Comments on: The First Viral Video?

By: hfhfdh

hfhfdh — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:46:47 +0000

Bubb Rubb and the Leprechaun in the tree were the first viral videos on YouTube, not Numa Numa.

By: Why making a viral video is challenging « The Trial Balloon

Why making a viral video is challenging « The Trial Balloon — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 11:23:15 +0000

[...] Yes, to the ears. But everything is easier than done. Everything is so interesting at first. And so, I admit that our group has been having some difficulties in making a viral video that is at par with the other viral videos circulating the Net. The first viral video that made its way to YouTube (more): [...]

By: Jeffrey Engel

Jeffrey Engel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:12:16 +0000

You forgot the “Troops” video, the spoof that mixed the documentary style of COPS with the universe of Star Wars. That video was being passed around like crazy on the web and via email (yes, back when people used email to send each other videos and stuff) around 1997 or thereabouts… this was when the web was breaking big and all the cool kids were finally sucking it up and getting internet accounts and email addresses.

By: Diddy Daddy

Diddy Daddy — Thu, 27 May 2010 02:48:03 +0000

The Star Wars Kid is no more of an original viral video than Numa Numa.

I agree that the Dancing Baby was a phenomenon, but the fact that it was popularized by Ally McBeal and others took away from its viral quality.

I went to college when T1 lines were just becoming popular on campuses. The biggest viral video of 1999 was probably the monkey sniffing its finger after sticking it in its butt.

To me, “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” represents the first truly viral sensation. You had a video that spawned clubs, websites, etc., and it had no help from the popular media. It was a viral sensation unto itself alone, and I will always consider the first viral video.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:04:13 +0000

And while it did predate YouTube, I think you’ve got to credit Star Wars Kid as the original viral video in the more modern definition of inspiring parody and meme-making. 3 years before YouTube and yet it still got huge as a video meme. That’s some viral power.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:59:18 +0000

Dancing Baby.

Not that Dancing Baby was the first video to be passed around the internet. But it was the first to escape the internet.

Sure, all of us in ’96 who had a 56K modem and patience passed around Exploding Whale. But that’s as far as it got. Dancing Baby? It got referenced on Ally McBeal, a Blockbuster Video commercial, Celebrity Death Match, and freaking 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Dancing Baby was the first video to make that leap from online pop culture to just pop culture.

By: Sue Rostvold

Sue Rostvold — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:35:38 +0000

Hi Whale Guts! Thanks for the comment. Guess I forgot to reply months ago.

I didn’t say that Numa Numa was the first viral video, merely the first viral video to really make the rounds on YouTube. And then, with the help of YouTube, thousands of people proceeded to make their own versions of Numa Numa, creating their own community. That’s the real phenomenon that happens when a single video get popular.

Do a search for Numa Numa and you’ll find over 100,000 videos. It’s pretty trippy.

I have to say that I never saw the two videos you mentioned. They both sound really gross though. I don’t think anyone tried to recreated those videos, that’s for sure.

By: Bowling for Business: Invasion of The Pod People « Bowling for Business

Bowling for Business: Invasion of The Pod People « Bowling for Business — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:51:05 +0000

[...] hottest ticket in the world of Internet marketing today is the viral video. The first video to go viral was a webcam recording of a stout young man singing Numa Numa, which has been viewed more than 35 [...]

By: Whale Guts

Whale Guts — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:15:26 +0000

Numa Numa was hardly the first viral video. Viral videos existed well before the existence of hosted video websites like Youtube.

If you recall, back in the 90′s, videos would be uploaded to a persons FTP server, and the URL would be sent via email. You must recall getting tons of email forwards from people with “YOU GOT TO CHECK THIS OUT” and such. With the click of a link, you’d be either watching a MOV file through the web browser, or MPG or AVI files through Winamp, Media Player and others. And this was back in the 90′s, not 2001 with that 405 “movie”.

Examples are endless, but ones I would receive multiple times in the spam of a year back in 1997 were:

Monkey Drinking His Own Pee
Beached Whale Exploded on Beach

By: Sue Rostvold

Sue Rostvold — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:52:17 +0000

Thanks Ross! I always welcome extra content for my posts. Nice comment.