Viral videos of the week: Animals galore with some Hozier and Missy Elliot

13 Feb 2015

This week in viral videos, cats, hamsters and gerbils dominate the charts, while dancing tributes to singers Hozier and Missy Elliot make up a rather focused week in the buildup to Valentine’s Day.

About 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, Facebook videos see more than 1bn views per day, and more than 700 YouTube videos are 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.

Simon’s Cat – Butterflies

Ah, Simon’s Cat. A viral video staple at this stage, having been the internet’s animated cat darling for some years now. This week, the video marks tomorrow’s celebration of the day of love.

Simon’s Cat continues to struggle to not make a mess of things, in this case, attempting to woo a neighbour cat with a box full of butterflies.

How could any girl say no? As it turns out, Simon’s Cat gets an unexpected answer …

Uploaded: 12 February 2015

Cat grabs treats from beneath bed

Speaking of cats, what is it with cats and their love of ninja-style antics?

This week’s example shows one cat’s attempt to hide from its owners underneath their bed going not-so smoothly given that it continually steals food from its fellow house cat.

His poor friend is left feeling helpless as the ginger cat grabs every morsel of food right in front of its fellow cat’s face.

Shall we set up a Kickstarter for it?

Uploaded: 10 February 2015

‘Gerbil’ on Family Feud

Family Feud, a TV show often called the internet’s favourite game show is more an insight into a person’s strangest inner-thought process than a word-association game.

This week, the game show’s host, Steve Harvey, asked a question that was bound to get some bizarre answers: “Name something a doctor might pull out of a person.”

As you might have guessed, the contestant’s first guess is ‘gerbil’. Cue an amazing laugh response from her competing challenger and a perplexed reaction from Harvey.

Uploaded: 9 February 2015

Tiny hamsters’ tiny date

Yet another Valentine’s Day tie-in, this time involving adorable hamsters eating adorably-sized portions of spaghetti and meatballs, from the guys over at HelloDenizen.

Aside from just eating the specially prepared food, they manage to keep the hamsters from running off just enough so as to get them to ride in a Venetian gondola.

Of course, given that they’re hamsters, they spend more time shoving food into their enormous cheek pockets rather than actually eating the food but it gets the love-filled message across.

Uploaded: 9 February 2015

Never sing Frozen wrong to a fan

Frozen is a pretty big deal among the kids these days, if you haven’t noticed, with Elsa dolls and various other merchandise from the film still dominating their bedrooms and walls.

They especially know all the words of the songs Let It Go and Do You Want to Build a Snowman?, the latter of which was defended so vehemently by one child that she felt the need to shout at her father for getting it wrong (on purpose).

All of which ends in hilarity.

Uploaded: 8 February 2015

Alyson Stoner – Missy Elliott tribute

Hi, this is Alyson Stoner. You might remember her from such music videos as Missy Elliot’s Work It, Gossip Folks and I’m Really Hot but otherwise she has danced a lot in those Step Up films where teens take out their angst not through illegal activity, but with provocative street dancing in a PG setting.

Now, as her own music career is on the up, Stoner has gone back to her roots to create a music and dance tribute to Elliot, all while having the down-to-Earth decency to take out her own rubbish at the end of the video.

She’s environmentally conscious and she’s a great dancer. Is the world ready for Alyson Stoner? Yeah, probably.

Uploaded: 12 February 2015

Take Me to Church ft dancer Sergei Polunin

There’s not many bad boys in ballet but Sergei Polunin is arguably the most famous of the lot, given his resignation as principal dancer of the British Royal Ballet in 2012 because of a number of issues in his personal life, including drugs, but he is now making a break for Hollywood.

One of his first steps, it seems, has been to star in a dance interpretation of Ireland’s own Hozier and his worldwide hit, Take Me to Church, directed by David LaChapelle.

Pretty impressive, you have to say.

Uploaded: 7 February 2015

Conan and Steven Yeun go to a Korean spa

Those with fears of appearing naked in public may want to look away now if they don’t want to see chat-show host Conan O’Brien and older men parade in front of the camera at a Korean spa.

Joining O’Brien on his delving into the unknown was The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun, who is aware of the goings on in a Korean spa.

Cue O’Brien getting handsy in the sauna room, screaming in agony during his body scrub and failing to pick up any ladies during his stay in his delightfully awkward way.