Internet videos that gain rapid popularity are said to go viral. According to Wikipedia, such sharing started by e-mail in the mid-’90s: “Viral videos began circulating before the major video sharing sites such as YouTube, FunnyorDie, and CollegeHumor, by e-mail sharing. One of these early videos was ‘Dancing Baby,’ which surfaced in 1996.”

I remember the dancing baby — oh, we laughed and laughed.

More recent examples include “Chocolate Rain”, a cheesy music video that has garnered over 49 million views; the “Will it Blend?” series of YouTube commercials that show the power of BlendTec blenders by blending all manner of items, including a camcorder; Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” campaign where you tell a guy in a chicken costume to do stuff and he does; “United Breaks Guitars” a customer complaint song by Canadian musician Dave Carroll; and the famous will.i.am musical collage inspired by Barack Obama, “Yes We Can”.

Clearly viral video runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the mundane. It’s really hard to tell what will tickle our collective funny bone, which is why I tell my eMarketing students only others can tell you if you’re funny. Setting out to purposely create a viral video for marketing purposes is a long shot at best. If an agency type suggests doing so with a straight face, consider a sprint for the door. Creating goofy content for the sheer joy of being stupid on camera is fine; just don’t count too much on anything going viral.

This week’s viral video is further proof that truth is stranger than fiction. Democrat Hank Johnson is caught on video worrying that Guam might tip over and capsize due to an influx of American Marines. From examiner.com:

“Oh no! Guam may tip over and capsize, according to U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA). At a House Armed Services Committee meeting last week, Johnson was questioning Robert Willard, commander of the United States Pacific fleet about what effect the influx of Marines and their families would have on Guam. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson said, ‘My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.’”

In a remarkable act of self-control, Willard replies with a straight face:

“We don’t anticipate that. The Guam population, I think, currently about 175,000, and again, with 8,000 marines and their families, it’s an addition of about 25,000 more into the population.”

In response, washingtonscene.thehill.com provided a helpful lesson in geology: “Like other islands, Guam is attached to the sea floor, which makes it extremely unlikely that it will tip over, even if there are lots and lots of people on it.”

Stand down, put the water wings away, it’s all good. Phew.

To watch this bit of YouTube train-wreck theatre, just Google “Guam tip over”, and

remember, many of us are not funny when we try to be (ask my wife, pa-dum-bump), and are unintentionally funny when the cameras are rolling. Nowadays every phone is a camera.

Smile.

As usual, send me your feedback on Twitter at @dblacombe or via e-mail doug@communicatto.com.

Doug Lacombe is president of communicatto.com, a digital marketing, investor and public relations agency.

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