♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - I've seen the "Damn Daniel."
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - That damn Daniel.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - I feel like the guy behind the camera's
going like, "Ooh, Daniel!"
- (boy) Back at it again with the white Vans.
- (imitating) "Back at it again." (laughs)
- (Flint) Voila! (children praising)
- Spray-on shoes.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - (laughs)
"Damn, Daniel!"
(smack!)
- (man) Damn... - (boy) Daniel!
(both chuckle)
- ♪ I'm too hot, hot damn ♪ - (boy) Damn!
- (laughing)
- ♪ I'm too hot, hot damn ♪ - (boy) Damn!
- So just replacing "damn" at this point.
(sulkily) Fine, internet. Fine. I guess.
- (Draco) Scared, Potter?
- (Harry) You wish.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel!
- That doesn't make sense! Now we're just mashing shit together.
- (Finebros) But what the name of the actor
who plays Harry Potter?
- Mm. There it is. I rescind that.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel!
- Ah. - (boy) Damn, Daniel!
- Wow, it makes you realize
how many powerful Daniels there have been.
And we're not even talking about Hebrew scripture.
- Oh. Damn, Daniel.
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- (Finebros) Okay. So were you familiar with this meme
before today? - Yeah.
- You know, I was, Benny. I was actually familiar with this meme.
- I was very familiar with it.
- Yes. My girlfriend
posted a picture with her white Converses.
Every single comment was "Damn Daniel."
And that's when she was like, "Um, we gotta look this up."
- Yeah, I was on Twitter,
and all these people just kept being like, "Damn, Daniel."
And then I thought it was just a person had done something wrong
and everyone was kinda just like,
"Damn, Daniel. I can't believe you did that."
A few more days go by. People are still talking about it.
And I was just like, "Fine,
I'm gonna watch this damn 'Damn Daniel' stuff."
And I watched it, and I fell in love.
And I showed my brother earlier. I show everyone now.
- (Finebros) What is it about this that made it go
as big as almost anything has gone in recent memory?
- Maybe the positive reinforcement.
Maybe that's something we don't see every day.
Usually the internet's very snarky, sarcastic, you know.
Twitter's pretty much that in a nutshell. But that's kinda nice.
- He's a good-looking kid. Everybody wants to be "Damn Daniel."
We want to be the subject of accolades
and affirmation in that way.
- At the heart of it, it's what's viral.
It's something that's wacky and quirky,
and you wouldn't think it would become popular.
But it does, just because it's silly and ridiculous.
- It's just so obscure.
I hate memes. I don't jump on the meme bandwagon.
But this one I found pretty funny,
because it's just so ridiculous.
- (Finebros) A lot of people seem not to be sure
why this went viral more so than some other things that go viral.
Confusion and even anger over "why this?"
Why do you think this is having that type of reaction as well?
- I think it's a bit more-- Damn Daniel's a bit more subtle.
If you're not in the loop, you're like, "What is a Damn Daniel?
I don't know what that is."
- Who cares?
It's a moment and it's kinetic and it's real.
- I think the randomness of it.
But I also do love whenever we get viral things like this.
I was in a restaurant, and everybody at the takeout
that worked there were like, "Damn, Daniel!"
I don't even think half the people there knew where it was from.
That's what I love about things like this.
Whether I get it or not, I love when it does that.
- (Finebros) So as much notoriety as the two kids have gotten,
they've also had a lot of negativity
thrown at them from all this. - What happened?
- (Finebros) So Josh got swatted. - Oh, I didn't hear that.
- So someone prank-called a SWAT team to his house?
He probably didn't even say, "Damn."
He probably said, "Shiiit."
- (Finebros) What do you think hearing that
this thing went so viral
and then all these bad things happened to them?
- I mean, I think that that just sucks.
- You just have to get used to it,
'cause that is the world we live in,
and hackers and shitty people exist.
What can you do?
- We're in a world where everything you put online
has a chance of going viral,
'cause there's a lot of dumbass people out there.
So guess what, kids? You got an Instagram, you got a Snap.
You got [bleep] Kik or whatever.
You have a chance of going viral and ending your entire life.
So just don't.
- (Finebros) So a lot of these trends tend to come from Vine.
But this one was actually a Twitter video
uploaded to the native Twitter video player.
- (surprised) Really?
- Damn! - Damn, Twitter!
- Shit. Here's another thing I got to master.
Twitter video? Come on!
- I've never heard of that.
I'm pretty disconnected from the Twitter world,
but I've never heard of anything being born from Twitter's womb.
- That is very uncommon, I think.
Did anyone do a graph of Twitter's stock with the "Damn Daniel"?
I think they need Twitter equity.
- (Finebros) We ask this a lot.
But when there is viral fame that happens like this
kind of unexpectedly, do you think that these guys
should continue and keep making these videos?
- Absolutely.
- They should ride on its coattails.
They should use this fame to propel whatever causes
they're trying to promote.
- Oh, it's always worth trying to make something consistent.
Like, you never know what's gonna stick.
I absolutely think they should do everything they can
to capitalize on any eyeballs they've received right now.
Because when are you gonna get that chance again?
And whether they wanted it or not,
it's an opportunity that would just be dumb to pass up.
- You made a big splash.
See which ripple or which wave to ride,
because the world is your oyster at this point.
- (Finebros) So finally, do you think the short meme
is something that will continually be around
as web video continues?
Do you think one day the short meme won't be popular?
- I think the memes are only gonna get shorter.
I think they're gonna get quicker.
I think they're gonna be one word.
- I have a hard time seeing past short video memes.
I really do. I'm not sure what could take its place.
- The short memes are always gonna be there,
'cause you can take it, even if you didn't make it.
You can take it from something and make your own meme from it,
and so memes are always gonna be around.
- It's just a trend that people are doing.
And all I can see is millennials are just wanting
more and more fame on the internet.
And so they're never gonna stop trying.
♪ (end music) ♪