Viral videos: Graham Norton, cheetahs, dogs, cats and Halloween!

9 Oct 2015

The Graham Norton Show, via YouTube

This week in viral videos, the world is introduced to a brotherhood of dogs and cheetahs, impersonations of Graham Norton, and a video for Halloween that will make you truly appreciate advertising.

The Halloween Song

Product placement used to be a pet peeve of mine. I hated how cans of coke always faced the camera in movies, or how the main actor or actress diligently put on a pair of Converse, the footwear absorbing the audience’s full attention.

But then I saw a wonderful film called POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, trivialising the whole industry. Now I consider it a game – how many products can I spot?

So maybe it’s this fresh look at show business that makes me really appreciate Yandy.com’s advertising campaign for its costumes. Bravo.

Uploaded: 1 October

Heart-warming help on the side of the road

There are plenty of ‘social experiment goes wrong’ videos on YouTube, far outstripping the amount of ‘social experiment goes well’ videos.

But I’m in an uplifting mood, so let’s go for the latter. Here, Hammy TV sets up a sting, whereby the host pretends his car is broken down on the side of the road.

He waits for help from passing strangers to no avail. That is until two hours pass and a fantastic individual turns up.

Take it away, Hammy:

Uploaded: 5 October

Daisy driving Oliver

Driving Miss Daisy was a film people really liked back in 1989, but times have moved on. Now we want instant satisfaction, smaller samples, smaller clips, smaller humans, smaller animals and smaller cars.

So here is Daisy the dog, driving little Oliver around the driveway while a truly apathetic cat saunters to and fro.

Uploaded: 30 September

Bears scared away by French Bulldog

Bears don’t tend to frequent front gardens in Ireland, so this is a phenomenon alien to me and pretty much anybody I know. But, in the US this can happen a lot. The US has a lot of bears.

Most of them are fine and aren’t out to mess you up, but that’s not the care of your vicious guard-dog. No, guard-dogs are there to get rid of outsiders.

Even if the outsiders are bears. And even if the guard-dog is a 20lb French Bulldog.

Uploaded: 2 October

Cats you will fall in love with in under 3 seconds

In the interest of open and frank dialogue, I feel I must include a cat video to balance the scales. So here is a montage of ridiculous cats, doing ridiculous things, set to ridiculous music.

It’s great.

Uploaded: 6 October

Dancing away the school day blues

Getting dropped off at school can be a truly miserable experience for the young’uns, with pretty much everybody able to remember at least one harrowing, tear-filled morning at the school steps.

So what if you had a teacher greet you at the door, singing and generally making everything less serious and much sillier? Well, Gary Logan, assistant principal at Woodrow Elementary School in Conway, Arkansas, tried just that when he started waiting outside the school with a mic, a PA system and some music.

Now he sings at, to and with all the children as they pour out of their cars.

Uploaded: 17 September

Kumbali and Kago, cheetah cub and puppy friends

Kumbali is a cheetah cub at Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia, US. A few weeks after he was born, zookeepers noticed he was losing weight, as his mother didn’t have the milk to raise three cubs.

With Kumbali the one losing out, staff intervened and hand reared him. But he got lonely, so they introduced Kago, a puppy, to hang out with him.

Now they’re mates.

Uploaded: 6 October

Jaws 19 – this time it’s really, really personal

Every year, we’re told that there are no good movies out anymore. Everybody is making sequels and prequels. Film companies won’t invest in new, fresh, innovative ideas.

That’s all well and good, but try putting yourself in a movie executive’s shoes. Could you turn down a franchise? With sharks? After a reboot?

The execs in Back to the Future 2 couldn’t, and now their dream has become a reality. A trailer for one of the movie’s better gags, Jaws 19, has appeared online, just in time for Marty’s trip to the future.

Uploaded: 5 October

Tom Hiddleston’s Graham Norton impression

Graham Norton is one of the best presenters around. He’s funny, sound and seems like a genuinely nice man. But that shouldn’t stop other celebrities from impersonating him.

Uploaded: 2 October

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Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com