Trending This Week: Football’s Hottest Play Is the “Ugly Kardashian"?

October 03, 2014

This week at YouTube Trends, we traveled from the heights of Meme Mountain into the depths of Viral Valley. And here are the wonders we saw ….



MaxPreps - Middle School Team Pulls Off “Ugly Kardashian” Trick Play

OK, so we may not be the most sophisticated sports aficionados but we’re all for scrappy plays, scrawny underdogs, and the like. One of the week’s most buzzworthy memes had all that and more, with a middle school team pulling off a fake-out inspired by the iconic pee-wee misfit film "Little Giants." We’re not totally sure what’s going on or why it’s called the “Ugly Kardashian,” but the action-packed one-minute clip cleared 3 million views in as many days. #Sports!



Maroon 5 - Animals

Even though Pharrell dropped an incredibly trippy (and Murakami-produced) video on Tuesday, the week’s big musical kahuna was a controversial Maroon 5 video. A dark and bloody horror short, the band used the song’s carnal lyrics ("Baby, I'm preying on you tonight / Hunt you down eat you alive") to narrate the story of a butcher (Levine) obsessed with a sexy patron (Levine’s real life Victoria’s Secret model wife). It’s racked up an eye-popping 9M views in the three days it’s been up, but not everyone’s a fan: several sexual assault groups have blasted the “dangerous” video for glorifying stalker behavior.



General Electric - Enhance Your Lighting

G.E. had a bright idea: hire comedy duo Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim to direct the ad for their latest light bulb. The result, starring Jeff Goldblum as an egotistical celebrity named Terry Quattro, is as deliciously bizarro as we dreamed. With over a million views since it went up on Monday, the ad is a viral video in its own right. This *slow clap* goes out to the G.E. marketing department.



The David Letterman Show - Aretha Franklin: “Rolling in the Deep/Ain’t No Mountain”

David Letterman may be signing off late night soon, but he had a big YouTube hit this week with Aretha Franklin’s roof-raising performance. We have just one thing to say about the Queen of Soul’s epic cover of fellow diva Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”; R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

-- Claire Stapleton

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