Viral videos of the week: grannies get wasted and a Thanksgiving turkey gets basted

21 Nov 2014

Still from 'Meghan Trainor - "All About That Bass" Parody "All About That Baste" (Thanksgiving Song)' by The Holderness Family via YouTube

This week in viral videos, we have been watching turkeys get basted, Americans learn about hurling, grandmas smoking weed, Tony Hawk on a hoverboard, and the Earth in 4K.

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.

All About That Baste’ – your Thanksgiving anthem

It’s less than a week until Thanksgiving in the US and the Holderness Family is grateful for Meghan Trainor’s pop hit ‘All About That Bass’ for providing them with perfect seasonal parody material. For Turkey Day, it’s all about that baste.

Uploaded: 17 November 2014

Americans watch hurling for the first time

Speaking of the States, a handful of Americans were treated to their first viewing of hurling this week. After the initial establishment that hurling is basically field hockey where the players “beat the crap out of each other”, the GAA newbies tried to get to grips with the scoring system.

Uploaded: 13 November 2014

Grandmas smoking weed for the first time

In Washington State in the US, the recreational use of marijuana was recently legalised, which means grandmothers can legally smoke weed for the sake of a YouTube video. Each of the women in this video (Paula, Dorothea and Deirdre) confess to have never partaking in this particular activity before. Bongs, vaporisers and instructions are provided, as well as Jenga, Cards Against Humanity and snacks. It’s a social experiment, I guess.

There is a smattering of NSFW language in this clip, but mostly, the ladies comport themselves magnificently.

Uploaded: 19 November 2014

Kids play with paint – it gets everywhere

The difficulty in punishing two kids who have managed to get themselves immersed in poster paint is trying not to laugh while telling them what bold children they are – and the guilty, filthy faces on this pair of rascals make it impossible for this dad. They’re definitely not getting any juice, though.

Uploaded: 17 November 2014

Tony Hawk rides world’s first real hoverboard

Hoverboards are real thanks to Hendo Hover, so it makes sense to put one of the world’s top skateboarders on the copper half-pipe with one of these bad boys and see what he can make of it. The result: not bad, Tony, not bad. But he deserved a few bumps as retribution for his previous hover-hoax.

Uploaded: 17 November 2014

Ken Block’s Gymkhana Seven: Wild in the Streets of Los Angeles

Professional rally driver Ken Block steps into the only all-wheel-drive performance 1965 Ford Mustang ever built and lets loose across Los Angeles in his seventh YouTube gymkhana. At over 12 minutes long, this a lengthy one for a YouTube clip, yet it has attracted over 12.4m views in a matter of days as users flock to check out Block’s skills on the city streets and the winding roads of the Hollywood Hills.

Uploaded: 17 November 2014

How to pronounce Worcestershire Sauce?

One thing is for certain: the question mark in this video’s title is to ensure you are under no false pretence that you will have any idea how to pronounce ‘Worcestershire Sauce’ by the end of it. Not a sausage.

Uploaded: 16 November 2014

Planet Earth in 4K

This lush footage of Earth from space was created using images from the Elektro-L weather satellite, which is located about 40,000km above the Indian Ocean and orbits the planet at a speed that maintains its geographical position. Every 30 minutes, Elektro-L captures a high-resolution image, and it’s these images that have been processed and stitched together to create this animation.

The clip covers a period of four days in May 2011, showing us the Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere and then a whole-world view. For resolution fanatics with ultra-HD screens, it’s viewable in 4K, but for faster streaming purposes, I recommend plain old HD. There’s no audio, either, so stick on a suitable tune and immerse yourself in the beauty of the planet we inhabit.

Uploaded: 21 November 2014

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Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com