What we liked in 2013: viral videos
December arguably doesn't count as a proper month, so clogged is it with "year in review" lists: what was hot, what was not; what people were talking about around the world (Pope Francis, mainly) or in the UK (Andy Murray, Thatcher, bedroom tax), all set to the requisite sentimental music to let us know that hey, guys, we're all humans really, even if we've swapped face-to-face communication for cartoon emojis (appropriately, the most popular Instagram hashtag was #love). Here's some of what went viral in 2013.
Justin Bieber and Will Smith
Any "most popular" list will inevitably be saturated with our unquestioned masters and overlords: celebrities. And this year Bieber fever showed no sign of abating, with an Instagram photo of the aforementioned star posing with Will Smith, winning the title of the most liked picture of 2013, having garnered 1,496,070 likes. Meanwhile, Will and Jaden Smith rapping the Fresh Prince theme on the Graham Norton Show was the fourth most trending video in the UK.
One Direction's Niall Horan turns 20
If you find Beiber's popularity unfathomable, then one glance at the UK's third most retweeted tweet is likely to have you questioning just how far the boundaries of inanity can be pushed. Niall Horan's profound thoughts on the inevitabilities of the ageing process ("Yesss ! I'm 20! Wohooo ! No more teens!") was echoed more than 367,000 times. Teenage girls really do run the internet.
My Wedding Speech
Tom from McFly's 14-minute wedding-speech-in-song-form omnibus includes a rewritten version of his McFly hit Obviously, a thank you song addressing every member of the wedding party, and a background of a choir of children mawkishly singing It's All About You. It's possible to suspect, however, that it's all about Tom, especially seeing as he uploaded it himself. It's been viewed more than 11m times.
The Fox (What Does The Fox Say), by Ylvis
Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis dance around in a couple of animal onesies to a background of electronic dance music, speculating on the kind of noise a fox might make. The video was meant to be a parody of contemporary club music, but the plan backfired. It has become a huge success, has been played in clubs across the land and, with 288m viewers so far, is 2013's top trending video. Thanks for that, Ylvis.
Tom Daley: Something I Want To Say
This video blog of Olympic diver Tom Daley revealing to his fans and supporters that he is in a romantic relationship with a man not only nearly caused the tabloid press to explode, but also shot straight into YouTube's most trending videos of 2013, despite being released only this month. It has thousands of supportive comments published beneath.
How Animals Eat Their Food
This astonishingly dumb video from America shows a man engaging in various animal impressions while his companion attempts to eat dinner. He begins with a cow impression, which involves face planting his dinner while mooing. So silly it becomes funny, and clearly others agree. It was the UK's top trending video and has been viewed more than 90m times.
The Norwegian army does the Harlem Shake
This dance craze seems like a million years ago already, but it was only in February that videos of people performing the silliest moves in the history of humanity started being rapidly uploaded on to the internet. Just about everyone has done it since, from Charlie Brown and friends to Cara Delevingne, but this video is the original and best, and it has had almost 100m views.
'I've known you were gay since you were six and I've loved you since you were born'
The fight against homophobia reached fever pitch this year, with thousands taking to the internet to offer their support for gay marriage legislation worldwide and to decry Russia's archaic and bigoted stance. Stephen Fry's impassioned letter deserves a mention, but one of the most shared posts on Facebook appears to have been a father's letter to his son, which has been shared more than 250,000 times.