The rituals of Christmas morning on YouTube

Well, another Christmas has come and gone: The excitement, traditions, and rituals of Christmas morning which were private and unique to each family has now become a source of public entertainment thanks to YouTube, Facebook, online communities, and the countless other vehicles for information sharing and connecting on the Interwebs. We all remember popping up on Christmas morning as a kid (at an ungodly hour in retrospect) with a rapturous and feverish glee, forcing our parents to wake up, and then euphorically opening the presents which had contained all of our hopes and dreams at the time. The difference nowadays is that this crackhead-like (if I may use that phrase here) exhilaration and joy of children on Christmas morning is now a source for millions of views on YouTube. Unless you’re a modern day Rip Van Winkle, you’ve all seen this priceless reaction video of this kid opening his Christmas present to discover a Nintendo 64 or as he screamed “a Nintendo Sixty-Foooooour. OH MY GAWD.” Yeah, that video has over 15 million views on YouTube. Bookending the Nintendo 64 kid is this classic video where a new Nintendo Wii on Christmas morning is too much to handle for the lucky boy or in this instance, utter hilarity for the adults.

Like these two videos I mentioned, each Christmas brings the rest of us a few more videos that enters our collective consciousness.

The key to viral success: Lose your expensive electronics

how to lose $2400 in 24 seconds from Kurtis Hough on Vimeo.

The spread and adoption of online social networks over the past few years have been accompanied by a rise of instances of vigilant members of those communities virally coming together to help one of their own, in this case recovering stolen goods (typically some form of personal consumer electronics that originates from Cupertino). Earlier this year Josh Kaufman’s Apple MacBook stolen from his Oakland apartment. With the help of a laptop tracking software that he had installed, Josh was able to remotely access his stolen computer and its built-in camera to snap photos of the thief himself. With this information in hand, he opened a Tumblr called This Guy Has My MacBook where he chronicled his attempts to recover his laptop. It received minimal attention until Josh tweeted it at which point it organically blew up where the story and his Tumblr virally spread like wildfire. The ensuing press eventually forced the city police into action and Josh was able to reunite with his MacBook.

Similarly, Massachusetts college student Mark Bao used another tracking app on his stolen MacBook Air which he used to grab and tweet this video of the thief recording himself pop and lock dancing (LOL!).

Haikus everywhere, 5-7-5 all around, you just read one here

Over the past year or so I’ve observed haikus, that “less is more” form of Japanese poetry, making a quiet stealthy encroachment and presence upon online pop culture through a variety of means. Some of these I’ve mentioned around these SUNfiltered parts, which makes me wonder whether we’re witnessing an emergence of haikus and a comeback for the genre of poems in general back into something possibly more mainstream or at the least “meme-stream.” I had written earlier about a reader of the New York Times online edition who has gained some small measure of fame for his comments left in limerick form. The best recent example of the merging of pop culture with poetry occurred when Salman Rushdie tweeted his thoughts on the Kim Kardashian divorce in limerick form. In fact, the latest issue of New York Magazine’s Intelligencer focused on the poets or at least on the tough economic realities of that noble profession (Walt Whitman had a second job as a government clerk). If you’re not convinced of my thesis on the pop emergence of poems, but specifically haikus, I turn your attention to the following exhibits.

Gif.TV

I’ve previously shared the rise of .gif animated images, which have crawled out of “the seedier corners of the Internet, in profiles of message board users and the like” and “have started to emerge as a medium of some artistic merit in their own right.” A sub-genre of .gifs have been given the fancy pants title of “cinemagraphs.” As an example, check out these 30 cinemagraphs from Kubrick films.

GIF.TV brilliantly jumps on this digital bandwagon. It’s your one-stop-shop to view .gifs within the familiar medium of a TV set. Flip the switches to find new, randomized .gifs, which are occasionally breathtaking in its artistry, but, more often than not, are simply hilarious in their repetition.

What President Obama’s signature looks like

Robert “the Doodler” Alicea at DeviantArt noticed something about President Obama’s signature and brought it to life with the above sketch. His signature is an adorable pup T-Rex playing with a ball of yarn. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. [Via]

The “trick shot” video trend

In 2011 so far there’s been a trend of “trick shot” videos recorded by various college and professional athletes from all sports and uploaded to YouTube where The Internet collectively goes “ooh,” “ahh,” and “holy sh*t!” at their leet skills. My favorite so far is the one above by Brodie Smith that demonstrates he can [...]

Artsy animated GIF images

GIF images have historically resided in the seedier corners of the Internet, in profiles of message board users and the like, but these looping animated images have started to emerge as a medium of some artistic merit in their own right. New York City photographer Jamie Beck and designer Kevin Burg have gained some viral [...]

Can you do nothing for 2 minutes?

Do Nothing for 2 Minutes is a website challenges you to do nothing-at least nothing on your computer-for two (excruciating) minutes. The site creator Alex Tew explains: I had been thinking how we spend every waking minute of the day with access to an unlimited supply of information, to the point of information overload. i [...]

Chuck Norris street art

Hilarious street art that continues the Chuck Norris meme. [Via]

Cats who look like Ron Swanson

Cats Who Look Like Ron Swanson is a meme that combines two of the Internets favorite things: cats and Ron Swanson. And if you still haven’t watched Parks and Recreation, I suggest you do so immediately unless you enjoy living a life devoid of laughter. Also, here’s one of the show’s breakout stars Aziz Ansari [...]

Young Me Now Me

There’s a popular website Young Me Now Me devoted to a meme where people submit photos of their now grown-up selves in the same pose as a photo from their youth. It’s generally a touching juxtaposition, but one Redditor took this meme to a disturbing place. He explains how it came about: Mom: Merry Christmas! [...]

Blah blah blah movies

In the spirit of Mad Men’s Don Draper “What?” video or LOST’s “6 seasons of Sawyer saying ‘son of a bitch’” comes this compilation of clips from various movies with people and characters saying “blah blah blah.”

All of Billy Joel’s greatest hits played at once

Apropos of nothing other than the fact that I predict this will be the start of a trend with other greatest hit albums, you can now check off listening to all of Billy Joel’s greatest hit songs played simultaneously. I am not responsible for any bleeding of the ear that may occur. When I was [...]

Kim Jong Il looking at things

Kim Jong Il Looking At Things is a single serve Tumblr site devoted to The Dear Leader…looking at things. As my high school friend Jason commented, “It’s kinda beautiful in a way. Too bad he’s a tyrant. And he lives on Mars.” I really do wish China would step in and put him and his [...]

Most Popular Words of 2010

The Global Language Monitor, a service that tracks and analyzes language trends released their list of the most popular words used in 2010. Unsurprisingly one of my favorite memes of 2010 made the cut: Vuvuzela. In case you just woke up from a coma, that was the horn that buzzed in South Africa throughout this [...]

Maru the cat’s latest box adventures

Maru, the Japanese star of the video LOLcat genre (previously) is back: This time the owner runs an experiment to see just how small of a box is too small for Maru. Just to give you a sense of how popular this cat is, the video was posted on November 11 and it already has [...]

Caturdays at NYPL

The New York Public Library’s Tumblr posted the first of a weekend segment that jumps on the Caturday meme (a day devoted to LOLcats) by using material from their photo archives, such as the picture above. The file copy affixed to the back of the photo is amusing: Susie, the famous smiling kitten, expresses annoyance [...]

How many different ways can Don Draper say “What?”

For those of you going through withdrawal now that Mad Men’s latest season has come to a close, here’s semi-related YouTube video someone put together of Don Draper uttering the word “what” in the first four seasons. Don Draper uses the word “what” as Van Gogh used color or Beethoven used sound. Here’s the man [...]

“Cigar Man” unmasked

The Daily Mail tracked down the cigar man at the Ryder Cup whose funny appearance went viral thanks to this amazing photo of Tiger Woods’ errant chip shot hitting a photographer’s camera lens. The cigar smoking spectator in question caught the fancy of amateur Photoshoppers on the Internet who had a lot of fun with [...]

LEGO version of Sad Keanu Reeves

The Sad Keanu Reeves meme has been circulating around the Internet for awhile with no signs of it going away, and New York Magazine’s Vulture blog finally asked the actor about this meme, which he was unfamiliar with. He did seem to be a good sport about it once it was explained to him. He [...]

Cheat

I looked up “cheat” in the dictionary and found this photo. As the crowd at Reddit pointed out, on top of all that ridiculous pro-gear, he’s OVER THE START LINE. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve officially crossed the “friendly competition where everyone gets a trophy for finishing” line. His parents must be [...]

A pictoral guide to avoiding camera loss

Predating the (fake) “cute girl who quits job on a dry eraseboard” which hit a collective nerve and went rapidly viral earlier this summer is this funny “pictoral guide to avoiding camera loss” by Andrew McDonald, which he claims he keeps on his digital camera to ensure its proper return to the owner if it’s [...]

Latest meme: a doe, a deer, a prancing Cera

This kinda hilarious photo of a-leaping and a-prancing Michael Cera has emerged above the heap to become the latest Internet meme among bored Photoshoppers around the world. View their collective efforts at this single serve Tumblr site, fuckyeahprancingcera. And a best of here.