Laughing Baby

Last updated
Laughing Baby
Born
William Nilsson

Sweden
Years active25 August 2006–present
Known for Comedy, cuteness [1]

The Laughing Baby is a YouTube viral video of a baby laughing. The video became an internet phenomenon and has had a total of over 100 million views across multiple uploads. Originally uploaded by a Swedish man under the pseudonym of spacelord72, and later re-uploaded and popularized by another user known as BlackOleg, the "Laughing Baby" is one of the few internet memes that have entered popular culture. [1] The original uploaded by spacelord72, has had 21 million views as of June 2021 [2] and the reposting by BlackOleg, titled HaHaHa, achieved 62 million views by Sep 2008. [3]

Contents

The video

The Laughing Baby video, which was shot by a Swedish man in his kitchen in 2006, [4] has a running time of 1:40, and involves a fixed camera situated on William Nilsson, [5] a blond-haired, blue eyed baby, who laughs after brief interjections from a voice in the background (presumably his father, Kjell-Åke Andersson). [2] The video opens with the Swedish text: "kan man ha roligare" which translates as "Can you have any more fun?"

Comments

The clip has become known for its disparate variety of commenters – from the amused to those concerned for the baby's health. [4] These comments were the focus of a Slate article by Michael Agger, who remarked that uploading the video was like "dipping a bunny into acid," further adding that the "Laughing Baby has become an internet monument, and posting a remark is like tagging your name on the Statue of Liberty." [1]

Impact

The Laughing Baby video became a worldwide phenomenon and the tenth most viewed YouTube video of all time. [2] [3] Its success is attributed to "cuteness" and its "adorable nature". [1] [6] The video appeared on the front pages of web portals such as msn.com, and has been the theme of several ringtones, which helped to further increase its familiarity and popularity. The baby was featured in the South Park episode "Canada on Strike", where he appeared alongside other YouTube celebrities such as Tay Zonday and Chris Crocker. [7]

The "Laughing Baby" video was shown to Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip during a 16 October 2008 visit to Google headquarters in Victoria, London. The Queen remarked that the child was a "...lovely little thing, isn't it?" and that it was "Amazing [that] a child would laugh like that." [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YouTube</span> Video-sharing and viewing platform owned by Google

YouTube is an American global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google and is the second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users, who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. As of May 2019, videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viral video</span> Video that becomes popular via Internet sharing

A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email. For a video to be shareable or spreadable, it must focus on the social logics and cultural practices that have enabled and popularized these new platforms, logics that explain why sharing has become such common practice, not just how.

"Ievan polkka" is a popular Finnish song with lyrics printed in 1928 and written by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The song is sung in an Eastern Savonian dialect spoken in North Karelia. It's sung from the point of view of a young man, about a woman called Ieva who sneaks out and dances the polka with him all night. The song is often mistaken for a traditional folk song, but the lyrics by Eino Kettunen are still under copyright. Later, a scat singing version of the song by the band Loituma was incorporated into the viral animation Loituma Girl, sung by Hatsune Miku, with Otomania arranged the music and providing Miku's voice manipulation, bringing the tune into worldwide popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jawed Karim</span> American co-founder of YouTube (born 1979)

Jawed Karim is an American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur of Bangladeshi and German descent. He is a co-founder of YouTube and the first person to upload a video to the site. This inaugural video, titled "Me at the zoo" and uploaded on April 23, 2005, has been viewed over 260 million times, as of March 16, 2023. During Karim's time working at PayPal, where he met the fellow YouTube co-founders Steven Chen and Chad Hurley, he had designed many of the core components including its real-time anti-Internet-fraud system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chocolate Rain</span> Song by Tay Zonday

"Chocolate Rain" is a song by American singer Tay Zonday. It quickly became popular after the music video for the song was uploaded to YouTube on April 23, 2007, and has since been viewed more than 135 million times. "Chocolate Rain" was ranked as the hottest viral video of summer 2007 by CTV and was awarded the 2008 YouTube Award in the category "Music". Lyrically, the song is a metaphor for racism against African Americans in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thriller (viral video)</span> 2007 video featuring dancing inmates

Thriller is a viral video featuring the CPDRC Dancing Inmates of a high-security penitentiary. In 2007, the inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), a maximum security prison in Cebu, the Philippines, imitated the zombie dance featured in the music video of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". The footage, uploaded onto video-sharing website YouTube, became a viral video. The idea behind the dance came from the prison's chief, Byron F. Garcia. Garcia first conceived the idea of exercising as an enjoyable way of keeping the prisoners mentally and physically fit. Music was then added to provide additional motivation. The convicts marched and danced to several songs, including "In the Navy" and "Y.M.C.A." by the Village People.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cara Cunningham</span> American actress and comedian (born 1987)

Cara Cunningham, is an American transgender Internet personality, songwriter, recording artist, YouTuber, and former pornographic film actress. As of October 2010, Cunningham's videos had received a combined 50 million plays on MySpace, and her vlog channel on YouTube was the 100th-most viewed of all time in all categories, with over 205 million video views, before Cunningham closed her YouTube account in September 2015. Her work consists mainly of short-form, self-directed monologues shot in her grandparents' home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of YouTube</span>

YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California, founded by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim– in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, since which it operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I'm a Gummy Bear</span> 2007 single by Gummibär

"I'm a Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)" is a novelty dance song by Gummibär, in reference to the gummy bear, a type of bear-shaped candy originating in Germany. It was written by German composer Christian Schneider and released by Gummibär's label Gummybear International. The song was first released in Hungary, where it spent eight months as number one atop the ringtones chart.

POYKPAC was a comedy troupe based in Brooklyn, New York City that consisted of Jenn Lyon, Taige Jensen, Ryan Hunter, Ryan Hall, and Maggie Ross. Its YouTube channel has over 71,000 subscribers and more than 88 million views. They are most well known for their YouTube videos Hipster Olympics and Mario: Game Over.

A literal music video, also called a literal video version, is a satirical remix of an official music video clip in which the lyrics have been replaced with lyrics that describe the visuals in the video.

"JK Wedding Entrance Dance" is a viral video originally uploaded to YouTube on July 19, 2009, featuring the wedding of Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz, using "Forever" by Chris Brown as the song for their wedding march. In its first 48 hours, the video accumulated more than 3.5 million views. The original upload of the video was the third most popular video on YouTube in 2009, and as of July 2021 had been viewed over 100 million times. Time magazine ranked the video at number fifteen on its list of the fifty greatest YouTube videos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Bit My Finger</span> 2007 Internet viral video

"Charlie bit my finger - again !", more simply known as "Charlie Bit My Finger" or "Charlie Bit Me", was a 2007 internet viral video famous for being at the time the most viewed YouTube video. As of October 2022, the video received over 897 million views. In May 2021, the video was sold as an NFT at auction for over $700,000. On 24 May, the video was set to Unlisted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PewDiePie</span> Swedish YouTuber (born 1989)

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage have made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators. He has been portrayed in the media as a figurehead for YouTube, especially in the genre of gaming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cats and the Internet</span> Images and videos of cats on the Internet

Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the World Wide Web. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet".

"Johnny Johnny Yes Papa" is an English-language nursery rhyme. The song is about a child, Johnny, who is caught by his father eating sugar when he is not supposed to. Versions of this song comprising more than one verse usually continue with variations on this theme.

Set Erik Adrian Summanen, better known as Seth Everman, is a Swedish YouTuber and musician. Noted for his shaved head and habit of staring directly into the camera with a deadpan expression in his videos, he came to prominence for making comedic piano videos and parodies of popular songs. He has a large following across multiple social media platforms including Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter, and is one of the most subscribed Swedish YouTubers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Agger, Michael (April 16, 2008). "Laughing Baby vs. the YouTube Commenters". slate.com. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  2. 1 2 3 Laughing baby on YouTube
  3. 1 2 "Swedish baby among most popular YouTube videos of all time". kullin.net. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  4. 1 2 "Laughing Baby". College Humour. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  5. ↑ "Svenske William, 2, får en roll i kultserie".
  6. ↑ Langendorf, Daniel (March 21, 2008). "Adorable laughing baby". last100.com. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  7. ↑ "Shut your F-king mouth, laughing baby!". southparkstudios.com. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  8. ↑ TheRoyalChannel (October 16, 2008). "The Queen visits Google London". YouTube. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.