The 26 February 2005 New York Times article, entitled "Internet Fame Is a Cruel Mistress for a Numa Numa Dancer", about Gary Brolsma and his movie, Numa Numa Dance.

Numa Numa is an Internet phenomenon based on amateur videos, most notably Numa Numa Dance by Gary Brolsma, made for the song "Dragostea din tei" as performed by the Moldovan pop group O-Zone. Brolsma's video, released in December 2004, was the first Numa Numa-themed video to gain widespread attention. Less than three months after the release, it had been viewed more than two million times on the debut website alone. Numa Numa Dance has since spawned many parody videos, including those created for the "New Numa Fatty Contest", sponsored by Brolsma, which promised US$45,000 in prize money for submissions. His original video was named 41st in the 2006 broadcast of 100 Greatest Funny Moments by Channel 4 in the UK.^[1] Download high resolution version (768x666, 207 KB)Source: The New York Times Metro, Saturday, February 26, 2005, page B6. ... Download high resolution version (768x666, 207 KB)Source: The New York Times Metro, Saturday, February 26, 2005, page B6. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gary Brolsma (age 21, from Saddle Brook, New Jersey[1]), also known as simply the Numa Numa Guy, gained worldwide attention after posting onto the Internet, near the end of 2004, a webcam video of himself miming to the song Dragostea din tei by Moldovan pop band O-Zone. ... An Internet phenomenon occurs when something becomes extremely popular, often quite suddenly, through the word-of-mouth and self-publishing made feasible by the Internet. ... Gary Brolsma (age 21, from Saddle Brook, New Jersey[1]), also known as simply the Numa Numa Guy, gained worldwide attention after posting onto the Internet, near the end of 2004, a webcam video of himself miming to the song Dragostea din tei by Moldovan pop band O-Zone. ... Dragostea din tei (pronounced ) is the most successful single by the Moldovan band O-Zone. ... This article is about the genre of popular music. ... For the allotrope of oxygen, see Ozone and for the novel by Paul Theroux, see O-Zone (novel) O-Zone was a pop trio made up of Dan Bălan (aka Duke), Radu Sârbu (aka Picasso), and Arsenie Todiraş (aka Arsenium). ... USD redirects here. ... The 100 Greatest is a popular long running British TV strand on Channel 4. ... This article is about the British television station. ...

History

The phrase Numa Numa is from a refrain of "Dragostea din tei" a song written by the Moldovian pop band, O-zone. The refrain, "nu mă, nu mă iei", can be approximately translated from Romanian as "you don't, you don't take me [with you]." A refrain (from the Old French refraindre to repeat, likely from Vulgar Latin refringere) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the chorus of a song. ... For the allotrope of oxygen, see Ozone and for the novel by Paul Theroux, see O-Zone (novel) O-Zone was a pop trio made up of Dan Bălan (aka Duke), Radu Sârbu (aka Picasso), and Arsenie TodiraÅŸ (aka Arsenium). ...

The Numa Numa phenomenon was first popularized by Gary Brolsma's release of Numa Numa Dance onto Newgrounds.com on December 6, 2004.^[2] The video shows a kid (Gary Brolsma) in headphones lipsyncing to the audio of the original O-zone track whilst moving his head, shoulders and arms and gesturing to the music in an animated, yet earnest manner. Brolsma was sitting at his computer filming himself with a webcam, which thus provides a tightly restricted frame of action giving the video and its genre a visually distinct character. Newgrounds is a website headquartered in Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA and created in 1995 that primarily hosts Adobe Flash animated films and games. ... is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gary Brolsma (age 21, from Saddle Brook, New Jersey[1]), also known as simply the Numa Numa Guy, gained worldwide attention after posting onto the Internet, near the end of 2004, a webcam video of himself miming to the song Dragostea din tei by Moldovan pop band O-Zone. ... Lip sync (short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching lip movements with voice. ... For the allotrope of oxygen, see Ozone and for the novel by Paul Theroux, see O-Zone (novel) O-Zone was a pop trio made up of Dan Bălan (aka Duke), Radu Sârbu (aka Picasso), and Arsenie Todiraş (aka Arsenium). ...

By February 25, 2005, less than three months after Brolsma released the video onto Newgrounds, it had been viewed more than two million times on that site alone.^[3] Brolsma later stated in an interview, "...I found it ["Dragostea din tei"] in another (I believe it was Japanese) flash animation with cartoon cats".^[4] Others have noted Brolsma's inspiration was the Japanese flash animation Maiyahi by the Albinoblacksheep.com user "ikari", whose video featured an animated version of the popular Shift_JIS art cat Monā.^{[5] [6]} is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... GOOGLE is a popular website based in Toronto, Ontario that posts humorous and artistic member-submitted digital media. ... 2channel Shift_JIS art (AA). An example of American Shift_JIS art. ... Monā saying Omae mo nā Monā (モナー) is the most well-known Shift JIS art character in Japan. ...

On Newgrounds, Numa Numa Dance has since been seen more than fifteen million times. From there it has been copied onto hundreds of other websites and blogs. According to a November 27, 2006 report by the BBC, based on page impression figures collated by viral marketing company The Viral Factory, Numa Numa Dance is the second-most watched viral video of all time, with 700 million views, losing out only to "Star Wars kid".^[7] He received mainstream media coverage from ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's The Tonight Show, and VH1's Best Week Ever and the Numa Numa video was listed as VH1s Top 40 Internet Superstars. The Numa Numa was listed as number 1. According to The New York Times, however, he was an "unwilling and embarrassed Web celebrity".^[8] He canceled media appearances but reappeared in September 2006 with a professionally produced video, New Numa. This video, hosted on YouTube, marked the start of the "New Numa Contest", which promised US$45,000 in prize money and a US$25,000 award to the winner.^[9] Newgrounds is a website headquartered in Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA and created in 1995 that primarily hosts Adobe Flash animated films and games. ... is the 331st day of the year (332nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. ... Star Wars kid is an Internet phenomenon which started when a video clip recorded by a fourteen-year-old Quebecois male high school student was leaked online. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American television network. ... Good Morning America is a weekday morning news show that is broadcast on the ABC television network. ... This article is about the television network. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... VH1 (VH-1: Video Hits One until 1994 and VH1: Music First until 2003) is an American digital television channel that was created in January 1985 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and owners of MTV. VH1 and sister channel MTV are currently... Best Week Ever logo. ... VH1 (VH-1: Video Hits One until 1994 and VH1: Music First until 2003) is an American digital television channel that was created in January 1985 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and owners of MTV. VH1 and sister channel MTV are currently... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... YouTube is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. ... USD redirects here. ... USD redirects here. ...

A story in the June/July 2006 issue of The Believer explores the song's spread and global homogenization, while arguing that Brolsma's video "singlehandedly justifies the existence of webcams (....) It’s a movie of someone who is having the time of his life, wants to share his joy with everyone, and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks".^[10] Cover of The Believer, April 2005 The Believer is an intellectual yet playful magazine mainly about literature. ...

One version of Brolsma's video also contains some puns, among them pictures of feta cheese during the lyric fericirea (happiness) and a LEGO representation of Bob Ross during the singer's words sunt eu Picasso (it's me Picasso). Feta (Greek φέτα, feminine gender) is a classic curd cheese in brine whose tradition dates back to Greece thousands of years ago. ... For other uses, see Lego (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bob Ross (disambiguation). ...

Gary plans to appear in the first consumer generated Super Bowl Commercial, known as MySuperAd, sporting the Numa Numa Dance. [1] Brolsma was also featured on South Park in episode 1204 "Canada on Strike". This article is about the TV series. ... Canada On Strike! is episode 1204 (#171) of the animated series South Park. ...

Numa Three

On November 14, 2007, Gary Brolsma posted his latest video, Numa Three. It showed Brolsma lip-syncing to one of Dan Bălan's latest songs, Crazy Loop. is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... For the football (soccer) player, see Daniel Bălan. ... Crazy Loop is the creation of former O-zone leader Dan Balan, and he has introduced the world to this character with the song Crazy Loop (Mm Ma Ma). ...

Weezer Video

In May 2008, Brolsma was prominently featured in a music video for Weezer's single Pork and Beans. In the video, which features or refers to numerous Internet video memes and popular YouTube videos, Brolsma performs Numa-style gestures and lip-synching to the new song. A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ... For the albums, see Weezer (1994 album) and Weezer (2001 album). ... Pork and Beans is a song from alternative rock band Weezers 2008 album, Weezer. ... YouTube is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. ...

Footnotes

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... July 3 is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 152nd day of the year (153rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 331st day of the year (332nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 240th day of the year (241st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For information on Wikipedia press releases, see Wikipedia:Press releases. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 193rd day of the year (194th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Cover of The Believer, April 2005 The Believer is an intellectual yet playful magazine mainly about literature. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Google Current is a brief television program on the station Current TV. The series is hosted by Conor Knighton or occasionally Kinga Philipps. ... , Current TV is an Emmy award winning independent media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, and businessman Joel Hyatt. ... Conor Knighton, born February 1, 1981, is an American actor, host, and television producer. ...

External links

• The "Dragostea din tei" music video (in the RealMedia format) at O-Zone's official web site (German)
• "Numa Numa Dance" on Newgrounds, where it was originally submitted
• NewNuma.com - Gary Brolsma's new site for his new video