Viral videos of the week: Monty the Penguin, Russell Brand and Martin Shanahan

This week in viral videos, we have been watching Monty the Penguin, Russell Brand’s ‘Parklife’, Martin Shanahan on CNBC, and a very sleepy dog.

About 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, Facebook videos see over 1bn views per day, and more than 700 YouTube videos 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 most-viewed and most-shared videos on the web.

Monty The Penguin (John Lewis Christmas ad)

John Lewis is at it again, hell-bent on tugging on viewers’ heartstrings with a Christmas-themed ad meticulously designed to melt even the most Arctic-frozen hearts. The thing about the ‘Monty The Penguin’ campaign is the bar set so high by John Lewis’ previous emotive campaigns – ‘The Bear & The Hare’, ‘The Journey’ and 2011’s ‘Please, please, please’ – that I daresay this one is, perhaps, not quite the heartwarming tear-jerker I was expecting (and brace myself for stoning). That said, I’m happy for the pengwings, I truly am.

^{Uploaded: 6 November 2014}

Russell Brand’s Parklife

So the latest way for the online community to get their jollies is by tweeting ‘Parklife’ in response to anything tweeted by comedian Russell Brand. It started with Dan Barker, a digital marketer, who first observed that the vernacular of the ‘Cockney geezer’ is reminiscent of Phil Daniels’ contribution to the iconic Blur record. Of course, the trend caught on with more than just tweets and pretty soon there were Vines and now this exquisite mash-up.

^{Uploaded: 4 November 2014}

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan at CNBC Squawk Box

Business news programme Squawk Box airs on CNBC at breakfast time but Irish people might find it hard to hold in their Corn Flakes watching this interview of IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan in which presenter Joe Kernen demonstrates a frankly unbelievable lack of knowledge about Ireland. Starting with musings on if Ireland’s tax policy creates great golfers, Kernen goes on to ask why we don’t use pound sterling as a currency and seemingly thinks that Ireland and Scotland are basically the same country. Either Kernen is a grade-A troll or he needs a serious geo-political update.

^{Uploaded: 3 November 2014}

Smeagol hates Halloween

Smeagol, the absolutely perfectly named Sphynx cat, is not a fan of Halloween and – after this experience – probably isn’t too fond of his owners either.

^{Uploaded: 31 October 2014}

OK Go – I Won’t Let You Down

At this point, OK Go are better-known as viral-video-makers than musicians and their latest is a testament to that assumption. ‘I Won’t Let You Down’ makes use of the Honda UNI-CUB, apparently the world’s first omni-directional driving wheel system which allows for the movements you see enacted in this video. But that’s not where OK Go’s precision choreography reaches its zenith. For that, you’ll have to watch to the end to be suitably wowed.

^{Uploaded: 27 October 2014}

The incredible dozing dog

In last week’s viral video round-up we brought you a cat whose focus could not be broken and this week we have a sleeping dog that will simply have to be let lie, because this wee pup is not going to be disturbed. Nope, not one bit.

^{Uploaded: 29 October 2014}