Top 10 Best Viral Videos of 2011

December 17th, 2011

It’s been another great year for the Interwebs and a new round of videos have gone viral, giving us cause for much laughter, many memes and an all around appreciation for unlikely internet superstars. Whether it was little girls singing Super Bass, outrageous pranks, or the quintessential cat/baby/elderly people vids, the best viral videos of 2011 have given us lots of reasons to stop doing our homework and watch YouTube. Check out our list of the top 10 viral videos of 2011!

10. Le Internet Medley
Posted: November 9, 2011
Views: 9 709 295
Viral Achievement: A nice compilation to keep us reminded of many Internet memes
Of course this video had to go viral! It had all the Internet memes that we’ve seen to remind us of how much time we actually spend on the Internet. This trio from Israel included some of the viral videos from this list into the song, such as Nyan Cat and Friday by Rebecca Black. Can you spot any other memes? There’s about 40!

9. Jimmy Kimmel’s YouTube Challenge
Posted: November 2, 2011
Views: 24 292 991
Viral Achievement: Kids hating their parents and new challenges
This viral video takes after the classic viral video type of being celebrity endorsed. Jimmy Kimmel challenged parents to tell their children that they ate all of their Halloween candy and record their reactions. There were many cries and comedic one liners. Since then, a few kids have been interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel and he has gone on to create the Christmas challenge where he told parents to record the reactions of their children opening up terrible Christmas presents. Nice one, Jimmy Kimmel! I wonder what we can expect for Valentine’s Day!

8. Dubstep Dance
Posted: September 23, 2011
Views: 21 168 466
Viral Achievement: Appreciation for dubstep and dance
This year proved to be the start of new crazes and in the case of this video, it was dub step. Dancer Marquese Scott dances to the dubstep version of Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People and does an amazing job of making it look like he is the music. This video takes the classic viral video of an awesome dance.

7. Coneing
Posted: June 5, 2011
Views: 7 219 782
Viral Achievement: A Justin Bieber attempt!
When ‘planking’ became a huge sensation, everyone wanted to make the next big hit. This was the story for Alki Stevens, a comedian from Australia, who invented coneing by going through drive throughs to order ice cream cones and grabbing them by the ice cream instead of the cone. A messy prank indeed, but it caught on and grabbed the attention of Justin Bieber, who also went coneing.

6. Notorious B.I.G. calms down crying baby
Posted: November 8, 2011
Views: 2 536 143
Viral Achievement: A reminder that babies do amazing things
While this video is fresh and still climbing up the viral charts, it has all the makings of a viral video: a baby doing something out of the ordinary. This classic viral video type has baby Rachel crying, but as soon as Notorious B.I.G. comes on, she is satisfied! This is why any kind of music is awesome as they all have the power to make a difference!

5. Webcam 101 for Seniors
Posted: August 21, 2011
Views: 9 105 087
Viral Achievement: A reminder that old people are too cute
When you mix the elderly with new technology, you get hilarious results like this video. The Huffman couple shows us how to make a monkey face and sing a tune while trying to capture a photo. Since then, the couple has learned to make more videos showing their ability to capture videos instead!

4. Man with Golden Voice
Posted: January 6, 2011
Views: 17 141 348
Viral Achievement: A make over and job offers
Although this video was posted during the beginning of the year, we have brought it back to remind you of a classic type of viral video: the sob story. Ted Williams was a homeless US man with a voice that was declared golden after being discovered by a reporter. Since then, he has been offered many jobs in the broadcasting field and is no longer homeless. The power of the Interwebs has given this man a second chance!

3. Nyan Cat
Posted: April 5, 2011
Views: 53 010 805
Viral Achievement: Halloween costumes
Of course there had to be one cat video that made the list and this pop tart rainbow streaming cat takes the cake…or the tart. For less than four minutes, this cat animation repeats meows merged with a Japanese pop song while flying through space. Why we chose to sit through and watch it, we’re not sure, but it reached Halloween costume status, which definitely counts for something!

2. Friday by Rebecca Black
Posted: March 2011
Views: The original video was deleted due to copyright issues but it probably reached nine figures!
Viral Achievement: Many jokes and memes

How could this video not make the list? Even though we love to hate it, it’s hard to deny the fact that it has made our Fridays even funnier than they should be. The music video was posted under a record company by the name of Ark Music Factory, which signs young teens to their label to record ‘music.’ At first, many weren’t sure whether this song was a joke or not, but when Rebecca Black started to teach us which days came before and after Friday, we knew we had to take her seriously. Since then, she has brushed off the haters and has handled fame like any other fourteen year old should. She has gone on to create more music and attended many award shows throughout the year.

1. Super Bass by Sophie Grace Brownlee
Posted: September 19, 2011
Views: 25 832 072
Viral Achievement: Super stardom!
This video did not take long to get the attention of Nicki Minaj since everyone who knew the rapper contacted her as soon as they saw the video. Two little girls dressed up as ballerinas from England posted this video of Sophia, an eight year old, rapping all the verses of Super Bass and singing better than most of us could. As a result, the girls got to go on The Ellen Degeneres Show and met their idol, Nicki Minaj, who sang with them and gave them a shopping spree at Toys R’ Us! Since then the girls have met more celebrities who have also watched their videos. In the words of Nicki, “music is beautiful but I want you guys to stay in school!”

There are way more viral videos for this year but this is Holiday Wrap’s best ten viral videos of 2011. Which videos do you think should have made the list? Which one is your favourite? Let us know!

Want more Holiday Wrap? Check out playlists, photo galleries, best of lists and more here!

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