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Ransom Riggs
Five great virals you may have missed in 2007
by Ransom Riggs - December 4, 2007 - 5:25 PM

I admit it: I’m kind of a video geek. A big part of that geekiness involves surfing the web for viral videos (in the name of “research”) when I should be writing/creating my own — so it stands to reason that I’ve seen a heckuva lot of virals this year. Somehow, though, these fell through the cracks: even though they ended up on other bloggers’ “best” lists, I had never seen them. By extension, they’re probably new to many of you as well. Without further ado, here’s the Best of the Rest of 2007!

Funniest 911 Call Ever

Cat Man Do
Deceptively simple and super-hilarious animation of a cat waking up its owner. Too true, too true.

Star Wars Trumpet Solo
A young beauty contestant and her trumpet. You really have to watch the whole thing to get the full effect, by the way.

Is Europe a Country?
If you thought that Miss Teen South Carolina kind of flubbing a question about why Americans aren’t so hot at geography was bad, former American Idol contestant Kellie Pickler’s knowledge of European geography is a true jaw-dropper. This is definitely a child left behind!

Winter Days
Okay, this never went viral, but it should’ve! Short and sweet, it’s a beautiful piece by Russia’s best animator, Yuri Norstein.

Elsewhere on mental_floss

The Countdown

10 Ways To Vent Your Job Frustration Online
9 Things That Might Kill You (If They Actually Exist)
8 Unique Magazines I Just Learned About
7 Pop Groups and Their Ridiculous TV Guest Spots
6 Beers We’d Never Drink
5 Crazy Reality Show Ideas Circulating on the Internet
4 Things You Didn’t Know About Johnny Appleseed
3 People I’m Glad I’m Not
2 Random Things I’ve Been Meaning To Show You (including history’s worst wedding announcement)
1 Amazing Fact to Leave You Feeling Good All Weekend

Comments (17)
  1. Wow, Winter Days…amazing.

  2. LOL. I love the 911 call. I hadn’t seen it. Thanks for the great post!

  3. I had seen a couple of these, but they were all worth watching. The cat video is probably my favorite, but only because I’ve been the victim of very similar activities.

    Also, I would just like to apologize for Kellie Pickler on behalf of my state.. I don’t live too far from her hometown (there’s a really good seafood place there), and I promise that we’re not all like that.

  4. The cat one is adorable! I’m sure anyone who’s lived with cats can relate lol.

    I couldn’t bring myself to watch all of the Star Wars one for the sake of my ears. That video makes me cringe whenever I see (or HEAR) it.

  5. “I thought Europe was a country”, “Is France a Country?”… I cried. Not that whole “I cried inside”, I cried, tears on my cheeks and all that. This is who we allow the world to see… *this* is our representation. Dear Europe, hell, Dear World, on behalf of my nation, I apologize. Clearly our standards are not high enough. We are a country full of awesomely cute cats, corrupt officers of the law, piss poor geography, and mediocre musical talent. It’s not that we don’t *have* better people, it’s just that apparently we’d rather not show them off. For the record, lets just say the U.S.A. is modest… really modest… modest enough to even lie about what we’ve got.

    And for the record, if I had a another cat, and (s)he was in the sink in my way… I’d be damn sure to show them what said sink was for (i.e. TURN ON THE WATER!). Cat’s don’t fetch, and they don’t obey commands like “move”… but any cat I’ve ever met would have vacated the premises when the faucet started pouring.

  6. I don’t think I’d seen any of these, so thanks! I was about ready to die on that Star Wars trumpet though. Did she even think to tune? Aaaagh my ears are dying.

  7. Oh my gosh. “Is France a country?” In response to the question, “Budapest is the capital of what country?” I love how she was SURE that they spoke French in Budapest. That’s just ignorant.
    I did find the cat cartoon really funny. Small children and cats seem to have a lot in common… Good thing I like both!

  8. “I thought Europe WAS a country…” The sad thing is, she actually thinks her ignorance makes her cute.

  9. What the %^&*# happened to that trumpet solo? It’s more than out of tune; it’s as if the backing track is in an entirely different key. What’s more disturbing is how she doesn’t seem to compensate in any way. My ears are bleeding.

    Great post, though – good stuff here!

  10. Oh My God!

    That first video was hilarious!

    “I think we’re dead”

    This page is bookmarked.

    -Diana Moneymaker

  11. In response to kannaida, my cat fetches and fetches well. She also does everything in that video, and if she had the strength to lift a bat or other weapon, we’d all be screwed. She’s currently learning to open drawers.

    As for Kelly Pickler, like Scoobnut, I’m from NC, not to far from her hometown. Unlike Scoob, I won’t apologize for her. She is a genuinely sweet and interesting person. Every country has less intelligent people. Not everyone can be brilliant, just like not everyone can be as nice or as talented as Kelly Pickler. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. And also to Kannaida, smarter does not equal better.

  12. That trumpet one is hilarious but you have to watch it all the way through. She starts to dance to the muisc… classic…

  13. the trumpet girl was kinda cool i want to marry her and we can have good looking nerdy kids

  14. Although every country DOES have stupid and/or unintelligent people, the proportion of the population of America who meet this description sees to be a lot higher than in other countries. What is worse is that it seems to be ok for America to be represented by these people! You like them enough to choose one as your president. jenny, you don’t have to be brilliant to know that Europe is not ‘a country’ it just takes a small modicum of very basic knowledge that apparently she should have learned at school. I don’t blame her for not knowing where Budapest is, a large number of people here in the UK probably wouldn’t either, but the way she appears to think its cute to be dumb makes me feel sick.

  15. Damn… as a trumpet player… that trumpet solo made me want to slit my wrists

  16. It’s not that every other country doesn’t have stupid people, heck, a majority of countries have piss poor education systems, it’s just that whenever someone in the U.S. does something stupid it is publicized much more.

  17. wow, i guess the lady with the trumpet was counting in her outfit to distract form the fact that she did not know what the hell she was doing.

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