YouTube Awards
Encyclopedia
The YouTube Awards are awards given out as formalizedic or comedy genres, as voted by the YouTube community. The awards were organized in 2007 to "call out some of the most popular videos and let the users choose which ones deserve some additional recognition". The awards are the first time that videos would receive any formal recognition; previously, high-ranking videos were only recognized by dynamic lists of most-viewed videos. The winners received a trophy
, which was a stand with a large glass "play" button. In addition, they received an invitation to an event to occur "later this year".
sued YouTube's parent company, Google
, for more than $1 billion for copyright infringement of television shows owned by Viacom.
The Awards received criticism from New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan
when first organized. She suggested that the Awards created too much of a formalized process on YouTube. YouTube, she argued, should not be about awards and individual recognition of merit. Rather, it should be a free place where one can post videos and express oneself free of judgment on quality. Caroline McCarthy of CNET News
commented on the 2007 awards in agreement with Heffernan: she argued that YouTube "is a cultural hub rather than strictly a creative outpost." She also commented many of the most popular videos are not high quality, or original content.
Nominations for the 2006 Awards included noted YouTubers Peter Oakley (geriatric1927), LonelyGirl15
, Renetto and Chad Vader
.
A notable entry in the 2008 Awards was a video of the University of Florida Taser incident
, uploaded by The Gainesville Sun
; it was entered in the new Eyewitness category. One nomination in the Politics category was an interview with a candidate for the Republican
Presidential nomination for the 2008 American presidential election
, Ron Paul
. Also included in the Politics section was the I Got a Crush... on Obama
video. Nominated in the Inspirational category was a stop motion
video by Trevor Dougherty
, entitled "Stand Up for World Peace." The Leave Britney Alone! video by vlogger Chris Crocker
was nominated in the Commentary category. Internet meme
video Chocolate Rain
by singer Tay Zonday
was nominated in the Music section; it won.
Trophy
A trophy is a reward for a specific achievement, and serves as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics...
, which was a stand with a large glass "play" button. In addition, they received an invitation to an event to occur "later this year".
Organization
The videos to vote upon are chosen by YouTube staff, while the winners are selected by YouTubers. The Awards were first given in 2007—called the 2006 Awards—for the best videos of 2006. The awards were in seven categories: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Inspirational, Musician of the Year and Series. Each category then comprised 10 videos which YouTubers ranked in order of preference. For the 2007 Awards, five new categories were added: Eyewitness, Instructional, Short Film, Sports and Political; a general "Music" category replaced the "Musician of the Year" category of the previous year. In addition, each category held only six videos for which YouTubers could vote.2006 Awards
Voting for the 2006 Awards took place from March 18, 2007 to March 23, 2007. The 2006 YouTube Awards came just a week after ViacomViacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
sued YouTube's parent company, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, for more than $1 billion for copyright infringement of television shows owned by Viacom.
The Awards received criticism from New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan
Virginia Heffernan
Virginia Heffernan is an American journalist. In March, 2011, she began to write regularly about digital and pop culture for the Opinion pages of The New York Times. She is also known as a television critic for The New York Times, and as "The Medium" columnist at The New York Times Magazine. In...
when first organized. She suggested that the Awards created too much of a formalized process on YouTube. YouTube, she argued, should not be about awards and individual recognition of merit. Rather, it should be a free place where one can post videos and express oneself free of judgment on quality. Caroline McCarthy of CNET News
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
commented on the 2007 awards in agreement with Heffernan: she argued that YouTube "is a cultural hub rather than strictly a creative outpost." She also commented many of the most popular videos are not high quality, or original content.
Nominations for the 2006 Awards included noted YouTubers Peter Oakley (geriatric1927), LonelyGirl15
Lonelygirl15
lonelygirl15 was an interactive web-based video series which began in June 2006 and ran through to August 1, 2008. Developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove, the show gained worldwide media attention when it was outed as fictional in September 2006.-Overview:lonelygirl15...
, Renetto and Chad Vader
Chad Vader
Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager is an American comedy web series created by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan, who are also credited as actors, directors, editors and writers of the program. The show's central character is Chad Vader, the day-shift manager at the fictional supermarket Empire Market, who...
.
| Category | Winning Video | YouTube Link | YouTube User |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adorable | Kiwi Kiwi Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world... ! |
Flash video | Madyeti47 |
| Comedy | Smosh Short 2: Stranded | Flash video | smosh Smosh Smosh is a web-based comedy duo consisting of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. Padilla first began posting flash movies on Newgrounds in early 2003, under the name Smosh. He was later joined by his friend Ian Hecox... |
| Commentary | Hotness Prevails/Worst Video Ever | Flash video | thewinekone |
| Creative | Here It Goes Again Here It Goes Again "Here It Goes Again" is an alternative rock/power pop song by OK Go, and is the third released single from the album Oh No. It also appears on the compilation album Now 23. It remains the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, where it entered the Top 40 at #38, mostly due to the... |
Flash video | OkGo OK Go OK Go is a rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, USA, now residing in Los Angeles, California, USA. The band is composed of Damian Kulash , Tim Nordwind , Dan Konopka and Andy Ross , who joined them in 2005, replacing Andy Duncan... |
| Inspirational | Free Hugs Campaign Free Hugs Campaign The Free Hugs Campaign is a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places. The hugs are meant to be random acts of kindness - selfless acts performed just to make others feel better... |
Flash video | PeaceOnEarth123 |
| Musician of the Year | Say It's Possible Say It's Possible "Say It's Possible" is Terra Naomi's first single and first solo release on a major label. The song originated on YouTube, and due to its origins the song has been covered on the website in a variety of different styles and languages... |
Flash video | terranaomi Terra Naomi Terra Naomi is an alternative, rock, and pop artist, who rose to fame through a performance of her song "Say It's Possible" on the video sharing site YouTube... |
| Series | Ask A Ninja Ask a Ninja Ask A Ninja is a series of comedy videos about the image of ninja in popular culture available in podcast and vodcast form, as well as in mov and wmv file formats... |
Part 1 Flash video | digitalfilmmaker |
2007 Awards
The 2007 Awards began on March 13, 2008 and lasted for five days, until March 18. YouTubers could vote once per day, but could not change their vote once they voted.A notable entry in the 2008 Awards was a video of the University of Florida Taser incident
University of Florida Taser incident
On September 17, 2007, U.S. Senator John Kerry addressed a Constitution Day forum at the University of Florida in Gainesville, which was organized by the ACCENT Speakers Bureau, an agency of the university's student government...
, uploaded by The Gainesville Sun
The Gainesville Sun
The Gainesville Sun is a newspaper published daily in Gainesville, Florida, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state. It is a part of the New York Times Regional Media Group. The paper is published by James E...
; it was entered in the new Eyewitness category. One nomination in the Politics category was an interview with a candidate for the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Presidential nomination for the 2008 American presidential election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
. Also included in the Politics section was the I Got a Crush... on Obama
I Got a Crush... on Obama
"I Got a Crush... on Obama" is an internet viral video, first posted on YouTube in June 2007 featuring a young woman seductively singing of her love for then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama...
video. Nominated in the Inspirational category was a stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
video by Trevor Dougherty
Trevor Dougherty
Trevor Dougherty is an independent journalist with CNN's iReport program, currently studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dougherty is also a YouTube Partner, and since 2008 his short videos and advocacy work have been featured by several international media outlets such as...
, entitled "Stand Up for World Peace." The Leave Britney Alone! video by vlogger Chris Crocker
Chris Crocker (Internet celebrity)
Chris Crocker is an American Internet celebrity, songwriter, blogger, and recording artist...
was nominated in the Commentary category. Internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
video Chocolate Rain
Chocolate Rain
"Chocolate Rain" is a song and music video performed by American Internet personality Tay Zonday. After being posted on YouTube on April 22, 2007, the song quickly became popular. , the video has over 74,000,000 views. The music video portrays a bespectacled Zonday in a recording studio wearing a...
by singer Tay Zonday
Tay Zonday
Adam Nyerere Bahner , better known by the pseudonym Tay Zonday, is an American musician, YouTube personality and voice actor. He is well known by listeners for his deep baritone voice whilst singing. He garnered mainstream exposure when his song "Chocolate Rain", and accompanying video on YouTube,...
was nominated in the Music section; it won.
| Category | Winning Video | YouTube Link | YouTube User |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adorable | Laughing Baby | Flash video | gsager1234 |
| Comedy | Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" | Flash video | NeilCicierega Neil Cicierega Neil Stephen Cicierega , is an American comedian, filmmaker and musician. He is the creator of a genre of Flash animation known as "Animutation". He has also released several albums as a musician under the stage name "Lemon Demon".... |
| Commentary | LonelyGirl15 is Dead! | Flash video | WHATTHEBUCKSHOW Michael Buckley (Internet celebrity) Michael Buckley is an American Internet celebrity, comedian and vlogger. Noted for his vlog What the Buck?!, Buckley comments on popular culture events and celebrities. He also maintains one of YouTube's most popular channels with several million viewers each month... |
| Creative | The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond | Flash video | notsonoisy |
| Eyewitness | Battle at Kruger Battle at Kruger Battle at Kruger is an eight-minute amateur wildlife video that depicts an unfolding confrontation between a herd of Cape buffalo, a small pride of lions, and one or two crocodiles. The video was shot in September 2004 at the Transport Dam watering hole in Kruger National Park, South Africa,... |
Flash video | Jason275 |
| Inspirational | Blind Painter | Flash video | texascountryreporter |
| Instructional | How to solve a Rubik's Cube | Flash video (part 1) | pogobat Dan Brown (YouTube) Daniel Scott Zahller Brown is an American vlogger, under the YouTube alias Pogobat. Brown has been noted in the media for his newly and widely viewed self-made videos.... |
| Music | Chocolate Rain Chocolate Rain "Chocolate Rain" is a song and music video performed by American Internet personality Tay Zonday. After being posted on YouTube on April 22, 2007, the song quickly became popular. , the video has over 74,000,000 views. The music video portrays a bespectacled Zonday in a recording studio wearing a... |
Flash video | TayZonday Tay Zonday Adam Nyerere Bahner , better known by the pseudonym Tay Zonday, is an American musician, YouTube personality and voice actor. He is well known by listeners for his deep baritone voice whilst singing. He garnered mainstream exposure when his song "Chocolate Rain", and accompanying video on YouTube,... |
| Politics | Stop the Clash of Civilizations | Flash video | AvaazOrg Avaaz.org Avaaz.org is a global civic organization launched in January 2007 that promotes activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict... |
| Series | The Guild | Flash video (part 1) | watchtheguild |
| Short Film | my name is lisa | Flash video | sheltonfilms |
| Sports | balloon bowl | Flash video | davetheknave Dave England Dave England is an American daredevil stunt performer and former professional snowboarder who is known for appearing on the MTV series Jackass, as well as the films Jackass: The Movie, Jackass: Number Two, and Jackass 3D.-Life and career:Johnny Knoxville stated on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart... |