One of the latest “viral” videos making the rounds of music blogs, Twitter and email lists over the past couple of weeks is the new music video from Weezer, the band behind such hits as Buddy Holly and Beverly Hills. In the clip, singer Rivers Cuomo and the other members of the band appear along with a troupe of Internet “celebrities,” including Gary Brolsma (the Numa Numa guy), the Eepybird guys (Diet Coke and Mentos), Tay Zonday of Chocolate Rain fame and others.
It’s a great idea. At the same time, however, it’s also uncomfortably similar to a music video that Canada’s own Barenaked Ladies did last year, for their song “The Sound of Your Voice.” Although Tay Zonday doesn’t make an appearance, the Numa Numa guy does and so do the Eepybird guys — and so do some other YouTube “stars,” including Matt Harding (of “Where the hell is Matt?”), Tony Huynh (a Canadian YouTuber known as “the Wine Kone”) and Brooks “Brookers” Brodack. As in the Weezer video, some of the stars sing along, although the members of the Ladies don’t recreate their own version of the Diet Coke fountains.
Tribute, coincidence or rip-off? Hard to say. There have been other similar homages to YouTube stars, including an episode of South Park called Canada On Strike that featured the Dramatic Chipmunk character (which is actually a prairie dog) and other YouTube celebrities. And Dan Meth produced an animated tribute to YouTube stars called The Meth Minute, which hit the Internet last year, not long after the Barenaked Ladies video. In any case, it’s clear which of the music videos the crowd really prefers: the Weezer video has more than 6.5 million views after just two weeks, and the Barenaked Ladies video has only 400,000 views after more than a year. How Canadian.