Monday, June 30, 2008

Fred, YouTube Sensation

This video has over 2.7 million views on YouTube. And over 23.000 comments. It’s by YouTube sensation Fred, 14-year old Lucas Cruikshank’s fictional 6-year old with “anger management issues”, as his channel explains – and this is by far not his most popular video. Some of his other videos, done in a high-pitched voice, fast cuts, and about lots of teen problems, are titled “Fred Gets Bullied”, “Fred Loses His Meds”, “Fred Goes to the Dentist”, and “Fred on Christmas”. Adding up the views of his 17 videos, I’m getting the result 45,012,257. The LA Times covers Fred, writing:

That an act with millions of fans could escape the popular attention is more evidence of the digital fissuring of our culture. As we ensconce ourselves ever further in our respective demographics, personal and professional, we continue to drift apart from the people right next to us, until even an iceberg holding 4 million tweens can float by unnoticed.

Not that we should’ve noticed. If you’re past a certain age, Fred’s appeal is essentially inscrutable. (...)

“They just think he’s the funniest thing ever,” said Valerie Moizel of the L.A.-based WOO ad agency, which found out about Fred after it conducted kid-centered focus groups for its ZipIt instant messaging product – which later showed up in Fred’s videos. “We watched them watch him – they fall on the floor hysterically laughing. They’re just mesmerized.”

[Via Waxy.]

Fred, YouTube Sensation by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (17)

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