In the span of six days the video “Damn Daniel” has garnered over 200,000 retweets, and over 2 million views on YouTube alone. It has skyrocketed two teens from Riverside, CA from ordinary high school students to internet sensations. The video which is about 30 seconds long was posted to Twitter on February 15, 2016 by Joshua Holz. It features a compilation of Snapchat clips in which Holz, over the span of nine days, films Daniel Lara in various locations while exclaiming “damn Daniel!” repeatedly. In addition to this exclaimer, Holz also remarks on Lara’s white Vans and his Stussy T-shirt, exclaiming “DANIEL back at it again with the white vans!” and “STUSSY MAN… DAMMMN DANIEL!” This simple, yet surprisingly entertaining video has become the Internet’s latest craze, with thousands of remakes, memes, and even a couple of musical remixes.
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In this instance the Recipient-A has agency over the Prototype-P. Since the inception of the viral video concept, social media viewers have had the power to decide which types of videos become viral and sensationalized in the way that “Damn Daniel” has. Viewers are the driving force behind the success of a viral video in that they decide which videos to watch, and more importantly which videos to share. In this way, viewers have built a model that videos must follow in order to go viral. Among other characteristics, viral videos are often short and sweet, contain a hook, or “key signifiers”, and trigger an immediate emotional response which in the case of “Damn Daniel” would be laughter. These are notable characteristics that propel videos into “viral video culture”. The creators of these videos understand that there is a formula to follow and thus manufacture their videos to meet the criteria. In this instance we see the Prototype-A having agency over the
In this instance the Recipient-A has agency over the Prototype-P. Since the inception of the viral video concept, social media viewers have had the power to decide which types of videos become viral and sensationalized in the way that “Damn Daniel” has. Viewers are the driving force behind the success of a viral video in that they decide which videos to watch, and more importantly which videos to share. In this way, viewers have built a model that videos must follow in order to go viral. Among other characteristics, viral videos are often short and sweet, contain a hook, or “key signifiers”, and trigger an immediate emotional response which in the case of “Damn Daniel” would be laughter. These are notable characteristics that propel videos into “viral video culture”. The creators of these videos understand that there is a formula to follow and thus manufacture their videos to meet the criteria. In this instance we see the Prototype-A having agency over the