Before YouTube turned into the dumpster fire of audiovisual junk it is today — full of kids playing whatever game is trending and vloggers who make you cringe — Google's video platform used to be a place for experimentation and discovery, where ordinary people expressed themselves for the love of it, not for followers or money. Back then, which feels like an eternity ago, viral videos were born more or less spontaneously, not mass-produced by an algorithmic formula.
About those videos is this list, created by Thrillist, of the platform's 'one hit wonders'. These are the ones that didn't necessarily arise from seeking or forcing success, but because they were discovered by users and elevated to fame on their unique charisma. The list has a hundred of these examples, mostly aimed at the American audience (since it's a US site). So here you won't find any "this is going to get out of control", nor "Love, Understanding and Tenderness", nor "Edgar's fall", but it's a nice list that, like all lists, falls way short of covering everything the web has to offer. It's a starting point, at least.
If you want to see the full list with the 100 best YouTube videos according to Thrillist, click here. From all of those, I chose my Top 10, which you can see below. Although someday I should make my own version, since all these and many more have paraded through the Recommended Links of the Week, so my list is sure to be much better than Thrillist's, hehehe. Enjoy them!
Battle at Kruger National Park
Keyboard Cat!
