2007: The Year in Review (Part 2)

Our staff continues to reminisce on the moments and videos that stood out for them this year.



Chocolate What?

Any YouTube music '07 roundup has to start with the captivating baritone of Tay Zonday, whose Chocolate Rain sparked a flurry of video responses by everyone from McGruff the Crime Dog to Tre Cool from Green Day. (With all that attention, is it surprising that even Dr. Pepper picked up the trend?) Tay was in good company in a wider sense, too, as the site surged with top-notch unsigned talent. A few of these musicians participated in YouTube launch events around the world, including German user Tuaana, who performed a new song at the gathering in Berlin, and French Canadian Dee Montreal, who not only raised the roof in Toronto to celebrate YouTube Canada with his band but also brought his DJ skills to wrap up the YouTube Russia bash. It was the year you got unique access to bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and The New Pornographers, both of whom jumped wholeheartedly into this thing called the YouTube community. I'll leave you with one of my personal favorites, a faux-vintage clip from mighty soul songstress Sharon Jones, which we premiered on YouTube a few months ago.








– Michele K-Tel aka YouTunes







A Web of Entertainment



If there is one thing that 2007 has taught us, it's that "viral video" is about as unpredictable as Beyoncé and a flight of stairs. And in an equally unexpected turn, many of the Most Viewed Entertainment videos this year were uploaded as part of an original series or web show. Creators like pinktheseries, epic-fu, GOODmagazine, and wwwBLACK20com share their videos week after week hoping to catch the eyes of millions. Here are a few of the most buzzed about Entertainment videos of 2007 – they're the ones I certainly can't get out of my head.



-– Felicia W. aka webisodewiz










Skateboarding Twins, Frying Pan Flexure, 15 Laterals and More…



When I joined YouTube last June, the NBA Playoffs were in full swing and, being the committed (some would say "insane") basketball fan that I am, I was naturally drawn to hoops highlights, such as Baron Davis' in-de-face! dunk over Andrei "AK-47" Kirilenko. Along those lines, I was thrilled to find that some of the biggest stories in pro sports lived on our site, like David Beckham's first goal for the L.A. Galaxy and Appalachian State's David-vs-Goliath upset of mighty Michigan.



But over the past half year I've also come to love our cadre of wildly creative sports vloggers like Paul "Fitzy" Fitzgerald, Kige Ramsey aka SlyFox4569, Braves Girl 5 and, of course, the Bleacher Bloggers. For any big event in sports - amazing play, major trade, controversy, whatever - I'm as interested in their collective reaction as in seeing the event itself. Like a lot of people, I also became fascinated with young talent, including Aussie soccer prodigy Rhain Davis and the incredible Skateboarding Twins, Nic and Tristan Peuhse. And in the the slightly-weird-but-somehow-compelling category, the images of body builder Aneta Florczyk bending a frying pan are permanently burned into my retina, as is skateboarder davetheknave riding in a giant bowl of blue balloons.



If there's one video from the past year that I can't get enough of, though, it's Trinity University's desperate, ridiculous, absurd, amazing 15 lateral passes on the final play of the game to beat Millsaps College. Ladies and gentlemen, this play is proof that miracles can and do happen.



-- Andrew B. aka playactionpass










The Year in Comedy



In 2007, sketch comedy continued its mighty online reign with talented sketch groups like P0YKPAC, Awkward Pictures, Picnicface, freeloveforum and Waverly Films sharing the spotlight with successful 'old-timers' like Derrick Comedy, Blame Society Films, LisaNova and Barats and Bereta, all of whom continued to put out top-notch content.



With the presidential election only a year away, 2007 also saw the viral success of the political parody: from Obama Girl to Giuliani Girl to Hott4Hill, almost every front runner was in on the action. The celebrity ode also rose to prominence, with Paris in Jail receiving 12 million views and counting, and Chris Crocker practically taking over the world with Leave Britney Alone.



–- Sara P. aka TheStoryBoard