Viral videos of the week: Ronan O’Gara, Thug Life Cat and flying like Michael Jordan

20 Feb 2015

Basketball player Zach LaVine at the 2015 Slam Dunk Contest. Photo via YouTube

This week in viral videos, former rugby union player Ronan O’Gara makes an inappropriate comment, basketball player Zach LaVine channels Space Jam’s spirit, a selfie proposal, plus the most badass cat you’ve ever seen.

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.

Ronan O’Gara’s proudest achievements

Former former rugby union player Ronan O’Gara was smart to apologise for an embarrassing quip on last week’s episode of The Late Late Show. Asked by host Ryan Tubridy if it was his sporting achievements or fathering five children with wife Jessica that gave him the greater sense of pride, O’Gara responded, “I wouldn’t be nervous getting up on Jessica but I would be nervous kicking a ball.”

What follows is a cacophony of shocked and astonished noise from the crowd and Tubridy himself, while O’Gara sat there, clearly regretting his interesting choice of words.

“Back home in Paris. I have apologised to Jessica and I’m also sorry if I offended anyone else with my very poor joke on RTÉ’s Late Late Show,” he later posted on Twitter. The silly moo.

Uploaded: 13 February 2015

Thug Life Cat

This cat might be the most badass of all the internet-famous felines we love (and we love them all). Threatening to tip what appears to be a small glass candle holder off the table he or she is perched on, the shaggy grey pet’s owner pleads for reason. The cat pauses, looks to camera, and then pushes the object off with maximum swag, all to the sound of Dr Dre’s gangsta rap classic The Next Episode. A lesson to all cats on how to totally mean mug their owners.

 

Uploaded: 18 February 2015

Zach LaVine throws down the Space Jam dunk

The NBA’s yearly Slam Dunk Competition has the power to define basketball players’ careers. Ask Vince Carter, whose glittering talents have been overshadowed throughout his career by his inhuman 2000 Slam Dunk performance, or three-time winner Nate Robinson, who at 5 feet 9 inches showed that little guys could jump right alongside the big behemoths.

This year’s winner was Zach LaVine, who for his first dunk, donned former winner Michael Jordan’s Toon Squad jersey from everyone’s favourite basketball-themed kids’ movie Space Jam and delivered an earth-shattering dunk that earned the Minnesota Timberwolves’ player a perfect score of 50.

What can I say. He believed he could fly.

Uploaded: 14 February 2015

Star Wars pancakes

Pancake Tuesday was this week, much to the delight of all the starch fanatics among you. To mark the occasion, the official Star Wars Facebook account released this video of a skilled artist making pancakes in the shape of some of the series’ most iconic characters. As artistic as they are delicious, no doubt.

 

Uploaded 17 February 2015

Amazing selfie proposal

In a fiendish plot to capture such an important moment on camera, this man asks his girlfriend to marry him just seconds after pretending to pose for an innocent selfie. Her face was certainly worth recording for posterity. A still from the video should go in the wedding album, in my opinion.

Uploaded: 12 February 2015

Wheel of Fortune: Rufus’ grand slam solve

Wheel of Fortune solves are so much more satisfying when they come with just a small number of clues, but Rufus enters the pantheon of game-show contestants to win a round with just a solitary letter to go on. Host Pat Sajak can’t even get excited about this amazing win, such is the shock of the contestant’s grand-slam solve.

Uploaded: 17 February 2015

Dean Van Nguyen was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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