Viral videos of the week: Superman, Googleman and Paddy’s Day in Tokyo

23 Mar 2014

Still from 'Superman With a GoPro' by Corridor Digital on YouTube

We take a look at some of the most-viewed and most-shared videos on the web. This week features Irishmen parading around Tokyo, Google as a guy, a physics breakthrough, Superman with a GoPro, and irony.

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.

Spot the Irish at Tokyo’s St Patrick’s Day parade

The Irish diaspora has had a global influence. Did you know they even have a St Patrick’s Day parade in Tokyo? See if you can spot the Irish invasion. It’s not hard.

 

Uploaded: 17 March 2014

When the dog stays at home alone

This suspicious dog-owner didn’t know if she could trust her loyal mutt to stay off the bed when home alone so she installed a camera to keep an eye on him – the little scamp. Not only are the rules thrown out the window, but the misbehaving mutt even picks a fight with the cat!

 

Uploaded: 14 March 2014

If Google was a guy

For the second time, College Humor imagines what it would be like if the world’s most popular search engine was actually a man in a dingy office. The latest edition might even be funnier than the first, this time supported by guest stars the NSA and Bing.

 

Uploaded: 18 March 2014

Louis CK and Bradley Cooper demonstrate irony

This video starts off with a discussion between comedians Louis CK and Stephen Merchant regarding the TV show Inside the Actors Studio, which involves host James Lipton interviewing high-profile film-stars in front of an audience of student actors. What follows is a lesson in irony Louis CK won’t soon forget.

 

Uploaded: 18 March 2014

Disney and Pixar sings Let It Go

Last month, we showed you Cristina Bianco’s voice-switching performance of ‘Let It Go’, the Oscar-winning song from Frozen. While Bianco gave us songstresses and divas, vocal performance student Brian Hull gives us a singing cast of Disney and Pixar all-stars – all from one set of vocal cords.

 

Uploaded: 14 March 2014

Between Two Ferns with Barack Obama

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis is a Funny Or Die web series where the comedic actor dials up his irreverence and disrespectfully interviews celebrities, literally, between two ferns. A cult hit online, the latest episode features none other than the US head of state, who appeared on the show to promote Healthcare.gov to young people. He certainly found his audience.

 

Uploaded: 13 March 2014

Superman with a GoPro

Though action cam-maker GoPro has gone quiet ahead of its IPO, we still have great GoPro videos coming from fans, such as this creation from Corridor Digital showing what it would be like if the Man of Steel had one of these fantastic gizmos. Find out how the magic happens in the behind the scenes video (hint: it was a drone, some post-production speed adjustments and a dash of green-screen trickery). 

 

Uploaded: 17 March 2014

Prof Andrei Linde celebrates physics breakthrough

Our final video this week honours a scientific breakthrough from Monday, when scientists discovered the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation occuring right after the Big Bang, providing more evidence to support this theory of the beginning of life. In this video, theoretical physicist Prof Andrei Linde, one of the main authors of the cosmic inflation theory, receives this news for the first time from assistant professor Chao-Lin Kuo of Stanford University.

Uploaded: 17 March 2014

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Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com