How did an interview recorded 40 years ago win a 2009 Emmy? We have a long gestation time, YouTube, and peace to thank, reports the Observer.
In 1969, then 14-year-old Jerry Levitan made his way to John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto, elbowed a long line of press out of the way and somehow convinced the famous Beatle to give him a 40-minute interview. The conversation made its way from reel-to-reel tape to an animated short almost 4 decades later and was posted to YouTube in 2007.
Created with director and animator Josh Raskin and illustrator James Braithwaite, the 5-minute animation was originally developed to be included on DVD with Mr. Levitan’s book, I Met the Walrus: How One Day With John Lennon Changed My Life Forever. Since being posted to YouTube the short won Best Animation at the Manhattan Short Film Festival and was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award.
This year, I Met the Walrus went up against an “All My Children” video podcast, the New York Times Style Magazine screen tests and other notable nominations to win the “New Approaches – Daytime” award at the 36th Annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
The animated short features audio footage from the interview as its soundtrack, with Lennon imparting messages about peace being in the hands of the people even in a time of war. Its visual style is wonderfully playful, intelligently cartoonish and stylistically appropriate to the subject, being almost reminiscent of some of Lennon’s own illustrative work from his published works.
Check out the video below and let us know what you think. Is the film and its attendant story about an unlikely meeting between a teenager and the then biggest star in the world worth its accolades? Do you think I Met the Walrus succeeds, as Jerry Levitan hoped, “something that I thought John would love”?
I Met the Walrus
Image courtesy of Roy Kerwood
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Tags: animation, Emmys, john lennon, the beatles, youtube
Even before the rise of YouTube as a central hub for video, we’ve been obsessed as a culture with sharing funny and amazing videos with our friends. While most videos get a couple views and fade into the background, a select few not only gain tens of millions of views, but make a lasting impact on culture as well. These videos quickly become Internet memes that nobody can ever seem to stop talking about.
From the Dancing Baby of the 1990s to the phenomenon that is Susan Boyle, the web has seen its share of viral video sensations. However, these 20 are the cream of the crop. They have been seen by millions and discussed by millions more. Many of them are part of not only Internet culture, but mainstream culture too. Here are the top 20 YouTube and video memes in chronological order.
Got another video to add to this list? Share it with everyone in the comments.
1. Dancing Baby (1996)
One of the absolute oldest video memes of all time, Dancing Baby (Baby Cha-Cha) is a 1996 3D animation of, well, a baby dancing. The baby even appeared in the popular law drama Ally McBeal.
And remember, there was no Twitter, Facebook, or even Google to spread this video – it was almost all via email. Retro, no?
2. All Your Base (2001)
All Your Base was a flash animation that parodied the horrible english translation of the Japanese game Zero Wing. With great phrases like “All your base are belong to us,” “You have no chance to survive make your time,” and “Take off every ZIG,” it’s no wonder it got so popular.
3. Dancing Banana/Peanut Butter Jelly Time (2001)
The popular emoticon became even more iconic when it was synced to lyrics from the Buckwheat Boyz. Featured everywhere from Family Guy to Tampa Bay Rays baseball games, you have to wonder why we care so much about dancing fruit. The iconic video was made by Ryan Etrata of AlbinoBlackSheep.
4. Star Wars Kid (2002/2003)
It’s just a strange and awkward kid flailing around with a metal pole. Yet this teenager’s video was spread around the web, mostly via peer-to-peer technology. The star of the video filed a lawsuit against the schoolmates that distributed the video, stating that they had essentially ruined his life.
5. Badger Badger Badger (2003)
In 2003, Jonti Picking created Badger Badger Badger, a flash video with a silly but catchy tune and weird dancing badgers. The video loops indefinitely and almost seamlessly, just like some of his other well-known animations (i.e. Magical Trevor).
6. Numa Numa (2004)
Lip syncing + weird dancing + Moldovan pop music = instant viral hit. At least, that was the case for Gary Brolsma, the star of the famous Numa Numa video, where he entertains audiences with his moves to the song Dragostea din tei.
For a long time, Brolsma tried to hide from the attention, but eventually returned to the spotlight with a second, more professional video, New Numa, which is embedded below:
7. Charlie the Unicorn (2005/2006)
Charlie the Unicorn and its two sequels have garnered tens of millions of pageviews for the strange and psychedelic antics of two unicorns taking Charlie to Candy Mountain and…well, you’ll have to watch the video to know what happens.
The video became popular on YouTube in 2006, although the flash version was first posted on Newgrounds in 2005.
8. Leeroy Jenkins (2006)
This video, a clip from World of Warcraft, depicts a team trying to plan for battle with a group of enemies when suddenly, out of nowhere, you hear the rallying cry “Leeeeeeeeeeroy Jeeeeeeeeenkins!” About a minute later, everybody is dead, and nobody is happy with Leeroy.
The video became so popular that Leeroy was even part of a clue on Jeopardy!, which nobody got correct.
9. Evolution of Dance (2006)
The most popular YouTube video of all time, this video by Judson Laipply shows him dancing to dozens of songs across multiple eras in skillful fashion. Seriously, this is some unique talent. As the video aptly states, it’s “the funniest 6 minutes you will ever see.”
10. lonelygirl15 (2006)
A teenage girl, Bree aka lonelygirl15, captured the attention of lusting teenage boys and audiences everywhere with her short video blog posts. Eventually the show was unearthed as fiction by The New York Times. Bree was killed off in 2007 and the show continued until 2008.
The show’s star, Jessica Lee Rose, is now involved with video projects across the web.
11. Laughing Baby (2006)
I don’t even think I need to explain this one, but I will. A Swedish man posted a video of his baby laughing to funny sounds like “bing!” It’s adorable, so why wouldn’t the public love it?
12. Charlie bit my finger (2007)
The combination of the British accent and the baby that just doesn’t care propelled this video to nearly 100 million views. I still don’t get why it’s that popular, but this is just what happens sometimes with online video.
13. Chocolate Rain (2007)
Tay Zonday’s surprisingly deep voice, his breathing away from the mic, and the funky lyrics helped propel Chocolate Rain to the level of web sensation. It has received over 37 million views and led to a musical career for Tay.
14. Leave Britney Alone! (2007)
Chris Crocker’s reaction to negative Britney Spears coverage received 2 million views in 24 hours. I’m going to stop explaining it there.
15. The Mysterious Ticking Noise (2007)
Master flash animator and musician Neil Cicierega is responsible for some of the greatest viral videos in social media history. In the early 2000s, he created the surreal animations Hyakugojyuuichi and Irrational Exuberance, an animation based off the even stranger Yatta! Japanese pop group.
Puppet Pals was actually created in 2003 for the popular Newgrounds flash portal, but the iconic Mysterious Ticking Noise was not released until 2007. It features an addictive 2 minute Potter-themed harmony that has propelled it to over 60 million views.
Cicierega is also the creator of the extremely popular Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny video, a flash video and song featuring a plethora of fictional characters locked in battle royale:
16. Obama Girl/Crush on Obama (2007)
During the heat of the primary election campaign, this video from Barely Political was released, featuring Amber Lee Ettinger and vocals by Leah Kaufman. The result was a video with over 14 million views and a string of further successes; Amber even appeared in a video with Ralph Nader.
17. Don’t Tase Me, Bro! (2007)
When Andrew Meyer, a University of Florida student, protested at a town hall forum featuring John Kerry, University police used a taser in attempts to bring him under arrest. His response, “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!”, was spread across social and traditional media. It was soon remixed and repeated nearly everywhere.
18. Rickroll (2008)
Based off the duckrolled meme once popular on the 4chan web forum, the Rickroll is simply tricking someone into watching a video of Never Gonna Give You Up, a hit 1987 song from Rick Astley. Some would link secretly to the video, while others would place the video about 30 seconds into a seemingly normal video.
The above video is an example of someone being RickRoll’D, but if you just want the original music video with 20 million+ views, well, here it is:
19. Jizz In My Pants (2008)
Saturday Night Live has been the source of multiple viral videos. While several of them could make this list, the one that seems to have the most views is Jizz in My Pants, featuring Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. Interestingly enough, it’s one of the few SNL videos that are available legally on YouTube, due to it being published by The Lonely Island, the comedy group headed by Sandberg, Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer.
Jizz in my Pants is part of a long tradition of SNL viral videos. Some of the biggest hits include Lazy Sunday (Chronicles of Narnia Rap), Natalie Portman Rap, D*ck in a Box and Mother Lover (the sequel to D*ck in a Box).
20. Susan Boyle (2009)
Susan Boyle
The most powerful viral phenomenon of 2009, Susan Boyle’s unassuming appearance and killer voice wowed audiences in the auditions of Britain’s Got Talent!. Its spread is even more impressive when you consider that embedding is unavailable for the original video via YouTube.
BONUS: Keyboard Cat
Because the only way to play off a list like this one is with the Keyboard Cat, the growing Internet meme of 2009 in which painful stunts and regrettable mistakes are followed by Fatso the cat playing the keyboard.
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Tags: internet memes, Meme, ONLINE VIDEO, video, youtube
Video tutorials created from screencasting can be seen across tons of websites these days. The technique offers entrepreneurs the simplest and most effective way to show first-time users how to use their service, or demonstrate advanced techniques for die-hard fans. But where can screencasting newbies and veterans alike turn for a free and entirely web-based solution that’s easy to use and share?
Whether you’re interested in creating a screencast for business or pleasure, you’ve got a lot of options to choose from, but newcomer ScreenToaster, offers a completely free and simple software-free solution for people looking to just click and record.
ScreenToaster is a no-hassle site with little-to-no learning curve. Once you create an account, you can immediately start recording video and audio – no download required. Simply select your video (record your entire desktop or just a piece of it), audio, and camera options (you can do more than screencast), hit record and you’re off creating your masterpiece. If you opt to check the geek box you can also adjust playback speed, and in the future you’ll be able record from a VNC server or adjust the bitrate.
When you’re done recording, you can preview your video, adjust the preview image, add subtitles (cool!), upload to the site, and/or export it as an .avi file. After upload, you can share your video across social sites, grab the embed code to showcase it on your site, or just send a link to friends. ScreenToaster also lets you view and comment on other videos uploaded to the site.
We think ScreenToaster is an excellent solution that brings advanced screencasting options to all levels of computer users. Given that it works with Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux, it’s a safe option to recommend to clients, friends, and family members.
Additional Resources from Mashable
- 12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials
- How to Master Screencasts in Seven Steps
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — but in the age of both wisdom and foolishness, somehow it always seems like the latter is what gets caught on video.