This week, YouTube was instrumental in housing footage taken at Occupy Oakland—even refusing a police order to remove videos some cited as evidence of police brutality.
Meanwhile, YouTubers made gains in their video careers, a celebrity ranted, a politician was mocked, Japan unveiled new technology, and Halloween videos electrified us.
Three videos related to the Occupy Oakland police raid went viral this week, with two of them featuring Scott Olsen.
Olsen is a veteran of two tours in Iraq who was critically injured by Oakland Police in the early morning of October 26 during an Occupy Oakland protest.
The first Olsen video shows smoke clearing around a slumped figure. Once bystanders realize his condition, they rush to help him. Oakland police officers appear to fire upon them with non-lethal rounds as the protesters attempt to drag him away.
The second video of Olsen, taken less than a minute later, features a few of the same protesters frantically shouting “Medic!” as they carry a bleeding and discombobulated Olsen away from the police.
Both videos were downloaded and reposted multiple times, a response typical of the YouTube community when they worry that a video might be taken down.
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“Now is the time for action!”, an eyebrow-raising political ad for Herman Cain which the Daily Dot wrote about, trended this week with one million views. Another video, titled “Video Game President,” intentionally poked fun at Herman Cain. It clocked 400,000 views.
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A video introducing the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s new Spherical Flying Machine received 800,000 views after being featured on YouTube and hitting the front page of Reddit. YouTubers joked that the flying machine would lead to robots becoming our overlords, referencing a popular line from “The Simpsons.”
A rant by comedian and television personality Rick Mercer on the recent suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley received roughly 250,000 views. YouTubers also uploaded their own thoughts on Hubley’s suicide, which was related to homophobic bullying.
In other news of interest to the YouTube community, Wong Fu Productions hit one million subscribers this week, and filmed a skit in celebration called “One Million Subscribers.” Ryan Higa, who dominated YouTube charts early in the week, jokingly asked the group why it took them so long to hit that YouTube milestone. “One Million Subscribers” was the most viewed video in the Entertainment section on Thursday and Friday, with 500,000 views at press time.
Miles Jai, who shot to YouTube semi-fame with his breakout video “LIKE MAH STATUS” last week, is about to start selling T-shirts. “LIKE MAH STATUS” has been viewed 1.6 million times, and Miles Jai now has 46,000 subscribers—almost four times his count before his video got liked.
The most viewed video on YouTube this week, according to VidStatx, was Smosh’s “POKEMON IN REAL LIFE 3,” which counted 4.6 million views at press time.
A Halloween light-show display done to the tune of LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” received 4 million views in six days. “This is Halloween,” done by the same man and uploaded on the same day, got 3 million.
YouTube’s stylists also got into the spirit, uploading hundreds of tutorials related to Halloween make-up and costumes.
Plenty of videos that caught the Daily Dot team’s eye may not have popped this week, but we think they’re on their way—or just deserve another view.
Klout has been on every one’s mind—and a short by poopalley attempted to explain what all the fuss is about.
TheRasteri uploaded a video yesterday titled “A Brief History of Winamp” that is well researched and narrated, and this video of an “Awesome Paper Airplane trick” is, well, awesome.
Speaking of trickery, remember those “David Blaine Street Magic” YouTube sketches from three years ago? Well, that trio is back. Uploaded on the 26th, “David Blaine Street Magic Part 4” is approaching 100,000 views.
You can watch all the videos continuously on the Daily Dot’s playlist.