> Numa Numa Dance
Performed by Gary Brolsma, the Numa Numa is a popular internet phenomenon that involved Brolsma dancing and lip-syncing in front of his computer's webcam to the song, "Dragostea din tei". The video first appeared in the December of 2004, and within three months it had been viewed more thatn 2 million times. It became the starting point for future copycats to create their own Numa Numa themed videos.
The original video can be found here, submitted by Gary Brolsma in 2004.
> Star Wars Kid
Another popular video that made into the world of internet phenomenons was the Star Wars Kid, a video showing a Quebec male high school student wielding a golf club retriever like a lightsaber (similar to Darth Maul from Star Wars). The video was made in 2002 when the owner of the video tape found clips of Star Wars enactment, and soon after submitted it onto a peer-to-peer file sharing network. It reached over a million within two weeks, and the "viral video" reached 900 million views by 2006.
Here is an upload on YouTube of the original video. A thing to note is that the boy charged a lawsuit on this video, and later received $351,000 Canadian in compensation. (I should make one...)
> Conclusion
With the spawn of YouTube, attempts to create new internet phenomenons have never been greater. Millions have tried to create a million views for their videos, but in the end, a phenomenon is only created through accident and coincidence. Images, discussions, and videos: the internet gives provisions to users worldwide to witness history being made and imprinted into the online culture. An internet meme cannot spread through force, but by how we let ourselves be taken into the sheer appeal and oddity of the phemonenon itself. Our popular culture is no longer restricted to the media in our world; it has now reached a point where online communities exist and we are connected through computers. If we have an actor caught in an embarrassing act, we also have a user caught in an act on his webcam. The internet is now a fundamental part in modern pop culture.