sundance

This week’s top 5 trending viral videos

If you’re completely sick of all the coverage leading up to the Super Bowl, I’m here to provide you with some relief (9 out of 10 bloggers recommend it) with this week’s YouTube videos that seem to be gaining steam on the viral Internet train.

5. From the hilarious minds of one of my favorite channels on YouTube is this catchy and easy-to-sing song “Hapi Berth Dey.” It’s “about an Egyptian river god who finds a place to sleep atop two sheep” that also possibly doubles as an expression of his outrage of the misappropriation of copyright laws which legally also applies to a popular song traditionally sung to celebrate birthdays. Feel free to sing this new song coincidentally at your next birthday party!

Trend of elaborate marriage proposals. Stop!

Meme Proposal | Tim * Audrey from Crazy Monkey Studio on Vimeo.

One of my closest friends proposed to his girlfriend over the weekend. He did it neatly and simply. There was a time when a guy was ready to propose to his future wife, it was relatively simple for most: a walk somewhere or maybe at the restaurant of their first date, drop to your knee like Tim Tebow and bust out the ring. But nowadays, thanks to the Internet, some of the more creative fellas out there with their elaborate videos are starting to set people’s expectations of the proposal, to paraphrase Jimmy McMillan, too damn high!

5 perfect gifts for your “I’ve already seen that on the Internet” friend

I know for a fact that most of you have not finished (or even started) your holiday shopping due to that deadly virus known as procrastination. Well I’m here with a few unique gift suggestions for your impossible-to-shop-for loved ones.

1. For your “foodie” chef who is also obsessed with designers’ trendy incorporation of brass knuckles, I recommend this brass knuckle shaped meat pounder.

2. One of my favorite online memes to emerge has been the Sad Keanu Reeves meme, and if you’re shopping for a “Redditor” or someone who hasn’t met a meme they didn’t like (hint: me), then this toy model of Sad Keanu Reeves is perfect.

Feminist Ryan Gosling

We never really understood the whole Ryan Gosling thing – he seemed kind of like a pompous, pretentious ac-tor with zero sense of humor. That is, until we saw him on Ellen in onesie pajamas on a stationary bike. Boy, were we schooled then. Now we’re on board – well, we’re not on board the crazy train of Gosling fandom, but we’re at the station admiring from afar. For example, we’re not so gaga for Gosling that we could tell you exactly where the whole “Hey Girl” meme came from. (According to Jezebel: “Apparently, the basic concept…

Planking in the 1950s

This old LIFE Magazine photo of students partaking in “phone booth stuffing,” which was all the rage in the 1950s, also foretold the lying down game and later the planking phenomenon that went wildly viral this year. I think it demonstrates how memes, like fashion, are derivative of one another. As a big fan of the documentary format, someone needs to produce a TV series or film on the history of off-line and online fads and memes. In fact, I’d like to see a Ken Burns treatment on this topic (I’m not joking at all). BRB: Creating a Kickstarter campaign to hire Ken Burns.

BLACK SWAN, intentionally funny

I know, I know. Yes, I have a penchant for posting hilarious YouTube videos on this blog probably far too often. But wait! Seriously, I have discovered a girl who is so freaking funny, I cannot even stand it. Please let me introduce you to Gloria Shuri Nava. With a name like that you better be fierce!

Memes of 2010 in one minute

Know Your Meme 2010 Year in Review (Minnit To Winnit Acoustic House Remix) from Rocketboom on Vimeo. Rocketboom put together this video acting out all memes and virals of 2010 in one minute. A can of Four Loko on me to anyone who can name them all.

Go deeper with memes of INCEPTION

A follow-up to Perrin’s review of the summer hit film INCEPTION, which blew a lot of people’s minds and had them questioning and wanting to do a deeper dive. As a result, the film has inspired the Internets and produced many memes (one of which is seen above). I’ve compiled some of them here. Warning – there be spoilers ahead!

100 things that defined the 2000s

As we quickly approach the final year of the first decade of the 21st century, the blog “You aught to remember” is getting an early start and “counting the 100 trends, fashions, memes, personalities and ideas that shaped the first decade of the 21st Century.” I think I’ll caveat that this cheeky list is more [...]

Meme scenes minimized

Andy Baio isolated the backgrounds of famous (or infamous) videos or photos that went on to become Internet memes and legends by removing the subjects from them. This brilliant exercise if anything validates their seat in the pantheon of viral Internet memes. Can you name them all? [Via]