Viral videos of the week: Hungry piranhas, sleeping duck and a dog-cat

20 Mar 2015

This week in viral videos, it’s a collection of animals including piranhas, cats and ducks, with some added drunk skater, skinny jeans and remixed aircraft safety announcements, for good measure.

About 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, 500 years of video watched on Facebook every 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 viral videos that have caught our eye this week.

When you’re bored on a plane

We’ve all been there. We’re on a plane ready to take off, it’s 6.30am and you’ve trudged to the airport in the freezing cold, only to receive a lecture before you take off for your destination.

Sure, it’s there to ensure that if the worst were to happen you’ll be better off, but whether rightly or wrongly, we’ve heard the pre-flight safety announcement dozens of times before.

To pass the time, the little-known band Mashd N Kutcher decided to do what any music producing person loves to do; make something boring into a remixed song for all to enjoy.

Uploaded: 19 March 2015

Cute duckling is very sleepy

What’s yellow and sleepy? A sleepy duck. What? Were you expecting a joke?

Watch as this duckling battles with the evil forces of tiredness.

“Aw, he’s so cute.” Yeah, that pretty much sums up this video.

Uploaded: 16 March 2015

Feeding piranhas in a river in Brazil

On the complete opposite end of scale of cuteness, Brazilian rivers look absolutely terrifying to go into and the fact we are all made of meat may want to make you think twice about taking a dip.

Brazilian man, Joao Antonio Cruz Junior, felt that the world needed to see how the legendarily meat-hungry piranha fish will go berserk over the smallest piece of meat.

It’s almost like something from a science-fiction film where vast swarms of creatures rise from the murky depths of some horrible planet that no one bar a film’s protagonist would ever dare visit.

Uploaded: 13 March 2015

 A dog-cat

No, this is not some freak of nature like the one seen in the animated series CatDog, but rather a cat that seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis as it loves all the things dogs like to do such as appear happy, energetic and playing fetch.

The Russian cat known as Persik looks rather overjoyed to be playing in the game of fetch and may be the missing link as to how to get people who hate cats to like them.

Perhaps some cloning of Persik’s genes are in order?

Uploaded: 16 March 2015

Drunk guy tries to skate home from the bar

Body coordination is one of those things that happens to disappear the moment you have a couple of drinks, so it might not come as a surprise that trying to engage in a bit of post-drinking skating can only end badly.

Thankfully for the guy in this video, he wasn’t able to build up enough speed to put anyone else in danger and just managed to fall flat on his face in what can only be described as a ‘skating fail’.

The same couldn’t be said for his skateboard though as the cameraman – without uttering even a stifled snigger – watched as the board rolled into on-coming traffic. RIP skateboard.

Uploaded: 14 March 2015

Baby laughs at mother eating crisps

Ok. I have no idea why a baby would find the idea of its mother eating crisps hilarious but the continuous change in emotions from the kid is pretty adorable.

The four-month-old clearly has a lot to learn about the world and what crisps are the best to go into a crisp sandwich, but for now, just enjoy this moment of happiness.

Uploaded: 14 March 2015

Martin’s Life – skinny jeans

Poor old Martin. Whether you’re from Cork or anywhere else in Ireland, you can appreciate the ordeals that Martin has to go through as a teenager trying to live in the modern world.

Not just from trying to explain to your parents the basic concept of internet dating, but to the age-old argument of why you’re not going to return your mother’s dress to Penneys as you’re heading into town.

The web series is gaining some serious popularity online here in Ireland, and abroad, and long may it continue.

Uploaded: 18 March 2015

Guns With History

Gun violence in the US and their citizens’ rights to owning firearms has been one of the major issues that has been debated not just in the country itself, but across the world.

With every incidents now garnering attention in the media, a group called States United to Prevent Gun Violence has released a video showing their attempts to raise awareness of the dangers of thinking guns are a way to solve all problems.

A very thoughtful video indeed.

Uploaded: 17 March 2015

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Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com