Viral videos of the week – 13/01/2013


13 Jan 2013

If Aengus MacGrianna says it, it's the truth!

We take a look at some of the most-viewed and most-shared videos on the web. This week stars RTÉ’s Aengus MacGrianna in Anchorman, celebrities dealing with some unsavoury tweets, an invisible drive-through caller, the next level of gaming immersion, and the science behind being in the “friend-zone”.

More than 72 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute in 2012, with more than 800m unique user visits and more than 4bn hours of video watched each month. More than 500 years of video is watched on Facebook every day, and more than 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute, ensuring there is always video trending on the web.

With so much video available for viewing, we take a look at some of the viral videos that have caught our eye this week.

Anchorman – The Legend of Aengus MacGrianna

Oh dear. It wasn’t a good day to be Aengus MacGrianna on Wednesday as a video of him unaware he was live on air hit YouTube. The video shows MacGrianna applying some make-up and fixing his tie before uttering the memorable “what!?” when finally realising he was on-air. The video has since been removed from YouTube but it was only a matter of time before more would appear. This one plays on the cult classic film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Uploaded: 10 January 2013

 

Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #3

It’s hard being a celebrity, right? The fame, the millions of dollars, the adoration of people and the … actually, I’m finding it a little hard to sympathise here. However, the foundation of Twitter has given many people a chance to interact with celebrities in a whole new way, sometime not in the best possible way. Something of a regular feature on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, celebrities read out abusive tweets sent their way.

Uploaded: 9 January 2013

 

Drive Thru Invisible Driver Prank

This is by far the most viral video of the week, amassing more than 8m views in less than three days. YouTube user Magic of Rahat created a costume to blend in with a car seat to give the illusion there is no one driving and paid a visit to a number of fast-food restaurants’ drive-through windows. The results were quite interesting

Uploaded: 8 January 2013

 

IllumiRoom Projects Images Beyond Your TV for an Immersive Gaming Experience

It’s CES this week (in case you hadn’t already noticed) and one of the biggest omissions from this year’s line-up was Microsoft. So, how do you combat the attention being shifted from you when this event is on? Create an awesome proof-of-concept video for a new gaming experience, that’s how! With rumours flying around of a new Xbox launch this year, this video has done nothing but add fuel to that fire. We are watching you, Microsoft, let’s see what you can deliver in 2013.

Uploaded: 8 January 2013

 

The Science of the Friend Zone

Nice guys finish last, eh? We’ve all heard of the term “friend zone”, and at the very worst we might all have experienced being put in there at some stage. But rather than throwing out old clichés to try and explain it, could the reason for it be scientific? The guys at Vsauce break it down for us.

Friend-zone

Uploaded: 10 January 2013