10 Cringe-Worthy Belly Flops 1. The Ultimate Belly Flop Fails Compilation This compilation of belly flop fails, created by WorldWideInterweb, gathers an incredible amount of painful moments in less than two minutes. 2. Belly Flop Splashdown 2012 How far would you go to win a little extra cash or a new laptop, especially as a college student? These young people slathered on war paint and belly-flopped for the prize at Water World in Colorado. 3. The “World’s Biggest” Belly Flop Watch an unsuspecting pool attendee get pranked out of thin air. It might not be the world’s biggest belly flop on record, but his height is credible. 4. America’s Got Talent? During auditions for season six of America’s Got Talent, a man named “Professor Splash” performed an odd, but nerve-wracking, feat: landing belly-down into a kiddie pool from a cherry picker. It looks like Professor Splash may have some competition though, according to this video. 5. UC Greek Week Belly Flop Contest Here’s another charitable (and creative) college challenge: Fraternities and sororities belly-flopped to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. 6. Red Belly Day Each year, people come from miles to Fanning Springs State Park in Florida to participate in Red Belly Day. As the video states, belly flop contestants come to “draw blood and gain a moment of fame.” 7. What’s Cooler Than One Belly Flop? While Mark gets Olympic-style coverage from his friends, he commits to not just one, but two admirable belly flops. 8. The Dugongs Australian Belly Flop Aquatic Team In Australia, the Dugongs shows the rest of the world how it’s done down under at the Belly Flop Aquatic Team Championships. 9. The Power of Video Editing For those of us who only experience belly flop pain vicariously through YouTube, a little video editing shows that sometimes this side of the pool is more painful to endure. 10. Baby Belly Flop Brent may be small in size, but he leaves quite the wake with this belly flop. We give him all 10s. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/17/belly-flops-youtube/
Ever wonder how the President of the United States uses Twitter? You can find out in the video above, shot during a Twitter Q&A that President Obama held after a campaign rally in Newton, Iowa earlier this year. “I’m the master tweeter,” exclaimed the President after typing the following tweet composed of exactly 140 characters — even though a shorter tweet is easier for others to retweet and is therefore considered preferable. His team celebrated the 140-character tweet as a “twoosh.” .@jwarner180 bio fuels, wind , solarall getting cheaper each year & oil getting more expensive. Why we need all-of-the-above strategy. -bo — The White House (@whitehouse) May 24, 2012 The tweets were sent from the official White House account — which just hit 3 million followers — and not any of the Obama campaign’s accounts. Obama used the Twitter town hall to answer questions on energy and other topics from a MacBook Pro. How should politicians use Twitter to engage with citizens? Who’s your favorite politician on Twitter? Share your ideas in the comments. window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement(‘script’);js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}; _msla(“//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,”twitter_jssdk”); Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/06/obama-twitter-video/
We’ve had a lot of interesting moments at Mashable in the past year — and luckily, we also happened to be filming many of them. In 2012, we followed an Internet celebrity singing with a turkey leg, talked to folks who lined up for the iPhone 5 for a week, and a tracked down a filmmaker who did documentaries for the Arab Spring. We also peered into Martha Stewart’s bag and survived a takeover attempt from Conan O’Brien. 1. Conan O’Brien Buys Mashable, Ousts Pete Cashmore as CEO In an April Fools’ Day prank, TeamCoco and Mashable got together to create a zany story line that includes Conan buying the site and ousting founder and CEO Pete Cashmore. The Conan O’Brien takeover launched at midnight on April 1 in a 24-hour story arc that shows O’Brien’s attempts to make paper-based tweeting happen. 2. Mashable Goes ‘Behind the Launch’ With New Documentary Series We follow the journey of Vungle, an in-app advertising startup, as they court investors, hire new employees, and finally launch their company. Catch up on all fourteen episodes here. 3. How to Learn a Language on YouTube Reporter Neha Prakash embarks on an attempt to learn Russian from YouTube tutorials, which culminates in a trip to a Russian restaurant as she tries to order from the fluent waitress. Her favorite word? Cпасибо, which means “thank you.” 4. What’s in Martha Stewart’s Tech Bag? America’s pioneering DIY expert has three iPads. What else does she carry in her seemingly endless bag of gadgets? 5. Watch Calexico Play Two Songs Live At Mashable Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico fill Mashable HQ with the distinctive sound of the American southwest. They talk about their new album, Algiers, being a musician in the digital era, and sticking to an analog recording experience. 6. What Does Siri Know About the iPhone 5? Tech editor Pete Pachal grills Siri for inside information about the phone, only to get coy replies. 7. Who Lined Up For the iPhone 5? Meet the colorful characters who camped out at the Apple flagship store for a week. 8. iPhone 5 Line: Unnecessary But Fun We do an early morning stakeout at the Apple Store right before it opens its doors. 9. This Is What Happens When Comic Con Attendees Try to Impersonate Bane At the New York Comic Con, we asked everyone from Wolverine to Batman himself to demonstrate their finest Bane super-villain vocal talents, with mixed results. 10. This Man Fights in and Films the Last Gasps of the Arab Spring Activist and filmmaker Matthew VanDyke spent years traversing North Africa and the Middle East by motorcycle, befriending Libyans and other travelers along the way. We talk to him about his work in this two-part series. 11. Nicole Westbrook Talks Turkey With New Yorkers Watch 12-year-old YouTube viral video star Nicole Westbrook as she interviews people on the street with a turkey leg. You can’t make this stuff up. 12. Internet Feline Luminary Talks Big […]
The season two premiere of Dance Showdown, a web series that pits popular YouTube acts against each other in a rhythmic showdown for $100,000, boogied its way online Friday. Judges on board this season are former NSYNC member Joey Fatone and Emmy-nominated choreographer Laurieann Gibson. YouTube famous Ryan Higa, Dave Days and Shane Dawson are guest judges. “It gives people an opportunity to be seen by the world,” Fatone, who is also on this fall’s Dancing With the Stars all-star cast, tells Mashable. “I think it’s great and there is a lot of talent out there still to be seen.” Episode one (watch above) introduces viewers to the 12 eclectic contestants, who among other things are YouTube singers, beauty vloggers, comedians and gamers: Alphacat Andrew Garcia BrittaniLouiseTaylor Chester See: Chimneyswift11 ExoticJess meghanrosette Miss Hannah Minx ONLYUSEmeBLADE PrankvsPrank StilaBabe09 Screen Team Viewers also meet the talent’s dance instructors Tessandra Chavez (choreography alum of So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol and X Factor USA), Lauren Froderman (SYTYCD season 7 winner), Mike Song (MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew finalist), Anze Skrube (nine-time gold medalist at the Slovenian National Championship) and Brinn Nicole (dancer on Snoop Dogg’s world tour). The show, from dance entertainment network DanceOn, attracted 10 million views in season one. Viewers can vote for their favorite dancer starting in round two, which will decide who makes it to the finals. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/06/dance-showdown/
Political Kombat Political Kombat ’12: Obama Vs. Trump Political Kombat ’12: Romney Vs. Cain and Santorum Political Kombat ’12: Romney Vs. Gingrich and Ron Paul Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/08/political-kombat/
When it comes to engaging consumers online, the bar has never been higher. A recent study revealed that 82% of Americans completely ignore most online advertising. And it makes sense — faced with endless amounts of media online, we’ve all developed an eye-glaze setting reserved for pre-roll, banner and social media ads. Simply put, they don’t work anymore. Luckily, there’s an antidote to this interruptive, beat-you-over-the-head type of advertising — it just requires a very different approach. In order to cut through the noise, brands must create content — stuff that consumers actually care about and want to engage with — instead of inert, product-centric advertisements. It may seem like an easy shift, until you realize that it’s not the way the advertising industry has been oriented for the past 100 years. So where do brands go to release content that is richer, deeper and more tailored to the customer? I’d like to introduce you to a small video site called YouTube. With a billion unique users flocking to the site every month, YouTube has become the place where great content, regardless of its origin, can find a huge audience. It’s also the place where brands can make their mark as creators. When 8 million people tuned in to watch Felix Baumgartner’s insanely epic space jump, they did so because it was can’t-miss entertainment — the fact that it was a Red Bull ad was secondary. The same goes for First Kiss, a spot for clothing line Wren, which has now been viewed over 77 million times. (For a little perspective, the Game of Thrones premiere received 8.2 million viewers on its opening night.) But not all brands are created equal on YouTube. Depressingly enough, the average brand channels are still a cluttered mess of re-purposed TV spots, corporate “infotainment” and half-baked viral video concepts. Shudder. The following five companies are proof that the “content, not ads” mantra works. If a brand invests the time and energy in creating entertainment that’s focused around the customer, it has the opportunity to gain a massive fan base who will happily do the work of bringing its message out into the world. It may feel like a leap today, but it’s a leap every brand will have to make if they want anyone to pay attention. 1. GoPro Any brand who wants a quick primer on how to act like a creator need look no further than GoPro’s pulsing YouTube channel, a true action sports network told through the lens of their device. Granted, it’s easier to market a DIY camera through video content than just about anything else, but GoPro leverages YouTube best practices to cement their place as a product by and for the people. The channel page draws you in with an unmissable welcome video and then leads towards a wide variety of content – from the painfully adorable to the painfully painful, perfectly categorized and organized for your browsing pleasure. 2. Fiat Fiat’s YouTube channel is a lot like […]
Commenters say this is “the super moonwalk” and “moon running.” The fast moving, backwards moonwalker in this clip is Eric Nash, according to his Twitter account. He goes by the handle @Onelovecandyman on Twitter and YouTube. He posted the video on July 5 after doing this move somewhere outside after what appears to be a rain shower. So far the video has more than 630,000 views. Nash’s Twitter account says he’s based in Santa Monica, Calif. and is a performer in the Los Angeles-based group Street Performers United. The Internet seems to love Michael Jackson’s legendary dance move. In 2010, this video of the “Walmart moonwalker” went viral. Shortly after Jackson’s death in 2009, this site called “Eternal Moonwalk” asked viewers to share videos of themselves moonwalking. Is that the longest Moonwalk you’ve seen? Tell us in the comments. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/07/moonwalking-man-thrills-crowd-with-moves/
Pretty much everything that can exist does exist in some form online. While this is exciting at some level, it’s also a terrifying prospect. Most of use aren’t disturbed enough to think of all the weird, crazy things that we sometimes encounter on the internet, but the many creeps who call the web home certainly are. And some sickos are a cut above the rest. Take, for example, a YouTuber who goes by Jake. Jake’s channel consists solely of disturbing black and white video sketches that seem to incorporate a dead body wrapped in a garbage bag. Saying that this footage is disturbing is putting it mildly. All of the short flickers of text that come across the screen in these videos don’t make them any better. One enterprising Redditor was able to piece together all of these texts. The result is actually a poem. Here’s a transcript: There was a lady all skin and bone; Sure such a lady was never known. It happened upon a certain day, this lady went to the church to pray. When she came to the church stile, there she did rest a little while; When she came to the church yard, there the bells so loud she heard. When she came to the church door, she stopped to rest a little more; When she came to the church within, the parson prayed ‘gainst pride and sin. On looking up, on looking down, she saw a dead man on the ground; And from his nose unto his chin, the worms crawled out, the worms crawled in. Then she unto the parson said, “Shall I be so when I am dead?” “Oh yes! Oh yes,” the parson said, “You will be so when you are dead.” Here the lady screams. This one might be the freakiest of all. (via Reddit) Well, I’m never sleeping again. I’d really like to know what exactly is happening in these videos and why, but I would settle for knowing whether or not that’s a real body. Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/dead-body-youtube/
Clocking in at 1,178 minutes, or just under 20 hours, the Harry Potter films, while excellent representations of the wonderful books by J.K. Rowling, are simply too long to watch. But fret no more, muggles — we’ve got you covered. In the second episode of our new series, “Too Long; Didn’t Watch,” we tackle the story of the boy who lived. In roughly 0.2% of the time it takes Harry’s story to unfold on screen, we explore the films in their entirety. No themes left unexplored; no characters left unanalyzed. We promise. BONUS: The Lord of the Rings in 90 Seconds Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/07/15/harry-potter-tldw/
How’s this for a jump through political history? C-SPAN’s digital team sent Mashable this supercut of every presidential nominee since 1984 — when the network began broadcasting conventions — accepting his party’s nomination for president. From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush to Barack Obama, the gang’s all here. The video isn’t just political history, but time capsule of technology as well — watch as the clarity of the footage improves greatly over time. Do you think the 2016 nominations will be broadcast in 3D? Images courtesy of Flickr, Beverly & Pack Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/28/president-nominations-video/
