Viral Videos

In the past two or three days you may have seen what is supposed to be the bio video of a woman named Debbie for the dating site eHarmony. Debbie has an MBA from Villanova and she loves cats. She really loves cats. The video which spread rapidly through the various networking sites is actually a spoof. Indeed, eHarmony does not even use bio videos. Regardless, the video is an example of a phenomenon that has existed for some time: the viral video.

A viral video is any video spread through video sharing sites (such as YouTube), social networking sites, email, and so on that becomes so popular it is ubiquitous on the internet. They are essentially the internet video equivalent of the rumours and folk tales that have been spread from person to person from the beginning of mankind. As such it should not be surprising that viral videos existed even before the advent of such video sharing sites as YouTube and DailyMotion. In fact, the earliest viral videos arrived on the scene not long after the creation of the World Wide Web. Those of you have been on the Web from its early days may remember the obnoxious and nearly inescapable"Dancing Baby" video that arrived on the scene in 1996. "The Dancing Baby" became so inescapable that it appeared multiple times on the TV show Ally McBeal and was parodied on the shows Millennium, Celebrity Deathmatch, and The Simpsons.

Another well known viral video that pre-dates video sharing sites such as YouTube was known as "The Star Wars Kid." In 2002 a Canadian teenager made a video tape of himself pretending to be a Jedi, swinging a golf ball retriever as if it was a light sabre. Unfortunately a classmate discovered the video, then showed it to a friend who made a computer file from the video tape. The video was distributed amongst students at the teenager's high school, and then around 14 April 2003 it was uploaded to the World Wide Web. From there it took off, until finally a version existed complete with the Star Wars theme and the sound effects of a light sabre.

Of course, the spread of viral videos would be helped immensely by two phenomena. The first was changes in the means through which people access the internet, as more and more people around the world began accessing the internet through cable connections rather than the much slower dial up connections. Those of you, like me, who have been on the internet since the early days can probably remember trying to watch videos on dial up--often the video would take longer to buffer than the length of the actual video itself. This problem was solved with cable connections, in which even movie length videos would run almost immediately, with little to no buffering.

The second phenomenon was the advent of the video sharing site. Video sharing sites had actually existed since 1998, when the very first, ShareYourWorld.Com, was launched. ShareYourWorld.Com would pretty much crash and burn, but it would pave the way for other video sharing sites. MetaCafe was founded in 2002. YouTube and Dailymotion were founded in 2005. It was YouTube that would prove to be the most successful and that would lead the way in the use of video on the internet. It also made much easier than ever before for videos to go viral. Of course, much of the reason that MetaCafe, YouTube, and Dailymotion succeeded where ShareYourWorld.Com failed was, quite simply, the fact that in 1998 most people were still using dial-up to access the internet. By the mid-Naughts, many more people were using cable connections to access the net.

This has led to an explosion in viral videos, to the point that it seems as if there is at least one a week, usually many more. It has also led to a whole new phenomenon--individuals intentionally creating videos meant to go viral. A perfect example of this could be the aforementioned spoof of bio videos for dating sites mentioned above. I rather suspect that whoever created the video fully intended it to go viral. Another example was created by Indigo Productions as a parody of yet another viral video. "The JK Wedding Entrance Dance" featured a wedding party, from groomsmen to bridesmaids to the bride and groom themselves, dancing down the aisle. The video went viral days after it was uploaded to YouTube. Indigo Productions, a video production company located in New York City, created its own parody of "The JK Wedding Entrance Dance" with "The JK Divorce Entrance Dance." Of course, this points to another phenomenon that had existed at least since "The Dancing Baby:" parodies of viral videos.

Of course, as might be expected, viral videos have created internet celebrities. Perhaps no better example of this is Justin Bieber, whose career began simply because of viral videos. Starting in 2007, his mother uploaded videos of his various performances to the internet. This in turn led to Bieber being discovered by a record executive who signed him. The rest, as they say, is history. An even earlier example of a celebrity created by viral video, although one whose fame was a bit more fleeting, was Gary Brolsma. In 2004, even before YouTube was founded, Mr. Brolsma uploaded a video of himself, taken by webcam, lip syncing "Dragostea din tei" by O-Zone. For a time it seemed as if Mr. Brolsma was ever present, not only on the Web, but on television as well. And while he still makes videos, he is no longer seen as often as he once was.

Viral videos are not only capable of creating celebrities, but they can also created problems as well. In the instance of the "Star Wars Kid," the video was uploaded without his permission. As a result he suffered teasing and bullying not only from his schoolmates, but even the public at large. This resulted in a lawsuit against those who had uploaded the video. Oddly enough, his parents only sued because of the distress caused by the posting of the video. They did not sue because of copyright infringement, which they certainly would seem to have had a right to do so. After all, their son made the video and it was posted without his permission.

Regardless, there have been other instances where the owners of a particular material have insisted on enforcing their rights. Many viral videos contain content that is not original and owned by someone else, whether it is a song or footage from a film. In such instances it is not unusual for the copyright owner to enforce his or her rights when a viral video uses their material. A perfect example of these are the ever popular "Hitler Reacts to..." videos, in which Hitler reacts to such incidents as Michael Jackson's death, the break up of Oasis, and  so on. The original footage was from the film Der Untertang, produced by Constatin Films, and portrayed Hitler reacting to news that Germany cannot win World War II. In April 2010 the studio began the rather hopeless task of getting every "Hitler Reacts to...." video pulled off the internet.


As to why videos go viral, that may be a difficult question to answer. If viral videos are considered the equivalent of rumours, then perhaps we could apply Robert Knapp's theories regarding rumours from his study "A Psychology of Rumour." Knapp theorised that rumours "provide 'information' about a 'person, happening, or condition' and that "they express and gratify 'the emotional needs of the community.'" Now I am not sure how much information viral videos actually convey, but they would seem to "express and gratify the emotional needs of the community" in some way. How they do this perhaps varies from video to video, although all of them probably satisfy some need for entertainment on the part of society.

Of course, just how entertaining many of these viral videos are is questionable. I personally found "The Dancing Baby" annoying more than entertaining. And while the aforementioned "bio video for a dating site spoof" starts out funny, it actually slides into being downright disturbing as the woman continues talking about cats. I also found "The JK Wedding Entrance Dance" irritating, although I thought its parody, "The JK Divorce Entrance Dance" to be hilarious. Anyway, my point is that I really do not know how many of these videos ever went viral as they simply do not seem to be very entertaining to me. I can only suppose I am atypical of the average internet user.

At any rate, viral videos existed almost from the beginning of the World Wide Web, well before YouTube. There can be little doubt that they will continue to proliferate in the coming years. In fact, I rather suspect they will become more and more common, as more individuals access the internet through cable and devices capable of recording video (cell phones, digital cameras, et. al.) before more and more commonplace.

"Only Make Believe" by The Misfits

It is a little known fact that Conway Twitty was originally a rock 'n' roll singer. Indeed, he actually had some success in the genre, namely with a song he and Jack Nance wrote entitled "It's Only Make Believe." Released in 1958, the song was a huge hit, going to #1 not only in the United States, but in the United Kingdom and Canada as well. If ever there was an instant classic, this was it. Despite such success, Conway Twitty switched to the country genre, making songs that were often as bad as "It's Only Make Believe" was good.

Fast forward forty five years and horror punk band The Misfits are recording a new album. Entitled Project 1950, it is filled with covers of Fifties songs, including "This Magic Moment," You Belong to Me," and, under the title "Only Make Believe," "It's Only Make Believe." Personally, I think The Misfits did a good job with the song. Give it a listen yourself.

TV Producer Leonard Stern Passes On

Leonard Stern, who created the cult classic TV show He & She, wrote for such classic shows as The Honeymooners and  Get Smart, and co-created Mad Libs, passed on 7 June 2011 at the age of 88.

Leonard Stern was born in Manhattan on 23 December 1922. He attended New York University.  He began his career submitting jokes to Milton Berle while still in college. It was while he was writing for Dinah Shore that he was noticed by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. He made some uncredited writing contributions to their film Africa Screams (1949) and wrote Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950). He wrote on such films as Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950), The Milkman (1951), Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952), Lost in Alaska (1952),  and Three for the Show (1955).

Mr. Stern's career would be in television, however, as he one of the writers on the legendary show The Jackie Gleason Show.  He would also write for such legendary shows as The Honeymooners and The Phil Silvers Show (AKA Sgt. Bilko).  In 1961 he created the first of many shows, on which he also served as a writer and producer, I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. The series lasted only one season, but it hardly hampered his career. In 1965 Leonard Stern was brought on as a producer on a spy parody created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry called Get Smart. He also wrote many episodes of the show which would become not only a hit, but a classic. Mr. Stern was particularly active in the mid-Sixties, creating, producing, and writing for The Hero; Run, Buddy, Run; and He & She. None of them proved to be hits, although He & She was not only critically acclaimed, but won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy. It has since been regarded as one of the most brilliant comedies ever to be cancelled after only one season.


Leonard Stern would go onto create and produce The Governor and J. J., which lasted only a season, and then McMillan & Wife, one of the rotating segments of The NBC Mystery Movie umbrellas series. McMillan & Wife proved rather successful, running several seasons. He also produced The Snoop Sisters, Homes and Yoyo, and the television series version of Operation Petticoat. He also wrote the screenplays for the movies Just You and Me, Kid (1979) and The Nude Bomb (1980), a film loosely based on the series Get Smart. He produced and created the series Partners in Crime. He would serve as a creative consultant for the shows Sledge Hammer, The Nutt House, and the 1995 revival of Get Smart.

In addition to writing for television, Leonard Stern co-created the game Mad Libs with Roger Price. In 1953 while working on a script for The Jackie Gleason Show, Mr. Stern asked Mr. Price for an adjective to complete a sentence. Mr. Price's rather funny responses resulted in the creation of Mad Libs, the name suggested by someone at a cocktail party. The game, in which participants fill in the blanks in a sentence or even a story,  has since sold over 200 million copies. In fact, in 1963 Messrs. Price and Stern joined with a Hollywood publicist to form Price-Stern-Sloan Publishers Inc., with the primary purpose of publishing Mad Libs. The company was bought by the Penguin Group in 1993.

Leonard Stern would be remembered for his creation of Mad Libs alone, but he also wrote several hours of classic television. Indeed, while Mel Brooks and Buck Henry may have created Get Smart, it was arguably Leonard Stern who shaped the show into the one we know and love. Mr. Stern was possessed of  a keen mind with a gift for both parody and sophisticated humour. It is for this reason that He & She, although it only lasted a season, is remembered to this day. Few writers in television can claim to have worked on as many great shows as Mr. Stern did. That he did so is proof of his sheer talent. 

Special Effects Wizard Harry Redmond Jr. Passes On

Harry Redmond Jr., a pioneer in motion picture special effects who worked on films from King Kong (1933) to The Bishop's Wife (1947), passed 23 May 2011 at the age of 101.

Harry Redmond Jr. was born on 15 October 1909 in Brooklyn, New York. His father was also a special effects pioneer, Harry Redmond Sr., who ran Metropolitan Studios in Long Island. In1926 Mr. Redmond Sr. and his family moved to California. It was not much later Harry Redmond Jr. entered the movie industry, starting out in the props department of RKO before moving into special effects.  His first credit for special effects was Chance in 1931.

In four years as a special effects expert at RKO, Mr. Redmond would work on such legendary films as The Most Dangerous Game (1932), King Kong (1933), Flying Down to Rio (1933), She (1935), Top Hat (1935), and Lost Horizon (1937). In 1937 Harry Redmond Jr. struck out on his own and worked on such films as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Outlaw (1943), and The Princess and the Pirate (1944). During World War II Mr. Redmond built a studio for the Army Film Training Lab in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

Following World War II Harry Redmond Jr.  returned to Hollywood. He provided special effects for such films as A Night in Casablanca (1946), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and The Bishop's Wife (1947). It was while working on Storm Over Tibet in 1947 that Mr. Redmand met writer and producer Ivan Tors. Mr. Redmond would provide the special effects for Ivan Tors' movies The Magnetic Monster (1953), Riders to the Stars (1954), Gog (1954), and Battle Taxi (1955). He would also provide special effects for Donovan's Brain (1953) and Sitting Bull (1954).

Harry Redmond Jr. would eventually move from movies to television. His first work for a television show would be on the series Dangerous Assignment in 1952. Afterwards he would provide special effects for Ivan Tors' shows Science Fiction Theatre and Sea Hunt. He would also provide effects for the show The Outer Limits. Mr. Redmond served as an associate producer on the TV series Ripcord and Daktari, as well as the movies Flipper (1963) and Clarence the Cross Eyed Lion (1965).

Harry Redmond Jr. was true pioneer in special effects. Indeed, he worked on some of the earliest "special effects extravaganzas" in the history of Hollywood. Many of the films on which he worked are not simply historic, but legendary: King Kong, The Lost Horizon, The Prisoner of Zenda, Angel on My Shoulder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Bishop's Wife, and Donovan's Brain. While the budgets of the Ivan Tors' movies and TV shows on which Mr. Redmond worked were much lower than the classic feature films on which he had worked, one would not know it from the special effects. Even on a limited budget Mr. Redmond was able to create convincing and realistic special effects. In an age before computer generated imagery, Mr. Redmond was a true pioneer.

Wally Boag R.I.P.

Comedian Wally Boag passed on 3 June 2011 at the age of 90. He was best known for his many performances at Disneyland. His role as Pecos Bill in Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Revue was listed in Guinness World Records as the longest running stage show of all time.

Wallace Boag was born in Portland, Oregon on 13 September 1920. He entered show business while young, joining a professional dance team at age nine. By the time he was nineteen years old he had become a comedian. He performed as far afield as Radio City Music Hall in New York City,  the Palladium in London, and theatres in Australia and New Zealand. Starting in 1945 he was briefly under contract to MGM, appearing in bit parts in Without Love (1945) and Thrill of a Romance (1945).

It was in 1955 that a friend told Wallace Boag about auditions Walt Disney was holding for the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Disneyland. In 1971 Wallace Boag would take the character of Pecos Bill to Disney World in Florida. The original Golden Horseshoe Revue would end in 1986.

Wallace Boag would have roles in the Disney movies The Absent Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), and The Love Bug (1969). He appeared on such television shows as The Borden Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Muppet Show.

Wallace Boag would entertain literally millions over the years at Disneyland and Disney World. His performances would also have a last influence on various comedians over the years. No less than Steve Martin has cited Wallace Boag has one of his idols. In fact, Mr. Martin even studied Mr. Boag's performances. While Mr. Boag may not have been among the most famous comedians, he was certainly among the most influential.

A Shroud of Thoughts' 7th Anniversary

It was seven years ago today that I first began writing A Shroud of Thoughts. In the mid-Naughts, before the days of social networking sites, blogging had become a bit of a fad. I had a girlfriend who had multiple blogs and so I decided to start my own. In those early days I was not quite sure what I wanted A Shroud of Thoughts to be. There were pop culture oriented posts from the very beginning, but there were also personal posts as well. After several months, noticing that I wrote primarily about pop culture anyway, I did away with the personal posts and devoted A Shroud of Thoughts to pop culture in all its forms.

For those of you wondering where the blog gets its title, it is taken from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage canto iii stanza 113, quoted below:

I have not loved the world, nor the world me;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bow'd
To its idolatries a patient knee,
Nor coin'd my cheek to smiles, nor cried aloud
In worship of an echo; in the crowd
They could not deem me one of such; I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could,
Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued.

Over the years A Shroud of Thoughts has evolved. In the early days posts tended to brief, but they soon grew. Eventually I would start writing series of articles that could (and have) last as long as a week. Another big change is that in the early days there were nearly no pictures featured in the blog. Fortunately Blogger made it easier to incorporate pictures into blogs. Even more recently the advent of YouTube and other video sharing sites made it possible for me to actually include video on A Shroud of Thoughts.

I must say that in many ways I am disappointed in this past year of A Shroud of Thoughts. First, it seems as if more often than not I was eulogising some celebrity who has died. While this is hardly my fault (if it was up to me many of them would live forever), eulogising celebrities does prevent me from writing happier, in depth posts on pop culture. Another problem is that I have written less this year than in the past few years. This was largely due to my job (which I no longer have--our office was made redundant), which was fairly busy much of this year. This prevented me from getting much writing done.

As I have done ever since A Shroud of Thoughts' first anniversary, I am including links to what I consider my best posts for the past year, from 5 June 2010 to today. I generally list them in chronological order, but this year I decided to list my three favourite posts first and then the rest. So here are my three favourite posts for the past year:

An Interview with Actress Scarlett O'Neil 01/04/2011

The Avengers Turns 50 07/01/2011

Happy 100th Birthday, Vincent Price 27/05/2011

And here are the rest!

Kids' Afternoon Programming on American Television Part One 11/06/2010

Kids' Afternoon Programming on American Television Part Two 12/06/2011

Kids' Afternoon Programming on American Television Part Three 13/06/2010

Television Series Backdoor Pilots 28/06/2010

In Defence of "The Star Spangled Banner" 04/07/2010

Homosexuality and Hollywood 09/07/2010

1961: The Year Anime Arrived in America 25/07/2010

The Knack...and How to Get It 01/08/2010

The CBS Late Movie 13/08/2010

British Rock Musicals of the Sixties 21/08/2010

Defining Reality Television 02/09/2010

In Honour of John Lennon's 70th Birthday 09/10/2010 This one is historic as the first blog post I signed my given name to!

Lights Out 26/10/2010

The Horror Movies of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford 30/10/2010

Little Red Riding Hood 14/11/2010

Miscast: How Some Classic Films Could Have Been Very Different 21/11/2010

Jimmy the Raven: Frank Capra's Avian Star 11/12/2010

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) 23/12/2010

Facebook Blows It Again with Their New Profile 13/01/2011

In Defence of Remakes 06/03/2011

St. Patrick's Day Movies 17/03/2011

When Stars Go Bad 22/03/2011

Sir Dirk Bogarde's 90th Birthday 28/03/2011

The 10th Anniversary of Joey Ramone's Death 15/04/2011

Every Movie is NOT Like Funny Girl 21/04/2011

Marilyn Monroe Turns 85 01/06/2011

The Late Great James Arness

James Arness, who played Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke and the title creature in The Thing (1951), passed today at the age of 88.

James Arness was born James Aurness in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 26 May 1923. He was followed three years later, Peter Aurness, who would also become a famous actor under the name Peter Graves. He was a freshman at Beloit College in Wisconsin when he was drafted into the Army and assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. He was one of the men who made the landing at Anzio, Italy in 1944. Later he was on patrol and walked into a German machine gun nest. The resulting fire fight resulted in wounds to Mr. Arness's lower right leg. He spent months at a stateside hospital before he was honourably discharged in January 1945.

At the suggestion of his brother Peter, James Aurness attended school to become a radio announcer. He would be a disc jockey for only a few months to accompany a friend to California. He had only meant to stay a short while, but eventually decided to remain to take up acting. He trained in acting at the Bliss-Hayden Theatre in Beverly Hills, California. It was there that he was discovered by his agent.

Mr. Aurness would make his screen début in The Farmer's Daughter in 1947. He had small roles in such films as Battleground (1949) and Wagon Master (1950). Fittingly enough, he made his  début on television in a Western, in a 1950 episode of The Lone Ranger. For the next several years James Arness (he had simplified the spelling of his last name) would appear in such films as Stars in My Crown (1950), Double Crossbones (1951), Carbine Williams (1952), Horizons West (1952), The Veil of Baghdad (1953), Her Twelve Men (1954), and Flame of the Islands (1956). He would become a favourite of science fiction fans, appearing in two classic sci-fi films: The Thing From Another World and Them! (1954).  Under contract to John Wayne's production company, James Arness would appear in four films with The Duke: Big Jim McClain (1952), Island in the Sky (1953), Hondo (1953), and The Sea Chase  (1955).

Even though it was the role for which he was best known, James Arness was reluctant to test for the role of Marshall Matt Dillon in the television version of the hit radio show Gunsmoke. He worried that starring in a TV series could hamper his career in motion pictures. Even after CBS awarded him the role, James Arness was hesitant to take it. It was John Wayne himself who urged him to take the role, pointing out that it was a big break. Mr. Wayne would even introduce the first episode of Gunsmoke.

Gunsmoke was not the first adult Western. When it premiered in 1955 it was beaten to that title by The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, which had premiered four days before it. But Gunsmoke would prove to be the more successful of the two and as a result the more influential of the two. Gunsmoke would run for twenty seasons, a record matched only by Law and Order and surpassed by The Simpsons.  James Arness would appear in one of many cameos by television Western stars in the Bob Hope comedy Alias Jesse James (1959).

Following the epic run of Gunsmoke, James Arness would appeaer as a mountain man in the television movie The Macahans. He also starred in the short lived Western television seris How the West Was Won and the short lived police drama McClain's Law. He would appear in the mini-series The Alamo: Thriteen Days to Glory, a television adaptation of Red River and, starting in 1987, five Gunsmoke televison movies.

James Arness will forever be rememberd as Matt Dillon. And while that role occupied a large portion of his career, it must be pointed out that it was not the full extent of his career. If James Arness is fondly remembered by science fiction fans for his role in The Thing, it is not simply because he would later become Matt Dillon, but because he played the role so well. James Arness was flexible enough an actor that he could be an Indian scout, a pilot, or a mountain man and be convincing as all of them.

Of course, it must also be pointed that Mr. Arness must have had an enormous sense of commitment. After all, he starred on Gunsmoke for twenty years at a time even then when actors would leave series after five or seven years. He was definitely a consummate professional. For James Arness it was not the size of his own role that was important, but the show itself. He urged the writers and the producers to take the spotlight off Matt Dillon so that the other regular characters and even guest stars could have their own episodes. On the set of Gunsmoke, Mr. Arness was known for his easy going manner, his sense of humour, and a fondness for practical jokes.

Indeed, it must be pointed out that James Arness was not only a hero on screen, but off screen as well. During World War II he was awared the Bronze Star, Medals, the World War II Victory Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He was by all accounts a quiet man who genuinely cared about people. In fact, it is a mark of his greatness that in the event of his demise Mr. Arness had written a letter to his fans for his wife to post to his official web site in the event of his demise. Sadly, that letter appeared today. So great was James Arness that he thought of the fans who had supported him in his career in the event of his death. Until the very end he was a total gentleman.