fig. 34
fig. 35
Numa Numa
The “Numa Numa Dance” is known as one of
the first viral videos on the internet. In the video,
Gary Brolsma is lip-syncing to “Dragostea din
tei” by O-Zone. (Fig. 33) The video is named
for the Russian lyrics “nu mă, nu mă iei” which
means “you don’t want, don’t want to take me.”
This song was immensly popular in Europe
when it came out in 2005. Brolsma has made a
number of sequel videos to the original, as well
as collaberating with Geico Insurance in 2009 to
make a fourth Numa video. The original video
reached peak popularity in 2005 after being
posted to Newgrounds and has since faded.
Banaphone
“Bananaphone” is a song by chilren’s musician
Raffi, released in 1994. It became a meme in
2004 when a number of Internet users almost
simultaneously created flash animations using
the songs. They were published on Youtube,
Newgrounds, and other forum and video host-
ing websites. They immediately beccame pop-
ular, spawing many flash cartoon parodies and
cross overs with characters and other memes,
such as the “Badgers” video. (See page 21) This
meme has not been popular since the mid 2000s.
fig. 36
Charlie Bit Me
In 2007, a video of Charlie, 1, biting the fin