My Name is John Daker
My Name is John Daker
This video is truly one of my personal favorite "viral videos" on YouTube. With around 4 million views on the various different versions, we see a portion of a televised recital at the First United Methodist Church in Peoria, Illinois. It features John Daker singing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" (often sung at Easter time), and "That's Amore". An odd combination for a short medley. 1
Henrietta and Merna Can't Sing
Another great video. This came up as a suggested video in the sidebar of YouTube while I was watching John Daker. This video has only received 1.1 million views, but there are countless parodies circling about. In this video we see the mother-daughter duo of Henrietta and Merna singing in a televised Christmas special. They sing "Go Tell It on the Mountain" with a karaoke backing track. 2
These two videos are each an example of one of the two kinds of YouTube Memes. The first video, My Name is John Daker, is an example of a "viral video". Viral videos are defined as a video that spreads without significant change. They are popular in their original version. The second video, Henrietta and Merna Can't Sing, is an example of a "memetic video". These videos are ones that become popular through parody, pastiche, or mash-ups. 3
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YouTube is a major part of participatory media culture. Videos can spread quickly across the internet where users can share or imitate the videos. 4
3 Shifman, Limor.Shifman, Limor. “An Anatomy of a YouTube Meme.” New Media &Amp; Society, vol. 14, no. 2, 2012, pp. 190.
4 Noble, Safiya Umoja, and Brendesha M. Tynes. The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online. 2016. pp. 65