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DISPATCHES
posted 12/19/2007
Viral videos are hard to resist: forwarding one is like telling a friend a great joke without worrying that you'll mess up the punchline. Plus, they're only a few minutes long, so you're not really wasting time, right? Luckily, that is not for us to decide. We've combed the web for the most conversation-worthy videos of the year. (If you're at work, you may want to stop reading now.) They star, among others, a toddler who loves the word "bitch," a vagina-obsessed TV host and a pair of hand-holding otters. — Sarah Harrison
20. What's the Buzz? With Merry Miller
Watching entertainment reporters fall apart on TV is pure
vindication. You suspect that despite their slick styling and six-figure salaries, without a producer feeding them brainwaves through an earpiece, they'd all sound something like, well, ABC's Merry Miller. The very temporary host of ABC's "What's the Buzz" provided this year's most entertaining
celebrity-interviewer debacle, mangling her Q&A with Holly Hunter, pronouncing the word "controversial" as if for the first time, and ultimately signing off for the wrong network. — Will Doig
promotion
19. There Goes an Asshole
Who among us has not had a bike stolen or vandalized? When Shank Bone Mystic, a Brooklyn-based musician, had the wheels from his bike taken, he was able to obtain footage from a nearby security camera that filmed the whole thing, including several passers-by who didn't see the theft-in-process, or noticed but didn't do anything. Shank Bone put his feelings to music and put the music on the footage, creating the universal lament "There Goes an Asshole." — Sarah Harrison
18. Obama Girl
In this video, Obama Girl, also known as Amber Lee, wears a pink bikini, purrs to "B" that "you're into border security, let's break this border between you and me" and promises that he can "ba-rock her tonight." The clip was produced by the BarelyPolitical team; their slogan is "Bare and Balanced" and their YouTube page says they're "making politics sexy again." They may also have earned Obama some serious political capital. — Sarah Harrison
17. Otters Holding Hands
Within two weeks, this clip of two Vancouver Aquarium otters was the most-viewed YouTube animal video of all time. Experts say the hand-holding is a survival instinct to keep the otters from drifting apart, but we don't buy it. They're clearly best friends who are secretly in love with each other and too shy to do anything but hold hands, and now they're going to swim away to listen to the Postal Service together. — Gwynne Watkins
16. Harry Potter Puppet Pals in The Mysterious Ticking Noise
I'm not so into puppets, and the Harry Potter craze mostly passed me by, but this video is undeniably appealing. In it, a bunch of felt characters from Harry Potter chant their names in time to a "mysterious ticking noise," and at the end there's a big . . . something. Watch it to find out. Siblings Neil and Emmy Cicierega are the team behind Potter Puppet Pals and have created several other Harry Potter videos; with 27 million views, "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" is the most popular. Neil created the Flash-animation genre "animutation" when he was thirteen. Sigh. The kids these days, and such. — Sarah Harrison
