The Week's Best Viral Videos & Marketing Lessons - Sports Phenoms

I'm currently out of the country, but thankfully they still have YouTube access in Canada. And they also have Fridays, which means that I'm still able to give you your weekly viral video round up. So sit back and enjoy your Friday morning coffee with a side of videos. Some are hilarious, others are amazing, but all are viral success stories from the week that was.

So, without further ado, the week's best viral videos:

Amazing Athletes

One variety of viral video that will never go out of style is the "sports phenom" clip. Usually this entails an athlete doing something that is either exceedingly rare, or flat-out never-before-seen. Like this shootout goal scored by Ryan Strome:

Of course, sometimes the sport itself is every bit as amazing as the performance of the athletes. Such is the case with "Kung Fu Volleyball," a video that showcases a sport that combines elements of soccer and volleyball with high-flying Kung Fu-style kicks. It's truly impressive, and I doubt you've ever seen anything like it:

Michael Jordan is probably one of the most amazing athletes in history. So it makes sense that a video showing that he can still dunk at age 48 would go viral:

And when the amazing athlete in question just so happens to be a three-year-old little boy, well then... you can bet that thing is going to go viral:

Movie Trailer Madness

A funny thing happened this week: several trailers for upcoming huge movies leaked online before they were intended to. In every case, the studios involved had the trailers pulled, but by then it was really too late.

The Dark Knight Rises, which hits theaters next summer, is the final Batman film from Christian Bale and director Christopher Nolan. The teaser trailer for the film was attached to the final Harry Potter movie, but leaked online late last week in bootleg versions. So, figuring they couldn't fight the sudden wave of interest, Warner Brothers went ahead and released an official HD version on their Facebook Page early this week. If you're a fan of the series, you won't want to miss it:

Another of next summer's hotly anticipated films also involves a familiar superhero... Spiderman. And after a bootleg of that film's new trailer got Internet tongues wagging, the studio (Sony) followed Warner's lead and just released the darn thing:

Some trailers are able to avoid the dreaded early bootleg release, while still going viral in their own right. Like the trailer for the upcoming remake of the horror classic, The Thing:

Pratfalls & Bloopers

Humans are pretty cocky. We often think we can do things that, in fact, we cannot. And when we fail on video, the results can often go viral. Like this poor fellow who face-plants on the beach:

Or this skateboarder, who falls... with style:

Sometimes a video entrances viewers not for a blooper, but for a blooper that never happens. This gentleman should, by all rights, have been starring in a "fail" video of his own, but instead the dreaded pratfall never happens:

I have no idea how this next video's driver found himself in this situation, or how he managed to escape relatively unscathed. And truthfully, I like it better that way:

My Favorite Videos Of The Week

Two videos stuck out to me this week for their originality and overwhelming entertainment value. The first is something of a Herculean undertaking--stitching together over 80 YouTube covers of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" into one continuous video. I don't even want to think about how long this took:

The second video that I can't stop watching this week is from Jim Meskimen, who is an impressionist. A darn good impressionist. How good? Just try and pick a favorite from the huge list of celebrities he mimics in this video:

Honorable Mention

For those of you who just can't get enough video (or want to continue procrastinating), you might also enjoy:

• Pizza Hut in India is nothing like Pizza Hut in the U.S.
• This motorcross rider's fall could easily have been included in the Pratfalls & Bloopers section above.
• Watch Space Shuttle Atlantis land for the last time ever.
• Hmmm... Old Spice has gone from Isaiah Mustafa to Ray Lewis to... Fabio?
• NBA star Steve Nash has a funny new Toyota commercial.