This week in viral videos, a Cork card-trick master, fun at Slane, a Stone Cold Stunner and one badly-judged marriage proposal.
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.
Irish card-trick master shows off skills
When Cork man Dave Duggan gathered pals around a pool table to show off his impressive take on magician James Galea’s ‘673 King Street’ card trick, he made sure the camera was on him. And now, thanks to the true magic of the internet, he’s like the hottest card trick maestro in the world.
That’s because his mates, who were in absolute stitches as Dave used the entire deck to regale them with a lengthy story, sent the footage to the popular Facebook page The LAD bible. It’s a pretty good trick, but James’s storytelling is what really makes it magical. Plus, he gets bonus points for pulling it off while being all kinds of under the influence.
“Do you know how much it was?” “25” “Yaaaa boyyy!”
Uploaded: 31 May 2015
Motorcycle collision
Using your phone while driving is a dumb thing to do. Everyone knows that, though it doesn’t stop some motorists from taking a cheeky little glance at their device when they think they can get away with it. But I’d like to believe that if you called out an offender for texting while behind the wheel, most would acknowledge they were in the wrong, and would definitely not respond with manic, life-threatening violence.
That’s not, however, what happened when motorcyclist Samuel Ayers told a BMW driver to put his phone away when the two vehicles were stopped at a red light. Though Ayers used some NSFW language when telling the driver off, he sure didn’t deserve to be mowed down in retaliation, which judging by the footage capture by his head-mounted camera, appears to be what happened.
“Once the light turned green, I proceeded through the intersection, making my turn,” wrote Ayers underneath the clip. “Behind me, the BMW driver came flying up behind me very aggressively. After a couple of blocks, he pulled into the centre lane to my left and, once he was parallel with me, swerved his car into my lane, knocking both my bike and myself to the ground. Without slowing, the driver took off down the road.”
The incident is currently under criminal investigation. Ayers suffered a severe concussion, two hairline fractures in his left shoulder and a broken left foot, which requires surgery. Even with health insurance, he’s racked up several thousand dollars in medical bills because, y’know, America.
Uploaded: 27 May 2015
Crowd has some fun with Garda after Foo Fighters at Slane 2015
Having obviously just discovered that Foo Fighters are a terrible, terrible band, this group of Slane goers tried to inject their own bit of enjoyment into last Saturday (May 30) by having some fun with a Garda working at the event.
Rather than quietly and respectfully taking in the copper’s megaphone-amplified exit instructions, the crowd made sure everyone could hear her wise words by repeating everything she said. Not that the Garda seemed to mind, delivering her speech in short, choppy sentences to allow easy repetition.
Uploaded: 31 May 2015
Graduation ‘Stone Cold Stunner’
Squeezing pro-wrestling mythology into everyday events is awesome. I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. So fair play to these Miami Southwest High School kids who had a surprise plotted for their graduation ceremony. As one student triumphantly held a title belt to the crowd, another ran on stage and delivered an earth-shattering Stone Cold Stunner, the finishing move made famous by WWE wrestler ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
Hilarious, right? The school apparently didn’t think so. According to a local news report, the students’ diplomas are being withheld because of the stunt. “They told us we should be embarrassed and ashamed,” said Nicholas Dean, one half of the pair.
Never mind about the diplomas though, the duo can still boast the title belt.
Uploaded: 2 June 2015
Failed McDonald’s proposal
Surprise proposals appear to be a fairly frequent occurrence, with hopeful men everywhere planting engagement rings in their girlfriend’s desserts or champagne in the hope they’ll be willing to take the plunge.
This unfortunate fellow, however, thought sticking the ring inside a McChicken Sandwich box was the way to go, roping his local McDonald’s into helping him with the stunt. Unsurprisingly, his girlfriend was not impressed, and rejected the proposal.
In fairness to him, the gesture makes slightly more sense when you read his video description. “I met my girlfriend two years ago in LA. I’ve never been good at planning in advance, which is why we wound up ending our first date at this exact McDonalds. She joked for months about how 10 years down the road I would probably propose to her in a chicken nugget box, so I thought she would love when I surprised her this way. She didn’t love it like the way I thought she would. We agreed to wait longer until it’s time to get engaged.”
He’s still on the market anyway, and clearly keen on getting hitched. Form an orderly queue ladies…
