We’ve put together a list of this year’s top viral videos, and those that were perhaps the most talked about online.
Popular music will always make the list of the most viewed videos on social media, and it is for this reason that we have chosen not to include them here.
Johny Johny Yes Papa (1 430 312 022 views)
This annoying children’s nursery rhyme video that very quickly became an internet meme is a nursery rhyme about a young boy who is confronted by his parent for eating sugar without permission, racked up almost 1.5 billion views this year after it gained its meme status.
Walmart Yodel Kid (60 736 580 views)
The yodelling kid became an internet phenomenon after a video of him belting out a spirited version of Hank Williams’ Lovesick Blues in an Illinois Walmart went viral earlier this year.
Do You Hear ‘Yanny’ or ‘Laurel’? (50 275 737 views)
Like a dress that’s either gold and white or blue and black, the two seemingly unrelated words ‘Yanny’ and ‘Laurel’ threatened to split the internet in half in May. The clip and original ‘Yanny or Laurel’ poll was posted on Instagram, Reddit and other sites by high school learners who said that it had been recorded from a vocabulary website playing through the speakers on a computer.
Soap cutting ASMR videos (over 25 million views)
This collection of weird and quirky videos managed to gain collective millions of views in 2018. What exactly are they? The clue is in the name, videos about cutting soap… Simple as that. For the most part, watching these soap cutting videos is simply a relaxing activity, attracting a community of millions.
Australia’s Glorious Giant Cow
Only two months ago, an Australian farmer introduced the world to an unbelievably large cow named Knickers.
Musk smokes weed (17 575 463 views)
Elon Musk is a powerful South African business magnate, investor and engineer, who earlier this year sparked controversy for smoking a joint with TV personality Joe Rogan on is internet podcast.
Logan Paul suicide forest (6.3 million views)
On the first day of the New Year, YouTube sensation and vlogger Logan Paul uploaded a video to YouTube in which he visited Aokigahara, a forest on Mount Fuji in Japan, colloquially known as the ‘Suicide Forest’ for the unusually high number of suicides that take place there. Paul made the faux pas of filming a dead body, aiming to prove that the stories were real. After the video was uploaded, Paul was widely criticised online for exploiting a man’s suicide for clickbait and video views. He made an apology video.
