Hey YouTube, Jim here!
Welcome to Top10Archive!
Long ago on YouTube - before some of its users were even born in fact - and before YouTube
absorbed countless hours of your day, these vintage videos ruled the internet.
From the incessant animations, impractical cartoons and clever songs – they’re all
here in this top 10 trip down memory lane!
10.
We Like the Moon Sometimes the internet provides us with something
that is so incredibly awful that we just can’t look away.
In 2002, RatherGood.com gave us such a thing with the music video animation We Like the
Moon by The Spongmonkeys.
It’s a very simple video with a very simple premise, likely thrown together with little
to no thought.
The Spongmonkies became such a sensation that Quiznos even used them in a commercial, parodying
We Like the Moon with We Like the Subs.
RatherGood brought the video to YouTube in 2006 where its popularity was reaffirmed with
around 1 million views.
9.
Badger, Badger, Badger Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger,
badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger…
Mushroom, mushroom!
Back in 2003, if you wanted to drive yourself insane, a trip to BadgerBadgerBadger.com was
a good start.
Created by flash animator Jonti Picking, who is known best by his online personality Mr.
Weebl, “Badger, Badger, Badger” has all the makings of an internet sensation: cute
animals, a catchy beat, and an infinite loop.
In 2009, PC World even honored the animation as one of the top 5 internet fads of all time.
The video was uploaded to Weebl's Stuff's YouTube Channel in 2008, and has since garnered
over 24 million views.
8.
Teen Girl Squad Homestar Runner bred a plethora of unique
content that the internet latched onto and fell in love with, but there was a charm to
the Teen Girl Squad that helped it sustain its digital fame over the years.
The exploits of Cheerleader, So and So, What’s Her Face, and The Ugly One started as a Strong
Bad Email response to a girl asking Strong Bad to make a comic about her and her friends.
Not ones to disappoint, Homestar Runner creators, The Brothers Chaps, came up with the quartet
of the Teen Girl Squad and launched a 15-issue web comic.
The first video launched at the end of 2002 and featured the squad, a stereotypical group
of teen girls always on the quest to look good, get popular, and crush on boys.
You can find the videos on YouTube, which were uploaded in 2006 and 2007 on a seemingly
now-dead channel called trogdoor17. 7.
Shoes Shoes .
Shoes .
Oh my god, shoes!
YouTube is full of catchy tunes and fun videos, and Liam Kyle Sullivan - posing as an alternate
female personality named Kelly - threw another gem into the mix in 2006.
The biggest difference between Sullivan’s offering to the internet than thousands of
others is, well, it caught the eyes of millions upon millions of viewers.
It was originally released as a digital download, but Sullivan moved the incredibly awkward
video over to YouTube in 2007, where it's earned over 60 million views.
6.
Leeroy Jenkins The world of gaming, specifically that of
World of Warcraft, was introduced to one of its greatest heroes in 2005.
With a great battle cry that would be repeated time and time again over the years, the great
warrior, Leeroy Jenkins - controlled by Colorado resident Ben Schulz - stormed into the Rookery
of the Upper Blackrock Spire, hilariously ruining a meticulously thought out plan being
discussed by his fellow clan members.
While the bulk of the PalsForLife clan drew up a battle plan to snag new armor for Leeroy,
the legend himself remained AFK until he deemed it appropriate to strike.
Of course, the entire thing was staged, but that didn’t stop Leeroy Jenkins from becoming
a World of Warcraft staple, even showing up in Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
5.
Amazing Horse Mr. Weebl was not a one-hit-wonder and “Badger,
Badger, Badger” was just part of the beginning of an empire of really, really weird animations.
The catchy tune of “Amazing Horse” is explained to be a song about “how women’s
rights have improved as the use of horses for transport has declined.”
We’re still trying to figure that one out, too…
Uploaded to Weebls-Stuff.com in 2009, “Amazing Horse” spawned a plethora of covers, remixes,
parodies, reposts and rip-offs.
Shortly after its popularity spiked, Digital Gangster member, Denied, registered GetOnMyHorse.com,
stealing Mr. Weebl’s work to make a quick buck on ad revenue.
Ironically, when Mr. Weebl moved the video to YouTube, it took more than 6 months for
it to break 200,000 views.
4.
Mortal Kombat Acapella Group It’s a song known by many, but there are
so few instances where breaking into the rhythm would be appropriate.
Somehow, in 2007, UC Berkley’s acapella group, DeCadence, found themselves in the
perfect scenario when they came across two men sparring in Central Park in New York City.
The group ominously circles around the boxers, causing them to immediately stop in confusion.
Then, something so incredibly epic happened – DeCadence broke out into the Mortal Kombat
theme song.
Almost a half a minute passes before the fighters realize what they have to do – make the
most of the amazing gift they were presented with and resume fighting.
The video was posted by DeCadence’s then-Co-Music Director Trent Russi and has since garnered
roughly 3 million views.
3.
Evolution of Dance April 2006, motivational speaker and dancer
Judson Laipply uploaded a simple video titled “The Evolution of Dance.”
Within 8 months, the video reached 70 million views, showing that something as simple as
a man in an orange shirt and jeans dancing to generations of music can go viral.
At the time, Laipply’s video, which was originally recorded in 2001, was rated as
the 1st most viewed of all time, the first top rated video, and the third most discussed
video on YouTube.
The video features twelve different tunes from 5 decades of music, including “Love
Shack,” “Chicken Dance,” “Stayin’ Alive,” “Thriller,” and “Cotton-Eyed
Joe.”
2.
Salad Fingers Back in 2004, animator, writer, musician,
actor, filmmaker and video artist David John Firth introduced the world to an eerie hunchbacked
zombie-looking creature with “salad fingers”.
Premiering on Newgrounds and Fat-Pie.com, the uneasy pacing and tone of Salad Fingers
drew a lot of attention - so Firth launched a 10-part series that has the creepy, titular
character doing really weird things, like running his fingers over rusty metals and
playing with finger puppets.
With how twisted the interwebs can be, it’s not too surprising that something like Salad
Fingers would wind up being a viral hit.
1.
Charlie the Unicorn What happens when a clever Flash animator
creates a video featuring a cynical unicorn for his mother’s birthday?
Apparently, you get an internet sensation that earns millions of views, a product line,
sequels, and parodies.
Charlie the Unicorn, created by Jason Steele of FilmCow, follows Charlie, who is dragged
into a whimsical adventure to Candy Mountain with two rather annoying pink and blue unicorns,
Lolz and Roffle.
Even though it’s been out for over a decade, we’ll avoid spoiling the hilarity and the
ending – all you need to know is that this nonsensical tribute to TypeQueen blew up on
Newgrounds.com before being uploaded to YouTube on April 30th, 2006 where its popularity continues
to grow to this day.