viral videos

The best April Fools' pranks are absurd but also have a kernel of believability at their core just big enough to reel people in.

While the notion that YouTube has been a 8-year-long contest and Google is finally choosing a winner and shutting the site down tonight is pretty hard to swallow on its face, Google did shock many people by announcing the shutdown of Google Reader recently. Perhaps Larry and Sergey are beginning to go all Howard Hughes on us?

That's how the below video just put out by YouTube operates. The basic premise is that YouTube has … Read more

When the Web gets excited, it can lose its faculties.

These might be critical or merely observational, but the effect can be comical.

Over the last couple of days, millions have been enthralled by a Pepsi Max video which, as they say, went viral.

It purported to show race driver Jeff Gordon putting on a disguise and going to a car dealer to test drive a 2009 Chevy Camaro.

He even put on glasses equipped with a camera. Yes, it made him look even more elegant than anyone wearing Google's future goggles.

Then, claiming to be Mike, he took Steve the car dealer for a ride. … Read more

I love a good viral video. Who doesn't? In preparing to work on this video and blog post, I decided to rewatch some oldies but goodies. JK Wedding Entrance Dance, anyone? I also made my way through a list of top click-earners on YouTube to find some I might have missed from a few years ago. Six minutes of Judson Laipply showing us the Evolution of Dance was supremely entertaining and I could easily see why it has earned all 209,558,808 views. And then there's the wondrous 17 seconds of a tiny baby panda's gigantic sneeze … Read more

For those of you with a dirty wit, please lend me some patience before you fly off the rails when I say that a group of NASA interns made a "Gangnam Style" parody named "NASA Johnson Style."

Wondering what's with the song name? Well, NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center houses educational programs for interns and students aspiring to progress further into the field of space science. The eclectic group of youths created a parody video that plays off Psy's "Gangam Style" in a geeky way by amusingly attempting to "inform the public about the amazing work going on at NASA and the Johnson Space Center," says a related video description. … Read more

Conan O'Brien recently had a little fun on "Conan" trying to envision what one notable director's interpretation of the recently announced "Star Wars: Episode VII" might look like. The director in question? Wes Anderson. I think you can tell where this one is going...

Han still shoots first! The tongue-in-cheek sketch was posted to YouTube by Team Coco, who comments: "Mos Eisley has never looked so cozy and artisanal." … Read more

The results of the first presidential debate are in, and despite a lackluster performance from the incumbent moderator -- the NewsHour's Jim Lehrer -- PBS was clearly the winner.

Now, the makers of an online privacy app are looking to further capitalize on the increasing interest in the political campaigns with a pair of viral videos mocking everyone from Obama and Romney to Mark Zuckerberg, all in the name of taking personal responsibility for safeguarding individual privacy on social networks.… Read more

Sarah Silverman, the comic actress whose 2008 video "The Great Schlep" helped focus attention on the young Jewish-American vote, is back with a new political project.

"Let My People Vote" is a website and social-media project that looks at voter ID laws. It showcases a video starring Silverman ranting -- in her trademark expletive-filled way -- about the laws that are part of this year's election story. An actress playing her grandmother and some guns make an appearance, too.

Paid for by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, this the latest project of Schlep Labs, … Read more

OK, stop what you're doing this instant! The pinnacle of robotic and viral video achievement (at least for the rest of today) has just been reached in the form of a four-armed, mohawked robot playing the drums in tribute to the Ramones' legendary song "Blitzkrieg Bop." You've really got to see this one to believe it. Seriously. … Read more

You set the stage after months, if not years of hard work. It's time to inform your corporate friends and distinguished members of the media to come to Los Angeles at a moment's notice, and tell them only at the last minute exactly where to go.

Everything is shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Only a handful of people know internally what the company has up its sleeve.

Announced: the Surface tablet. Revealed on June 18, it would change the landscape of tablet computing for decades, and rival the market dominance of Apple's iPad.

Then this happens. (… Read more