This was another banner year for stupid shit to waste time at work watching, with a plethora of viral videos making the rounds, spreading like proverbial wildfire — all too real of a metaphor for us Texans — and also creating a cottage industry of videos spoofing the most popular ones. After Governor Rick Perry’s last-ditch, Hail Mary of a campaign clip hit the Web earlier this month, it only took hours for imitators to appear. I was guilty of making one myself. Sigh.
The year started with the quirky, sad, uplifting, then bewildering story of Ted Williams, the homeless man with the “golden voice,” who still had some demons to deal with, even after becoming world-famous in a matter of days. 2011 ended with the death of Kim Jong-il and the curious clip of North Koreans openly weeping in the streets of their country in utter emotional shambles. Oh, and there was that video of the dog dancing to salsa music, which created a stir when some doctorates on YouTube claimed it was an act of animal cruelty.
Stuart The Salsa-Dancing Dog
North Koreans Weeping Over The Death Of Kim Jong-il
Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower”
Talking Twin Babies
Bully Beatdown Gets Real
Asians In The Library, Y’all
The Honey Badger Don’t Care…
Fua! Drunk Man Is Drunk
Nyan Cat Shreds Your Brain
eHarmony Cat Lady Loves Cats. Alot.
Chatbots Bicker For Our Amusement
Mariachi Whale Is Into It
Rebecca Black’s “Friday”
A Marine Asks Out Mila Kunis To The Marine Corps Ball
Herman Cain Imagines A World Without Pizza
The Force Kid For Volkswagen
Father Daughter Dance
Brinkley Vs. Young Tee Off On Each Other
Father-Daughter Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros Acoustic Cover
Ted Williams On A Street Corner
Duck Sauce, “Big Bad Wolf”
Halloween Candy From Jimmy Kimmel
Evil Kid’s Maniacal Laugh
Rick Perry & His Carhartt Jacket Are “Strong”
This article appears in Dec 22-28, 2011.