Hello friends! Welcome to this week's installment of silliness. Today we're discussing a video I discovered (thanks to a forward from my mom) that has garnered over 5 million views on Youtube.
Surprisingly, the funniest part of this video is not the video itself. Don't get me wrong, the video is funny. Awkward blank stares and a choreographed dance routine, done entirely with their hands, to strange music, with weird decor...I don't think it could get any more weird. And in my mind, weird is funny.
What's really funny, however, is the comments section. This video has earned over 5 million views, and when a totally random video goes that viral, people start drinking the Haterade. Most hilarious of all are the comments from all of the Irish dancers who complain that they do this all of the time to practice their steps. They're very upset that it made these people "famous."
I could go into a long diatribe about whether a viral video truly earns the qualifier "famous" but let's not go there. Instead, let's just collectively agree that taking a niche activity and putting together a quirky video displaying said activity will earn you a bunch of viewers. To me, it seemed fairly obvious that their hands are doing Riverdance. I like that they didn't just call their video "Irish dancing with hands set to funny music." It's much easier to just call it "hand dancing."
I think their video is awesome, and saying that any Irish dancer can do the hand dancing doesn't automatically negate their originality in this video. That's like saying that anyone can write a book and then getting upset when Stephen King gets a lot of press. The duo in this video, Cleary and Harding, didn't earn 5 million hits for shoddy footage of them practicing before a competition. They earned those hits for elevating their practice of Irish dancing to a fun, creative level.
Well done!
Every viral video gets satirized at some point, and this one is no exception. Here is my favorite, but only partially because it has Napoleon Dynamite. I mean, Jon Heder.
Want to hear more about how the original video came to be? Check out this interview with Cleary and Harding where they discuss the making of the video.
5 comments:
They've got skillz! I love reading comments on YouTube videos, too.
I think a lot of people drink too much Haterade in the world today. There could be a tragedy profiled in a Yahoo! news section, and about 99.8% of the comments are negative or spouting some religious/political craziness. It makes me sad to see the awful grammar as well.
Love your blog!
So this comment falls under spontaneous babble:
Hahahaha...I'm on youtube a lot, and I actually haven't seen the Hand Dancing video. Awesome! I love how deadpan they are, and how deadpan the parody video attempts and fails to be. The end. =)
I heart Silly Sunday.
This was hysterical. I really love the decor! I want that Tiger picture. I always wonder why people make hater comments on things like this: if you hate it so much then JUST DON'T WATCH IT!! (But then we couldn't read them and laugh...)
@Aylee - Glad I'm not the only one!
@BookGeek - Thanks for the compliment and for stopping by!
@Amanda - The deadpan looks are my favorite part. Hilarious.
@Carrie - I'm so glad you like it. I really wanted a day to just post stupid stuff. Brain candy!
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