have caused spikes in traffic to the site, things that were hugely popular and some got hundreds of video responses from members of the YouTube community. Often they are remarkable news facts or just downright stupid things. Others are just ‘epic’. Obviously I’m not going to embed all clips in this post, but I’ll line up the text links to the video pages. I have not listed them by popularity, fyi.

I’ve compiled the list for me as a reference, just to browse them every once in a while when I’m looking for an inspirational spark.

The disturbing news to us, marketeers, is that if a company or brand asks you: “What would be the best viral for YouTube?”, you can answer them straight away: it would have to be something that features a crossbreed between a kitten, a hamster, a chipmunk and a panda- and it should at least ride a unicycle. Preferably it can breakdance and laugh while it is dressed up as tron guy or Rick Astley.
And now the challenge is to find a way to link that to a product.

  1. Chocolate Rain
  2. Charlie The Unicorn
  3. Diet Coke + Mentos
  4. Numa Numa
  5. 2 Guys + System Of A Down
  6. Peanut Butter Jelly Time
  7. Yatta!
  8. Star Wars Kid
  9. The whistles go… whoo whoo
  10. Dramatic Chipmunk
  11. G.I. Joe Pork Chop Sandwich
  12. Skateboarding Dog
  13. David After Dentist
  14. RickRoll’D
  15. Shining
  16. Gangsta Barney
  17. Winnebago Man
  18. All Your Base Are Belong To Us
  19. Boom Goes The Dynamite
  20. Where The Hell Is Matt?
  21. Leprechaun in Mobile Alabama
  22. Bert & Ernie Gangsta Rap
  23. Christian the Lion
  24. PowerThirst
  25. Baby Breakdance
  26. Apple ad: Drunk Jeff Goldblum
  27. Scarlet takes a tumble
  28. Britain’s got talent: Susan Boyle
  29. Gay Mount Everest
  30. Afro Ninja
  31. Orgeon’s Exploding Whale
  32. I’m The Juggernaut Bitch
  33. Laughing Baby
  34. Leave Britney Alone!
  35. Tron Guy
  36. Cop shoots himself in the leg
  37. Spaghetti Cat
  38. Miss Teen 2007 USA
  39. The Pet Pengiun
  40. Student Tasered in Florida
  41. Bill O’Reilly flips
  42. Take On Me – Literal video
  43. Tom Cruise kills Oprah
  44. Little Superstar
  45. Chad Vader S1E1 – A Galaxy not so far away
  46. Pretty much everywhere
  47. Zombie Kid likes turtles
  48. Who Needs A Movie?
  49. Look at that horse
  50. Flea Market Montgomery
  51. Hitler plans Burning Man
  52. Aussie Party
  53. Hawaii Chair infomercial
  54. Jake E. Lee Shreds
  55. Asian Back Street Boys
  56. Leeroy Jenkins
  57. Pinky the cat
  58. Monkey Finger Sniff
  59. Sneezing Baby Panda
  60. Thriller Choreo
  61. La pequena prohibida
  62. Matrix Ping Pong
  63. Katana sword commercial goes wrong
  64. Kitten Surprise, how to break up a cat fight
  65. Best Wedding Song Ever – Amy’s Song
  66. Techno Viking, the original
  67. HyperActive Lasse Gjertsen
  68. Daft Hands
  69. Battle At Kruger
  70. OK GO – Here it goes again
  71. Evolution Of Dance
  72. Angry German Kid
  73. Guiness World Record: Most T-Shirts
  74. Floating dog in a plane
  75. Chubby cuppy cake boy
  76. George Washington
  77. Scary Maze Prank
  78. Gay Funny Referee
  79. Hamster on a piano
  80. Robot Chicken – Grand Theft Mario
  81. Social Media Addicts
  82. Facebook in real life
  83. Reporter turns ghetto in 3
  84. Bear trampoline
  85. Jizz in my pants
  86. Tea Partay

And eventually, as my buddy Kris already posted earlier, if you don’t have time to see them all, here’s the famous viral: 100 greatest internet videos in 3 minutes. It covers about 70% of the list above. It adds quite a few epic others that weren’t in my list though.

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