I Knew You Were a Goat When You Walked Innnnn

Goats. Right now, they’re taking the music industry by storm. And as most spoofs do, it all started with Taylor Swift.

Whoever thought to synchronize screaming goats to the tune of Taylor Swift’s song “Trouble” is a pure genius in my book. Give that person a Nobel Prize. I constantly find myself laughing after watching video after video of goats singing to the latest tunes.

Unfortunately, these artfully crafted songs lessen the vocal credibility of some artists (cough cough, Swiftie), but others are just hilarious parodies where goat grunts and screams are inserted. If you don’t believe me, take a look at my top five goat parody videos for yourself. Dare ya not to laugh!

Image source shoeuntied.wordpress.com

5) Maroon 5 – She Will be Loved

Because every goat needs some lovin’ from Adam Levine. The romantic-to-hilarious transition kills me.

4) Katy Perry – Firework

K.P. gives goats everywhere the self-esteem they need to succeed. Baby you’re a fireeeeeeeeeeegoat!

3) Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You

Whitney’s powerful words show goats of her unconditional love. Thanks girl!

2) Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer

This throwback is a close tie for second. Bon Jovi helps goats keep the faith.

1) Taylor Swift – Trouble

Could a goat actually have similar singing abilities to T-Swift? Yes! The accuracy here is scary.

Watch out Swiftie, a goat may actually accept your next Grammy award!

Posted by Carolyn

The Stupidest YouTube Craze Yet

Now that there’s a 3 in front of my age I make sure to regularly check in with the 25-and-under crowd in the office to be sure I haven’t missed out on any new trend or viral sensation. That’s why my first reaction when hearing about “gallon smashing” yesterday was to immediately turn to Ben and ask if he knew what it was.

To my relief, he had never heard of it. Which means that 1) I’m hopefully not out of the loop yet and 2) that this stupid “trend” hasn’t caught on with the masses yet. There’s still hope in society.

Sure the Harlem Shake may look stupid and Gangnam Style was annoying after the first 30 seconds but both were pretty harmless, aside from thousands of productive hours wasted by the general public. On the other hand, gallon smashing, a YouTube sensation started by some punk-a** teenagers in Virginia, is wasteful, disrespectful and completely aggravating.

Image source dcist.com

The videos contain shots of teenagers strolling through grocery stores with jugs of milk and juice in their hands, seemingly normal shoppers, until they throw themselves up in the air, slamming the jugs into shelves and displays, knocking over things and spilling milk everywhere. The apparent humor comes in filming the reactions of unsuspecting bystanders attempting to help them up.

Without wanting to sound like a crabby old lady shaking my cane at the pesky neighbor kids, I was fuming by the time I finished watching the YouTube video. (Which apparently has been removed by the original party since last week.)

Not only is it a completely annoying idea, but one that uses store product that they haven’t paid for, wastes food in a time when food costs are only rising, and creates a mess that someone probably getting paid minimum wage has to now deal with. Even more, one instance on the video shows a display fixture fall apart when a milk jug slams into it.

We all do stupid stuff as teenagers. I still do stupid things sometimes. I just hope that people are smart enough not to make this the next big craze. Unfortunately, it sounds like some teenagers in Utah have already been dumb enough to try, and were charged with disorderly conduct as a result.

So, at least until this trend passes, the only people I’ll be helping up from a fall is the senior citizen crowd.

Posted by Emily

Gallon Smashing

Image source iDigitalTimes.com

Sick of Harlem Shake videos yet? I’m going to assume you are. Sick of funny YouTube fads? Probably, but make an exception for this new trend Gallon Smashing.

While I am no connoisseur like Dave Becker, I stumbled across this on Twitter one evening and with a name like “The thing that beats HARLEM SHAKE” how could I not watch?

Gallon Smashing is the latest in internet prank fads and really needs no explanation. The concept is basic: carry a gallon of milk/juice in each hand, pretend to fall in the grocery store and have your friend record it. Sounds pretty lame when I put it like that, but this video had me laughing the whole time.

By now there are hundreds of copy-cat videos of this on YouTube, so do a little “gallon smashing” search when you need a good laugh – you won’t regret it. Unless you’re the guy who has to respond to “clean up in aisle three!”

Posted by Nina

Best Day Ever… If You’re Into “Heritage Equipment”

Image source Mashable

Perhaps you know Dave Becker as the maverick Chef/Owner of Sweet Basil, an incredible Italian restaurant in Needham that has been serving up prodigious portions of freshly-made pasta to lucky diners for over a decade. You might also know him as the author of two (self-published!) cookbooks, including the recently released Stewed, which has a warm and cozy culinary cure for whatever brand of winter blues you suffer from, unless you’re on an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole.

But what you might not know is that Dave is a connoisseur of the most hilarious YouTube videos. He knows about them before they go viral. He knows about them before me! I have to thank Dave for showing me the most epic salty old man dance party ever, but his most recent find truly takes the cake.

Behold the joy of “Excited train guy, New York!”  It’s all great, but things really get crazy at the 35 second mark.

“That horn gives me the chills, and those chills have absolutely nothing to do with how cold it is here.”

Those crazy, crazy foamers. Is it weird that I’m kind of jealous of how excited he is?

Yup.

Posted by Susannah

Gamers vs. Beauty Vloggers – A New Low for Reality Shows?

Image Source DanceOn via YouTube

I would think that by now America would be sick of reality TV. Haven’t we all heard enough about the Kardashians, Snooki’s baby, and Honey Boo Boo? Maybe not. American audiences have always loved being entertained, and many of us feel there’s a budding talent star inside us. Consequently we’ve fallen in love with reality talent shows like So You Think You Can Dance, The Voice, and American Idol, where contestants reach for their dreams (or get crushed in the process). Unfortunately, as is often the case, entertainment industry producers don’t seem to know when enough is enough and when to say no to knock-offs.

Enter D-Trix Presents: Dance Showdown, the latest addition to the reality show set list. This “innovator” (aka tapped out copy-cat), is the first to be available solely on the YouTube channel DanceOn. For those who don’t know, the competition is essentially a ghetto version of Dancing with the Stars – YouTube stars that is. The show pairs 12 of these “stars” with a number of ”superstar” choreographers to dance their way to the top. We, the Internet viewers, are the judges and with the guidance of experts including Joey Fatone from *NSync and choreographer to the stars, Laurieanne Gibson, determine the final winner of the $100,000 prize. I can hardly sit through typical Dancing with the Stars performances with their cast of has-beens and wanna-be’s (yes, Kirstie Alley I’m talking to you), so I’m thinking Dance Showdown’s line-up of YouTube singers, beauty vloggers, comedians and gamers competing for dance glory is going to be pure torture.

As described on the show’s YouTube page: “Twelve dance-challenged YouTube stars pair off with four professional dancers to train, sweat, fail, and ultimately perform in an epic dance battle to win $100,000 CASH.” I’m curious about the credentials of any of these contestants, unless playing Call of Duty teaches you how to do the two-step. I guess beauty vloggers could get points for looking the part, but I’m thinking they might not be able to krump their way through a hip-hop routine.

Since the producers advertise that their contestants are dance-challenged and expect them to fail, it’s clear the “stars” aren’t in it for dance glory, but for exposure and fame. Reality check: just because Bieber made it on YouTube doesn’t mean you will. These hopefuls are just signing up for humiliation, while America looks in and laughs at them making a fool of themselves busting a move. Season 1 ended in May, receiving more than 10 million views (who watches this shit?!), but have no fear! Season 2 started on October 5^th.  Will you be tuning in?

Posted by Katie