How exactly did Ellen hear about a child from Las Islas Filpinas you ask? YouTube. There’s nothing like the good ol’ Internet to fire someone’s fame to life. For the past year, this hip, hot video-sharing site has catapulted from the boondocks of the Internet into penthouses to become the most powerful force in online video. So powerful in fact that, according to one measure, 58 per cent of all videos watched on the web are YouTube clips.

With that kind of oomph, it’s little wonder that Google did a lil Jerry Maguire and showed the YouTube founders some money (all $ 2.2 billion of it) to buy them out. YouTube is now, arguably, the web’s most buzzworthy site, courting controversy, amplifying trivialities and virally attracting a whole lot of eyeballs that even six months ago would not have glanced in its direction. In the digitally democratic world of YouTube anyone can watch almost anything, anytime, and anywhere thanks to internet-enabled mobile devices.

Every day, funny video clips in YouTube are downloaded by millions of people all over the world, many of whom pass the tidbits onto their friends in a process known as "going viral." In other words, these e-mailed videos spread as fast as viruses. Whether you’re looking for a funny clip to forward around the office, a quirky gift for a friend, or your own career in comedy, YouTube has something for you.

Prison Break

Put together hundreds of inmates in identical orange jumpsuits, a chart topping, Grammy award winning 80’s pop song, and choreography worthy of a UAAP half time dance segment and what have you got? One of the most viewed YouTube videos of 2007! Performed by inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, the video of them dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller may be enough for them to get discharged for good behavior and maybe for having awesome dance skills.

Watch the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

Backstreet’s Back Alright

The Backstreet Boys were instant hits when they popped into the music scene a couple of years ago. The Back Dorm Boys share the same thing today. Chinese students Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xing’s lipsynching performance of the teeny bopper dream team are topping the charts. Of YouTube, that is.

With about more than a million views, the boys are immensely popular that they are rumored to have landed jobs as representatives for a popular American mobile phone brand.

Watch the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=pY5zDQWd5bE

May the Force be with you

Star Wars fans will get a laugh out of this. "Chad Vader" plays Darth Vader’s younger brother but apparently, crushing the rebellion does not trickle down the family tree. Chad works as a day shift manager at a grocery and his videos show him doing his rounds of the grocery, calling his boss "Master", and challenging people who tick him off with his light saber. He even uses the force to grab fruit and get flowers in the chiller for a clerk he wants to take out on a date so they could "discuss business."

Why customers aren’t shocked why a man in a Darth Vader suit running a grocery is beyond my imagination.

Watch the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=4wGR4-SeuJ0

Brick-a-brac

Ah, Tetris - the very addicting game that hit the 90’s by storm. Everyone I knew had a brick game then. Fast-forward to the 21st century and the game no longer involves gaming consoles. The Japanese have put a unique twist to the game. For their version, humans must be able to insert themselves in brick-like slots in order to win. The challenge is, the shapes remain to be square and edgy so the contestant must have Cirque de Soleil-type skills or a lucky charm to get through.

See the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ll2kajMH2u0

Animal Planet

Humans aren’t the only living things with comedy skills. Animals have caught up too. Take for instance, goats. Not your usual animal to tickle your funny bones but this YouTube video will either make you go "awwwww", "hahahahaha", or "ohmygawd that can’t be real". The video shows a goat breed in a farm in Florida. The "fainting goat" is a domestic variety whose external muscles freeze for roughly 10 seconds when the goat is startled. When they are in a state of panic, younger goats will stiffen and fall over while older goats learn to spread their legs or lean against something. They also sometimes continue to run about in an awkward, stiff-legged shuffle.

Watch the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg

In the dog world, there are some breeds that are cute for being small and cuddly or big and adorable. Then there are those that are so ugly that they become irresistibly cute. Pugs (think Men in Black 2) are in that league for the pretty ugly dogs. My sister has three of them and despite their flat faces and almost saucer-like eyes, I must admit they are the cutest little four legged creatures that have inhabited our home.

Funny YouTube videos of pugs that I have seen are a pug morphing into dozens of other pug faces while singing http://youtube.com/watch?v=WElJp2Hj56U and another one of a pug desperately trying to stay awake http://youtube.com/watch?v=4MbzKnB-XkY. Funny thing is one of our pugs named Petunia does almost the same thing. Instead, of dozing off, she doesn’t fight her drowsiness and just sleeps – seated!

Bloody Funny

In a trip to Australia many years ago, I watched a seriously hilarious British TV programme called The Sketch Show. After watching and getting a really good abdominal workout from laughing nonstop, I have since enjoyed British humor because of its seamless, natural, and not-trying-hard delivery as compared to American comedy or Pinoy slapstick comedy.

The episode of Sketch Show that I watched was about Imaginary Friends. Watch the video at http://youtube.com/watch?v=PSBOMvj3t_8