2013's Top Memes and Viral Videos
Most hits!
So 2013 a lot has happened online and offline, we've got a new Pope after Pope Benedict retired for the first time ever. But 2013 surely will be known as the year that marketeers didn't fill the pockets of the television execs but instead invested heavily in online advertising and had much success. Finally cracking the internet and getting videos shared and viewed across the world. Some people will question the ethics of this but what ever happens we had a lot of laughs on the way.
January Duke Street Hazard
Slipping over can be a painful and embarrassing thing to happen to us, however in January 2013 of this year a street in Norwich became an overnight hit. With the recent bad weather and the pavements being very icy, you'd be foolish not to try and record the outcome. Hence forth the Duke Street Hazard arrived. An 8 minute long video with a catchy dance number added to it has got over a million views. I'm sure it created a lot of laughter at many offices up and down the country.
Cam from the land down under with 4 friends just mucking around and at its peak had 4,000 different versions of the craze being uploaded to YouTube every day. Although The Harlem Shake wasn't just a viral hit it changed the future of music. With the US chart company Billboard counting YouTube popularity in its listings. The song itself was a true viral hit with the original inspiring others to re create their own.
Invented by Chris Stark and his friends is a drink which is one part Jager the other being double vodka red bull. However this wasn't the viral hit. Christ from Radio 1 was sent down to go interview Mila Kunis about her latest film. This being Chris's very first interview with such a big star he is terribly nervous. But what results is something amazing Chris goes completely off topic giving Mila an insight into his laddish lifestyle and invites Mila to come watch the football with him and eat some chicken. It was like an awkward scene of someone trying to chat a women up at the bar but in this case was supposed to be an interview. But Mila found this hilarious and didn't want to talk about her film she wanted to learn more of the Lad Bomb and Sir Dosser. This is probably going to be the only time you see genuine interaction from a Hollywood superstar.
Not even David Attenborough could describe what is going on in this video but with over 90 million views and still counting 'how animals eat their food' is the hit of the year. Two friends some cardboard boxes cheap outfits and some plastic plates have created an amazingly funny video which has been shared across the whole world for everyone to enjoy and shows you don't have to spend a lot of money to make something go viral.
Chris Hadfield was given this name by Forbes. but by tweeting and showing the world what his work was like working on the international space station is one way to get your name remembered by millions. But as a final sign off he sang David Bowie's Space Oddity from the station itself surely the first of a long line of music videos to appear from space. But heres to you Chris Hadfield for starting the trend.
Chancellor George Osborne was working late one night preparing a speech and decided to order in a burger for himself to eat while working away at his tasks. While this was happening one of his aides took a snap and posted it to Twitter. This led to a huge backlash against Osborne as many people suggested this was a posh burger nothing of the greasy kind you would get a normal person eating after hours. This wasn't the end of the politicians plight into pictures of themselves while eating at their desk. Eric Pickles is a larger member of parliament, he brought many laughs on twitter when he tweeted himself eating a salad only a few days after the whole Osborne affair. Many people condemned this also has sly PR work as many people didn't believe Mr Pickles would be eating a salad.
July Sharknado
The picture says it all really. Sharknado, that's a compound word of shark and tornado - fit neatly into the "so bad, it's good" category of straight-to-TV movie. It was so popular though that a sequel was commissioned and fans on twitter were able to choose the name.
August Enter Twerking
In August Miley Cyrus well and truly left her old image of Disney's Hannah Montana behind after her performance at the MTV VMA awards with Robin Thicke.
Enter a big foam hand a scantily dressed Miley Cyrus and Twerking became popular leaving most of the world with the mouths wide open over what they had just seen. But for Miley this was just the start and had everyone across the internet talking about her.
September Twerking Fail
This unfortunate video appeared in September of a girl trying to twerk upside down against a shut door but her friend opens the door sending her body crashing into the table and setting her legs on fire, where the video abruptly cuts. However, many people have asked whether the video had been faked after the girl in the video was interviewed on television.
October The Fearless Rabbit
In a lifetime certain things will happen and you'll look back and tell your friends such an unbelievable story that they would never believe and your left saying you should have been there to see it. Well thanks to YouTube now this has all changed you can capture even the strangest events.
This fearless rabbit chased and ran along side a van in Scotland in the dead of night not showing any fear from the fact it could be killed instantly. This video goes on for 5 minutes and brings these unbelievable stories to life.
November Serge the Party Llama
When you go down to your local and think of things that your going to see that night. A Llama doesn't come to mind but a group of friends in France made this possible taking Serge on a night out with them. They were live tweeting his every movements of the night and also was pictured across several hundred twitter accounts.
December How to lose your job in 30 minutes
The final star of 2013 is Justine Sacco who literally lost her job in 30 minutes.
Justine a PR executive in the US had just boarded a plane to South Africa. By the time she had landed, she had lost her job, following a worldwide wave of criticism and a hashtag #hasjustinelandedyet - that trended around the world. Its fair to say that Justine has apologised and hopefully 2014 will be a better year for herself.
Alex is part of the marketing team at Social Media Frontiers; he also runs his own blog where you can see this article and others at Alex talks Social Media.
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2013's Top Memes and Viral Videos
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Reviewed by Alex Carson
on
Monday, December 30, 2013
Rating:
Alex Carson
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