(mouse clicks)
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
(background conversations)
- (boy, silly voice) Damn, Daniel!
- (laughing) Oh, yes!
- God damn it. God [bleep] damn it.
- No! No! I don't want this!
- (boy) Damn, Daniel!
(emotionally) Damn, Daniel!
Back at it again with the white Vans!
- What?
- (chuckling) "The va-ha-ans!"
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - He's so cute.
- (boy) Daaamn, Daniel! - He sounds like he could be
congratulating The Karate Kid.
- (boy) Back at it again with the white Vans!
Stüssy, man!
Damn, Daniel!
- Oh... Daniel. Daniel, you lucky duck.
- This is my favorite thing on the internet right now.
- It's not funny!
There's nothing funny about it.
- (Flint) Viola! - Haven't seen this one.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel. - (laughing)
Okay, that's-- that's good.
- That was it? (Finebros snickering)
I think that's like every 30-year-old's reaction to Vine.
It's like, that was it?
(slap) - Girl fight.
- (man) Damn... - (boy) Daniel!
- (laughs) It's so stupid.
(slap) - Oh.
- (man) Damn...
- (boy) Daniel! - "Daniel." (laughs)
- (laughs) Oh, it's great.
- That's-- that's a good meme.
- ♪ I'm too hot, hot damn ♪ - (boy) Damn!
- (snickering) - ♪ Call the po-lice and the fireman ♪
♪ I'm too hot, hot damn ♪ - (taking deep breath)
- I'm in. I'm in on all these.
- (boy) Damn, trashcan!
Damn, trashcan!
Daaamn, trashcan!
- (laughing) - (boy) Damn, trashcan!
Back at it again with the black bag!
- (inhales) I hate it.
- I get it. I ain't laughin', but I get it.
- (Draco) Scared, Potter? - (Harry) You wish.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel!
- (snickers quietly)
- Radcliffe. (chuckles)
- That's so good.
- They tried too hard on that one.
- (boy) Damn, Daniel!
- Yeah! I'm a future teller!!
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - (laughs)
- (boy) Damn, Daniel! - This one works!
- That works for my generation. I know that Daniel.
(in video: arguing)
- (boy) Back at it again with the white van!
- Nice. Nice.
- "The white van."
- (boy) Damn, Daniel!
(overlapping "Damn Daniels") - Damn-damn-damn-damn...
(chuckles)
- Oh, internet, how I love you.
- I have no clue why this went viral.
And then there's a part of me that's like,
"I know exactly why that went viral."
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- (Finebros) Okay, so were you familiar with this before today?
- I was. - I was not.
- Yes, I was.
- I was.
The responses are mixed, but I find it hilarious.
- I thought it was amusing at first.
And then of course, people, you know,
drove it into the ground like they so often do.
- Twitter was so happy that a meme was making them relevant
that they just pushed it onto everybody who was using Twitter.
- I came across "Damn Daniel"
'cause I put up a video I was very proud of,
and I was very excited to look at the comments.
And every single comment said, "Damn, Daniel."
- (Finebros) What is it about "Damn Daniel"
that you think made it become such a giant trend?
- I think it's his voice.
- His voice maybe, like (imitating) "Damn, Daniel!"
- The voice is one thing, and then he's not a bad-looking kid.
- There's like this visceral feeling when you hear the sound of,
"Damn, Daniel!" Like, you're just-- You're like, "I like that."
- (Finebros) A lot of people seem to not be sure
why "Damn Daniel" would go viral
more so than some of the other recent trends.
Why do you think this one's harder to wrap your head around
than maybe another one?
- Of all things, I think the randomness of it.
- You see, they ask why. I ask why not.
- I don't know. I love it.
I just think it's amazing, and I'm a huge fan.
- This one seems just a little bit like... "Huh."
- Watching the original really didn't do anything with me.
I was just like... "Meh, Daniel."
- I think this is literally just a product of everybody
wanting to jump on a bandwagon
and not really caring if that bandwagon sucks.
- With memes and things,
there's usually something more than this.
We can't explain it, but when you hear that, you smile.
- (Finebros) So there seems to be an endless stream
of these types of memes that are now going viral
that people will take and then remix.
Do you think that this concept is new to the Vine generation,
or has this type of thing been around for a long time?
- Oh, it's always been around.
- It's evolving. There are different forms, you know?
There are different platforms, like Snapchat obviously.
Vine obviously. But the idea is nothing new.
- The very first internet videos I ever saw
were those G.I. Joe PSAs that got redone.
Spinning videos into different things
has been around for a while. - As long as YouTube.
- It happened with me.
I was a Vine meme for-- I still am all the time.
Which is why I find it funny
that people are getting so amazed by it now.
I mean, it's been around for so long.
- This is just a new version of a viral video, you know?
You used to have "Leave Britney Alone,"
which was four minutes long,
and it was crazy and funny and weird.
Now people are so ADD. They need a two-second joke.
- Memes have been around for a long time, the idea of a meme.
Like taking something, turning it into your own,
and making a joke out of it.
But that used to be way more underground.
But now everyone does it.
You see it all over Facebook, all over Twitter, Instagram.
- It's been around since the advent of the inside joke,
except now news outlets are so desperate to seem cool and hip.
They're like, "Look at the kids's new inside joke! We get it!"
- (Finebros) So since this has become popular,
the two boys who made the video, Daniel and then Josh,
have received an incredible amount of notoriety in the media.
But also, some negative things have happened to them.
- Like what?
- Oh, of course.
How can you gain any popularity without a bunch of negativity?
- (Finebros) Josh got swatted, where they prank-call the police
and the SWAT team shows up. - Oh, yikes.
- (Finebros) And they also got his Twitter hacked,
and they removed the video for a while.
And they posted all these KKK stuff
all across his Twitter account. - (incredulously) What?
- What?
(sighs) Poor baby.
- These kids don't have any prior concept of the viral world.
They're new to this.
So that must be pretty terrifying, I imagine.
- (Finebros) What do you think about that aspect
of what can happen after virality hits people?
- Comes with the fame, man.
- That's really shitty.
I mean, that's kind of the risk you take when you go viral.
- Once you jump in that pool,
you're swimming with a certain amount of sharks.
I don't think it's their fault. I think it's unfortunate.
- It's an unfortunate consequence.
They're really exploiting these people who are just people
and then taking them to a level of fame
that not only did they not ask for
but they're grossly unprepared for.
- There's almost nothing you can do to prevent it,
'cause even with celebrityism,
everybody that's normal wants to be famous.
And as soon as they're famous, they want to be normal.
And you can't say, "Here's my ceiling.
I want to be this famous and then stop."
No. Josh, bro, welcome to the party.
- Such a great example of how we're going in the wrong direction.
Like, we're just so ready to tear people down.
It's a weird trend that's been growing.
Why are we so quick-- so quick to just, like, (clicks tongue)
"All right, I'm not for that. I bring it down."
- (Finebros) So we ask this on the show a lot,
but here's a couple of guys that got viral fame.
Do you think that these guys should continue making these videos?
- (promptly) No! No!
What are they gonna do? Go up to stuff and go, "Damn!"
- I think that they're children in high school,
and they need to focus on their lives.
Sorry. (chuckles) I was this not fun when I was younger too.
- It wouldn't hurt to try, but you also look kind of foolish
if you try and then nothing happens with it.
- There is a way to segue this into some kind of a job.
Look at Rebecca Black. She had "Friday."
And then she turned into a YouTuber,
and then she started making content weekly.
- They were both 14, and that's when I started making videos.
And I was like, "Aw man, they don't even know
what could happen in the next 10 years
if they took advantage of this." So you never know.
- If you're enjoying what you do
and there's an opportunity to capitalize on it,
I don't see why you would ever say no to that opportunity.
- (Finebros) So finally, do you think this concept
of the short video meme is gonna be something
that continues for a while?
Or do you think it will run its course? - Yeah, I think it will--
- I think it'll continue. - Continue.
- I think the memes are only gonna get shorter.
- I'm sure the next evolution, something will be different
but probably not that much different.
- It'll go on for a long time, man.
They're too bite-sized and they're too funny
to stop anytime soon.
- I just see this type of stuff being around for a long time
but also not hindering other types of content from being big.
- I think it will always be popular.
It's just instant gratification, you know?
If it was around decades before,
then it would've been popular then too.
- It's going to last because people like short declaratives.
This expectation that everything have a very quick setup,
a clear delivery, a clear punchline
is informing the way that we speak,
the way that we expect eloquence to manifest itself in 2016.
♪ (guitar riff) ♪
- Thanks so much for watching another episode of YouTubers React.
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♪ (end music) ♪