Trending This Week: Taylor Swift, Plus the Saddest, Sweetest Video We’ve Ever Seen

This week on the Spotlight channel, we bought whatever these fake commercials are selling and feted Movember’s finest moustaches.

And here’s what else bedecked our upper lip:



Taylor Swift - Blank Space

While a Swift hit is hardly @breakingnews here at YouTube, we’d be remiss not to mention the week’s single biggest kahuna. Bolstered by a surprise release and a tantalizing subject matter (Taylor’s mascara-streaked self-parodying as a crazy girlfriend), “Blank Space” set a new personal record for first-day view count, with over 4 million hits on Monday. Forget Kim K: from where we sit, it was Taylor Swift who broke the Internet this week.



Epic Rap Battles of History - Ghostbusters vs Mythbusters

At this point, ERB’s a bonafide institution. Back for their fourth season, their first video, a face-off between the ‘busters, proves their schtick’s still starp, the raps’re still smart, and they’re still bringing the views to the yard (over 6M in a couple days).



Obese2Beast - My Biggest Insecurity: Loose Skin

We recently wrote about YouTube’s body image empowerment videos, but we haven’t seen one like this. John David Glaude recently lost 160 pounds, and has a YouTube channel motivating others with tips, workouts, and Q&As. His latest video focuses on the loose skin left in the wake of extreme weight loss, but whether or not you can relate to this journey, his candid confrontation of the thing about himself he hates the most feels incredibly courageous. And with over 4 million views in three days, it clearly struck a chord.



K.C. Hohensee - Blackbird with Lennon

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night/Take these broken wings and learn to fly.” If there’s a more intimate, touching, tear-jerking "Blackbird" cover, we haven’t seen it. In this clip, which went viral this week, musician Chris Picco serenades his newborn son Lennon, who’d been delivered via emergency C-section after the sudden passing of Picco’s wife. The gentle tribute (shot just a day before little Lennon passed away) has drawn tears around the world.

-- Claire Stapleton

Trending This Week: Christmas Penguins and Kimmel’s Kids

This week on the Spotlight channel, we bugged out over kids who got moves, paid tribute to a guy who only gets cooler and more relevant as time goes on (Bill Murray), and rounded up some captivating, try-this-at-home magic tricks.

And here’s what waddled in and stole our hearts this week:



Jimmy Kimmel - YouTube Challenge - I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy

Kimmel is a bonafide YouTube hitmaking machine (he’s had 750 million views so far this year), but we think this gag is his sweet spot. For the past four years, he’s challenged parents to trick kids about their treats, and doggonit, their priceless reactions get us EVERY TIME. Like “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets,” his Halloween YouTube challenge is an enormous fave: the four installments add up to over 120 million views. Sweeeeeet.



John Lewis - Christmas Advert 2014 - #MontyThePenguin

The blood on Halloween may not even be dry, but ho, ho, ho, we’re lumbering on to Christmas. British retailer John Lewis brought their A-game to this beautiful little Christmas advert about the friendship between a boy and a CGI penguin (a timeless tale, really). John Lewis first had a viral Christmas hit in 2011 with this gem, and this year, they’ve got Monty the Penguin all queued up for a book (“Monty’s Christmas”), an app, and an in-store experience. This truly is the #magicofChristmas.



JubileeProject - Comfortable: 50 People 1 Question

Whether it’s the Dove Sketches or Meghan Trainor crooning “All About That Bass,” there are a lot of examples of empowering body image videos on YouTube (check out a sample here). Nonprofit Jubilee Project had 3 million views this week asking 50 people what they’d change about their body and highlighting how drastically body image changes from childhood to adulthood. Its simple, magical message is something we can get behind.


-- Claire Stapleton

Trending This Week: Catcalls, Ten Second Songs, and PewDiePie

Halloween is one of YouTube’s favorite holidays, and this year on the Spotlight channel, we celebrated with some of our hallow’ed traditions: cool DIY costumes and scaring the heck out of people. This week was also doubly special as we celebrated the birthdays of two of YouTube’s greatest raisons d’etre: the Internet and Katy Perry.



Street Harassment Video - 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman

This video, commissioned by an advocacy group called Hollaback, started with a simple concept: follow a young woman for a day, capturing all the catcalls, “hey baby’s,” and harassing remarks that come her way (more than 100 after 10 hours, as it turned out). But it had a complicated response – sparking controversy, conversation, and a lot of close reading. Editorializing aside, the buzz made for a blockbuster view count (over 18 million in 48 hours).



PewDiePie - MEET MY FAMILY!

There are two types of people in this world: people who know about PewDiePie and people who don’t. And never the twain shall meet. For that latter group, here’s the deal: the Swedish gamer is the current sine qua non of YouTube, holding the top slot for number of subscribers (his channel has had just shy of 3.5 BILLION views so far this year). But even if you’re not a member of the #BroArmy, you can get down with this charming chat sesh with Pewds’s mom, sister, and a pair of pugs. Shall we raise our hands in brofist (editor’s note: a Brofist is a friendly greeting or farewell and the main symbol used by PewDiePie to his bros)?



Ten Second Songs - Michael Jackson - Thriller

Impersonator impresario Anthony Vincent has a reliable formula: cover songs in 20 different styles, ten seconds a pop. (Improbably, he can pull off everyone from Kurt Cobain to Frank Sinatra, the Spice Girls, and DMX ). He hit it big with a “Dark Horse” cover in March, and has had over 35M views since then. This week he threw on some facepaint and covered "Thriller" to rapturous Internet praise. We think this YouTube commenter put it best: “dude. subbed for eternity.”



Abby Holcowitz - Kelly Clarkson “Shake It Off” Taylor Swift Cover

With the world in the vice-like grip of Swift mania, we were surprised to realize that the most-viewed Taylor Swift video on YouTube this week doesn’t exactly feature Ms. Swift herself. Fan-shot footage of country-pop singer Kelly Clarkson putting a stripped-down, soulful spin on the ubiquitous hit at a recent concert got the coveted Swift stamp of approval. And if you – like us – can’t get enough of celebrities covering celebrities, feast your ears on this playlist.

-- Claire Stapleton

Trending This Week: Nun Covers 'Like a Virgin'

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s meme? This week’s vid crop was so bountiful as to make us forget that over here at YouTube Trends HQ, winter is coming. On the Spotlight channel, we tackled some of our favorite subjects: tattoos, feelings, and famous pets.

And here’s what else brought sunshine to our pallid, computer-nerd complexions:



Sister Cristina - Like a Virgin

Who could forget the Voice of Italy's singing nun, one of this year’s most formidable memes? Well Sister Cristina is back with her first real single, and we’ve got to admit that our first reaction was: scusi? Yup, the pious songbird has chosen to cover the ... less-than-pious Madonna classic. The video, which has the nun galavanting around Venice and cavorting with lions in full habit and crucifix, is nothing if not an intriguing watch, and for that … we are blessed.



Rob Cantor - Shia LaBeouf Live

Every now and again the Internet produces something very special and important. Rob Cantor, aka the guy who duped us all with his "29 Impressions," was behind this week’s meme miracle, and it’s called “'Shia LaBeouf’ Live.” Come for a mini-musical about a cannibalistic version of the actor, stay for the L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus, the 3-D papercraft Shia LaBeouf heads, and a truly surprising twist ending. We give this one a standing ovation.



Dachshund’s Creek

Halloween season always reignites our passion for marveling at small animals in costumes. So picture our delight at coming across this video from filmmaker Michael Immerman, a re-imagining of the '90s teen melodrama "Dawson’s Creek" ... but with dachshunds. Need we say more?



The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Bradley Cooper and Jimmy Can’t Stop Laughing

They say that laughter is the universal language. So it’s no surprise that this footage of late night kahuna Fallon and Hollywood juggernaut Cooper in the midst of a giggle attack was a hit this week. So popular was this video of two silly geese that Fallon released a second uncut version that is basically just four more minutes of them yukking it up. Not exactly the high comedy hit of the year, but it’s definitely worth its weight in hehe's.

--Claire Stapleton

Trending This Week: Audacious Adi

Welcome back to YouTube Trends HQ, your unofficial sherpas through the mountains of online video. This week on the Spotlight channel, we went back to shop class, devoted a day to nature’s underdogs, and celebrated people revealing their true selves.

And when we weren’t putting the final touches on our Apparently Kid costumes, we were unearthing the following valedictorians of the viral video landscape:



“Audacious Adi” #1

Audacious is right. It isn’t just the sick moves from 11-year-old Adi Malcolm or that this was her first YouTube video, but what really grabbed us is the following from her About page: “I have NEVER taken a dance class in my life……….I learned from watching (YouTube) videos!!” Shut the front door! All we know is this is no dubstep dilettante.



The Empire Strikes Back Uncut: Full Movie (Official)

The greatest of the six “Star Wars” films so far (we won’t be convinced otherwise) is so beloved by its legion of fans that more than 1,500 of them submitted 15-second reimagined scenes, in the hopes of being featured in a shot-by-shot remake of the film. More than 480 submissions made the cut, but we feel like the real lucky ones, since we get to set aside the two-plus hours to watch it.



Perth Train Party Video 2014!!!

You’re on the train, minding your own business, staring intently at your phone, when some guy in a tuxedo stands up and makes an announcement. Just another mass transit experience, right? It would be if you were in Perth, Australia, on Saturday, August 23. That’s when Peter Sharp decided to spread a little happiness, dance party style. Almost two months later, hundreds of thousands more people are that much happier. Good on ya, Peter.



Glen Campbell - I’m Not Gonna Miss You

Country legend Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. Instead of packing it in, the singer embarked on a farewell tour in 2012. The poignant music video for “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” his final song recorded in 2013, spans his five decades-long career and also features home videos. Here’s to you, Mr. Campbell. Now there isn’t a dry eye at Trends HQ.

-- Marc Hertz

Trending This Week: God Only Knows

This week on the Spotlight channel, we fully bugged out over hyperlapses and drone cinema and non-committedly declared 10 cover songs that are (maybe kinda sorta) better than the original.

And here’s what else filled our viral horn of plenty:



CompassionChoices - The Brittany Maynard Fund

29-year-old Brittany Maynard is planning to die next month. This incredibly affecting piece, which documents why she chose the controversial (and not widely available) medically assisted suicide end of life option, made for one of the most viewed and talked about videos of the week.



BBC - God Only Knows

The BBC’s formula for this hit of the week seemed to go as follows: pick a beloved pop classic, take 20-some odd music celebrities–each one more eye-poppingly major than the last–back them up with an 80-piece orchestra, then toss in some whimsical special effects. The result: you’ve got yourself a timeless tribute to ... well, we’re still not exactly sure. But, yeah. Boom.



Anna-Maria Hefele - Polyphonic Overtone Singing

File this one under things you didn’t think were humanly possible. In this viral clip, a young German musician demonstrates overtone singing, a voice technique where one person sings two notes simultaneously. It’s a fairly technical video, but just skin-tingling enough to strike a chord. And strike a chord it did: more than 5 million views in a week is really something to SING about.



Dancing with the Stars - Alfonso & Witney Do The Carlton

With YouTube’s own “It Girl” Bethany Mota in this year’s "Dancing with the Stars" competition, we’ve got to confess we’re Team #MOTOUGH. But that didn’t hold us back from absolutely relishing this exuberant bit of entertainment which sees "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" star Alfonso Ribeiro resurrecting his Carlton dance to the smooth sounds of “It’s Not Unusual.” You won this round, bro.

-- Claire Stapleton

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

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