Spoof videos are biggest viral hits

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Abhaey Singh, founder of Indian Debating Union, in his video Talk It Out — Debater’s Rhapsody

Viral videos and pictures are like basic survival instincts for social network addicts and there were plenty of such videos to keep us all alive this year. Such videos gain popularity among the masses via Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email.

We spoke with some youngsters whose videos have recently gone viral. We also spoke with city youngsters about their favourite viral videos and pictures.
The moment Arunabh Kumar and his team heard the line Ishq waala love on screen, they burst out laughing. “We thought, kuch toh karenge iss pe,” says the IIT-ian, whose spoof of the Student of the Year track recently became a viral hit with four lakh YouTube hits in three days.
Called Gana wala song, it mocks the clichés in the video with lyrics such as Paise waala rich, moorkh waala fool and Shah Rukh waala, foreign waala, budget waala song.
Kumar, who has worked with SRK’s Red Chillies Entertainment in the past, adds, “In mainstream recording, they used to say yeh nai chalega, tum bachche ho (this won’t work; you are just a kid) so I thought there’s this beautiful viral space and we came up with our own thing.”
Psy’s Gangnam video that has spawned hundreds of spoofs and has already served over one billion viewership, is quite a hit amongst the city youngsters.
“Korean rapper Gangnam Style is my favourite viral video of the year. I love the way the eccentric rapper performs the horse riding step, goes gaga over a woman’s posterior and finally chases the woman of his dreams,” says Reitesh Aggarwal, a city youngster. “My favourite viral picture Four More Years is a photo of Barack Obama hugging Michelle. It is so cute that I have saved it as my desktop background,” says Anushree Mukherjee, a city youngster.
Striking a resonance with people from across the globe Talk It Out — Debater’s Rhapsody is a seven-minute rap music video extolling the virtues of civil debate, including its ability to guide public opinion, influence policy makers and create a stable society. At the time of this issue going to the press, Talk It Out had registered 1.52 million hits on YouTube in 13 days. The mastermind behind the music video is Abhaey Singh, founder of Indian Debating Union (IDU), which is “an independent global think-tank and a professional debating forum.”
“The rap in the video is very unlike anything you would hear, it starts off highlighting the importance of debate in society and even touches upon the unparliamentary behaviour of our politicians,” says Abhaey. He shares, “The creative process started with the lyrics, which came to me very quickly, mostly in one moment of inspiration. Everything else flowed from there.”
The jingle Hello Honey Bunny used in a commercial is also catching up fast amongst the youngsters. Some hate it while some are going nuts over it. The song is one of the most searched terms of Google this month and the video has already been viewed more than 4,00,000 times in the past 15 days.