Humor, embarrassment, obscenity, and silliness are a recipe for success in the age of YouTube. PC World clicks on the classics of a young medium:
- Bush and Kerry Sing "This Land Is Your Land": JibJab puts itself on the map.
- The Coke and Mentos Experiments: Geysers of soda set to music? Thumbs up.
- Back Dorm Boys: Two Chinese students passionately lip-synching to the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" create an instant classic.
- lonelygirl15: Before the LA Times outed the creators and star in 2006, millions of viewers thought this video blog was the real deal.
- The World's Angriest RV Salesman: Outtakes from a 1988 industrial film for Winnebago.
- The Numa Numa Dance: Gary Brolsma's lip-synching and interpretive dance to a German pop song got more than 2 million hits in a few months.
- Star Wars Kid: The light saber-wielding teen's "friends" posted his performance on Kazaa; he thanked them with a lawsuit.
- Ask a Ninja: Episodes of this comedic blog always ended with "I look forward to killing you soon!"
- Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager: The most popular episode of Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda's series imagining Darth Vader in various real-life scenarios.
- George Lucas in Love: A humorous short film made by then-USC student Joe Nussbaum spoofed both Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love.
To see the full list and view the videos, follow the link below. (More
viral video stories.)