Numa Numa

Numa Numa is an Internet phenomenon based on amateur videos, most notably Numa Numa Song by Gary Brolsma, made for the song "Dragostea din tei" as performed by O-Zone. Brolsma's video, released in December 2004 on the website Newgrounds.com, was the first Numa Numa–themed video to gain widespread attention. Less than three months after the release, it had been viewed more than two million times on the debut website alone. Numa Numa Song has since spawned many parody videos, including those created for the "New Numa Contest", sponsored by Brolsma, which promised US$45,000 in prize money for submissions. His original video was named 41st in the 2006 broadcast of 100 Greatest Funny Moments by Channel 4 in the UK.^[1]

Background

The phrase Numa Numa is taken from the chorus of Dragostea din tei by the Moldovan band, O-Zone. In Romanian the lyrics are "nu mă, nu mă iei", which translate as "you don't, don't take me": "nu mă" means "not me" in Romanian (cognate to "no me"), while "nu mă iei" means (in this context) "you don't take me" (word-for-word: "not me take"), so the repeated chorus is "you don't, don't take me" (literally: "not me, not me take"). See Dragostea din tei: Lyrics for details and context.

The Numa Numa phenomenon was first popularized by Gary Brolsma's release of Numa Numa Dance on Newgrounds.com on December 6, 2004.^[2] The video shows Gary Brolsma wearing headphones and lipsyncing to the audio of the original O-Zone track whilst moving his head, shoulders and arms gesticulating to the music in an animated and earnest manner. Brolsma was sitting at his computer filming himself with a webcam. This video has been viewed over 700 million times on YouTube (from many different "copycat" videos, though the official video received approximately 40 million views).

By February 25, 2005, less than 3 months after he released the video on Newgrounds, it had been viewed more than two million times on that site alone.^[3] Brolsma later stated in an interview, "...I found it ["Dragostea din tei"] in another (I believe it was Japanese) flash animation with cartoon cats".^[4] Others have noted Brolsma's inspiration was the Japanese flash animation Maiyahi by the Albinoblacksheep.com user "ikari", whose music featured an animated version of the popular Shift JIS art cat Monā.^[5][6]

On Newgrounds, Numa Numa Dance has since been seen more than eighteen million times. From there it has been copied onto hundreds of other websites and blogs. According to a November 27, 2006 report by the BBC, based on page impression figures collated by viral marketing company The Viral Factory, Numa Numa Dance is the second-most watched viral video of all time, with 700 million views, losing out only to "Star Wars kid".^[7] Brolsma received mainstream media coverage from ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and VH1's Best Week Ever and the Numa Numa video was listed as number 1 on VH1s Top 40 Internet Superstars. According to The New York Times, however, he was an "unwilling and embarrassed Web celebrity".^[3] He canceled media appearances but reappeared in September 2006 with a professionally produced video, New Numa, featuring a song specially made for him by Variety Beats.^[8] This video, hosted on YouTube, marked the start of the "New Numa Contest", which promised US$45,000 in prize money and a US$25,000 award to the winner.^[9]

A story in the June/July 2006 issue of The Believer explores the song's spread and global homogenization, while arguing that Brolsma's video "singlehandedly justifies the existence of webcams (....) It’s a movie of someone who is having the time of his life, wants to share his joy with everyone, and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks".^[10]

Brolsma appeared in the video for the Weezer single "Pork and Beans," singing along with the band while doing the Numa Numa dance.

The original Brolsma "Numa Numa Dance" was featured in a sixth season episode of the TV series NCIS, where characters Abby and McGee both expressed their fondness for the video, and in the 2008 "Canada on Strike" episode of the animated TV comedy series South Park. Japanese variety show SMAP×SMAP featured SMAP members Takuya Kimura and Goro Inagaki lip-synching and dancing to the song during one of the program's Host club sketches in 2005.

In 2006, South Korean singer Yoo Hyun Young performed her version, releasing it as "Noona's (Big Sister's) Dream".

In the summer of 2008 YouTube anthropologist Michael Wesch identified the video and its numerous replies as an important part of the newly emerging video sharing service. He has called Brolsma "the first guy on the dance floor at this global mixer".^[11]

In the 2009 college football game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Michigan State Spartans, Brolsma conducted the Michigan State Marching Band at halftime at Spartan Stadium as they played "Dragostea din tei." During the Super Bowl XLIV, the ad for Vizio briefly showed Brolsma doing the Numa Numa dance.

Notes

1. ^ "Channel4 - 100 Greatest FUNNY MOMENTS". channel4.com. Archived from the original on June 22, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070622050945/http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/greatest_funny_moments/26-50.html. Retrieved 2007-07-02. 
2. ^ "Numa Numa Dance". Newgrounds.com. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/206373. Retrieved 2007-07-05. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Feuer & George (2005)
4. ^ "Gary Brolsma & The Numa Story". Gary Brolsma & New Numa!. http://www.newnuma.com/story.html. Retrieved 2007-07-03. 
5. ^ Lucas, Dean. "Famous Pictures Magazine - Numa Numa". http://www.famouspictures.org/mag/index.php?title=Numa_Numa. Retrieved 2007-06-01. 
6. ^ This video can be found at http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/maiyahi. Its explanation: http://www.mimo-jp.com/japan/maiyahi.htm.
7. ^ "Star Wars Kid is top viral video". BBC News. 2006-11-27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6187554.stm. Retrieved 2007-07-01. 
8. ^ Gary Brolsma & The Numa Story
9. ^ "Viral video legend Gary Brolsma returns with "New Numa" and $45,000 in prizes for other viral enthusiasts" (Press release). Jaeter Corp.. 2006-08-28. http://www.newnuma.com/press_release.html. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
10. ^ Wolk, Douglas (June/July 2006). "The syncher, not the song: The irresistible rise of the Numa Numa Dance". The Believer. http://believermag.com/issues/200606/?read=article_wolk. Retrieved 2007-07-02. 
11. ^ "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube". YouTube/Library of Congress. 2008-06-23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU. Retrieved 2011-04-04. 

References

• Feuer, Alan; & George, Jason (2005-02-26). "Internet Fame Is Cruel Mistress for a Numa Numa Dancer". The New York Times Metro Saturday. p. B6. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/26/nyregion/26video.html. Retrieved 2007-07-01. 
• DeanLucas (2007-03-05 – 05-19). "Numa Numa". Famous Pictures Magazine. http://www.famouspictures.org/mag/index.php?title=Numa_Numa. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
• UBC Music Video Parody: Numa Numa
• Global tribute to Numa Numa^{[dead link]} : This is from the show Google Current on Current TV and is hosted by Conor Knighton

External links

• The "Dragostea din tei" music video (in the RealMedia format) at O-Zone's official web site (German)
• "Numa Numa Dance" on Newgrounds, where it was originally submitted
• "Numa Numa" video on YouTube
• "New Numa" video on YouTube
• New York Times Article