In YouTube Right Now, the Daily Dot looks at videos that catch our eyes, push our buttons, and move our dials—and that you’ve just got to watch. Right now!
Two of the biggest things on the Internet have just been combined: Lana Del Rey’s YouTube single “Video Games” and the best-selling young adult book series “The Hunger Games.”
It’s a combo destined for viral video greatness. And if the frozen YouTube view count ticker is any indication, it’s already there.
Watch it now, so you can tell all your friends you were the 311th viewer.
For those not up-top-date with Internet culture, Lana Del Rey is the controversial singer oft described as the “modern Nancy Sinatra.” Presumably home-grown from YouTube (though not really, hence the controversy), Del Rey’s official video for her single “Video Games” has been viewed more than 26 million times since its mid-August upload. Del Rey has seen equal amounts of praise and criticism since her Saturday Night Live performance weeks ago.
The Hunger Games, the trio of best-selling books by Suzanne Collins, has been turned into a Hollywood movie, with the first movie to come out on March 23. The official movie trailer has been viewed seven million times, and most YouTubers agree, this series is going “to kill Twilight,” both on screen, and in book sales.
The series is dark, thoughtful and violent—and takes place in a post-apocalyptic America ruled by a sadistic fascist President. Many YouTubers have uploaded Hunger Games songs onto YouTube before. Even the mediocre ones got millions of views.
Lana Del Rey’s “Hunger Games,” however, is the kind of professional content YouTube, and the rest of the Internet, eat up en masse.
Second City’s Holly Laurent stars as Lana Del Rey, and her parody is spot on. Lyrics like “a pita is a pouch of bread but that’s his name,” which reference one of the love interests in the series, has already become a favorite of the YouTube commentator crowd.
As for the video’s resemblance to “Video Games,” that’s the work of Chicago filmmaker Steve Delahoyde, who mixed pieces of the official “Hunger Games” trailer with random stock footage to mirror Del Rey’s original work.
“Perfection in every sense of the word” wrote arkaeoperix on YouTube.