Evolution of a Viral Video

Over Thanksgiving, a co-worker of mine set up a nifty gaming environment for his sons.  He hooked up a Wiimote to his laptop via Bluetooth to play Need for Speed.  Next, he took it a step further by attaching the Wiimote to a spring horse to create an arcade style game in his living room.  It was a one time thing, but he just happened to have a camera available at the time, so he recorded the video of his son playing.  Later he uploaded that video to YouTube.  What happened next was unexpected.

His video got popular...extremely popular.  His video has been viewed thousands of times, which is quite impressive.   At present he has over 600 Diggs.  YouTube lists over 16,000 views.  Gizmodo lists over 12,000 views.  That video now exists on CollegeHumor and Evil Avatar, as well as several "gadget" web sites.  In response, the guy had to create a web site devoted to answering questions and dispelling myths.  Keep in mind that the only thing he did was upload his video to YouTube.  That's it.  The closest I have come to viral video popularity is my video of the Carolina Hurricanes raising their Stanley Cup Champion banner, which only had 495 views.  No where near the popularity his video has reached.  I have had a front row seat to watch the viral aspect of my co-worker's video.  There is a definitive "tipping point" that has been met.