The Top 5 Viral Videos of 2014 on WJBQ.com
2014 is just about done and according to Back to the Future Part II, we're about to begin the year of the flying car, power laces and the hoverboard. Okay, so it looks like the movie didn't get any of that right, but they also didn't predict the Internet and the dawn of the viral video!
We've assembled a list of the top 5 videos that went viral on WJBQ.com What does viral mean for us? We're not talking about the "apparently" kid whose video has been seen by over 18 million people, but our number one video was viewed by almost 1.7 million people on our website alone! That's more than the entire population of Maine! Three of our top 5 videos also happened in or were about Maine.
So here we go with WJBQ.com's top 5 viral videos of 2014:
Like it or not, 2014 saw the re-election of Maine Governor Paul LePage. You don't need us to tell you how the Governor has a habit of saying things that make news headlines. That reputation is what got him on a segment on Late Night with Seth Meyers called "Welcome Back" where Seth highlighted politicians he couldn't believe got re-elected.
This is what happens when a student at the University of Maine at Farmington gets a bunch of students and faculty together to do a lip dub of Pharell Williams' "Happy." A local viral video sensation was created in May of 2014 when Abraham Turcotte posted this amazing piece of work that has over 84,000 views on YouTube.
You're lying to yourself if you go to a hockey game and say you don't want to see a fight. It's as much a part of the game as the seventh inning stretch is to baseball. Well the Portland Pirates didn't disappoint back in February of 2014.
At the Colissee in Lewiston, with just seconds left in the game between the Pirates and the Adirondack Phantoms, a fight broke out that eventually involved the entire line and the goalies! Jeff Mannix, the play-by-play announcer for the Pirates said it best: "All hell has broken loose right now!" The video has over 249,000 views on YouTube.
2014 was the year of the Ice Bucket Challenge. It was a great way to raise awareness for ALS and in just one month's time, $94 million was raised for ALS compared to just over $2 million during the same time in 2013.
But of all the Ice Bucket Challenge videos we saw this year, the one posted by Gabriella Palko of Barrington Rhode Island touched us the most. Her father has ALS, and he joined her in the challenge. Not to sound cliche, but it made you laugh and made you cry. We had over 1.1 million views of Gabriella's Facebook video on WJBQ.com alone when we shared it.
Gabriella sent me this email after we posted it:
Hey Jeff! Thanks for the article and share of my ice bucket challenge video! I showed my dad and he could not BELIEVE it! The impact of this social media campaign has been staggering. Not only have ALS organizations across the country seen unprecedented increases in donations, but people are donating to my family and reaching out to me personally about their own battles with ALS or just saying how inspired they are! So thanks for sharing, it means a lot!!
-Gabriella
Our pleasure Gabriella.
Our number one video of 2014 was posted on January 22nd on WJBQ.com and came from Ontario Canada where a father and son were ice fishing. Dad got something big on his line so his son Steve Schaffer started shooting video. What happened next was an epic battle of man versus fish. The reaction of the two of them when Dad finally landed this monster was priceless.
It's been almost a year and 1.6 million views on WJBQ.com and we STILL see someone watching this video every day. Ice fishing message boards all over Canada have had fishermen debating everything from the size of the fish to how it should have been caught. It's always about the size of the fish isn't it?
So here's to 2015! Even if we won't have flying cars and hoverboards, maybe the Cubs will win the World Series, and there's no doubt we'll have some pretty awesome videos to share with you on WJBQ.com.
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