THE STREAMYS (part 1)

This year on the 17th of February it was the third annual Streamy awards. Sort of like the Oscars but for the internet, with various web stars getting together to recognise all their creativity, comedy and most importantly  - talent.
Host Chris Hardwick did particularly well in my opinion, he was funny, charming and actually seemed to know and respect the internet crowd (unlike some of the other Hollywoodites, who were clearly forced to be there and didn't know even who they were giving their awards too)

This first link is to the full awards show:

And the second to the Sourcefed recap:

I do think it's important to point out that these aren't the 'Youtube Awards'. The big three 'tubers, Smosh, NigaHiga and RayWJohnson only received three nominations between them and their associate channels and it was actually Yahoo's 'Burning Love' staring Ken Marino, which won awards for Best Male Performance: Comedy, Best Ensemble Cast, Best Guest Appearance, Best Comedy Series. However, it was awesome to see so many familiar faces together.

Possibly to keep the awards show short and sweet (the final cut is only about 2 hours long exluding adverts) quite a few Streamys winners were announced pre-awards show. The winners were given a round of appalause and got to stand up and show off their trophies but I believe this undervalued some of the awards. For example, MachinimaPrime's Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn did really well, receiving 4 wins over all but did not seem to be so successful on the night.

As with all awards shows, on the night there were a few surprise winners and losers. Such as Toby Turner, a.k.a Tobuscus, losing out to Kaseem G of California On and RedvsBlue missing out to Tom Hank's Electric City (unfortunately and unsurprisingly the man couldn't be there to accept his award) . Plus the legendary Larry King not winning a single Streamy despite being nominated twice. And of course there were the occasional hiccoughs you expect from it being broadcast live, such as the incredibly unenthusiastic Jackson Rathbone and Jamie Kennedy not realising they had to read out the nominees. And a slightly odd and off key rendition of Shontelle's 'Impossible'. But over all it went as smoothly as a stream (y).

In conclusion I think the Streamy's were very successful and as the internet becomes more and more relevant in the modern age I believe they will get better and better.

What is HARLEM SHAKE?

Harlem Shake videos. 

A.K.A: The dancing craze sweeping the interwebz.

ORIGINS: 1981, Harlem. New and different version resurfaced in 2013.

VIRAL FORMULA: Crazy dancing + crazy costumes = crazy popular

Our attention spans are shorter than ever, and whilst I have no scientific research or experiments to prove my point (hell - I only just passed High School science) my evidence is The Harlem Shake, and the fact that people have already taken to the comment section to complain how bored they are or (in Shane Dawson's version) 'stupid viral ever'.

Yes, we can't even type in full (...) ever.

So with people already getting bored of these viral videos, it looks like the trend might just last longer than the actual clips themselves, which just about average at half a minute. For example this SourceFed version is just 0.36 seconds long:

(*half a minute + the times you clicked replay to watch Lee Newton and that couch)

This original video was uploaded only on the 2nd of Feburary,  and yet a whole host of the most popular channels on the site have already made their own versions giving you a good idea about how fast the trend has spread.

It's no surprise really though. When everyone was doing Gangnam Style parodies they had to come up with a new twist, learn a dance routine, find a man able to pelvic thrust with such conviction and rhythm.

Whereas the Harlem Shake is a two-take, instant hit! Most Youtubers seem to have closets of dressing up equipment already. And man, that beat is so catchy, I'll bet a couple of them don't even realise they're shooting a video and are just happy to have a dance around!

I'll leave you with this, my favourite Shake so far with the secondary game of "Damn, what's that kid from Kid's React doing?!?"

What's your favourite Harlem Shake? Comment below!