viral video - the annoying orange

         The Annoying Orange is an American comedy web series created by former Minnesota film student and MTV production assistant Dane Boedigheimer in 2009. It stars its creator as an anthropomorphic orange who annoys other fruits, vegetables, and various other objects by using insulting, rude, and sometimes crude-humored jokes. The YouTube channel "Annoying Orange" has over 3 million subscribers.

The series was rated as the most viewed web series of February and March 2010 by Mashable, with over 52 million views. On April 26, 2010, the series had over 108 million views on YouTube. In June 2010, the channel had received 137 million views. By August 13, 2010, it had received 1 million subscribers. On June 2011, the channel was ranked as the eighth most subscribed and 30th most viewed, with more than 2,000,000 subscribers. On January 13, 2012, the series hit 1 billion channel views and 2.3 million subscribers. The Annoying Orange YouTube channel currently has over 3.5 million subscribers.

Despite the show's popularity, it was universally panned by critics. Liz Shannon Miller considered the show to be "annoying for many reasons." In the web series column Pass the Mustard, Ned Hepburn called the show "pure, pure unfunny, highly concentrated, in droplet form, just purely nonsensical riffing from an Annoying Orange." Hepburn concluded, "The Annoying Orange series is one of the few that I had a physically bad reaction to. It was horrible." 411mania.com called the show "idiotic" and "creepy as hell", while other publications have referred to it as "third grade humor." However, among internet audiences, the show has garnered generally positive reviews, as opposed to the unanimously negative ones.

Despite the show's negative critical reception, the show's popularity after its first episode led it to become the subject of a TV series, a video game, a range of toys, and a t-shirt line. Other accessories, such as costumes of the series characters, have also appeared on the market for the company. Why do millions of people watch the Annoying Orange Videos? The series began in October 2009 and it is still alive and kicking with nearly 40 million viewers to date on the first video. There are several reasons why so many people have taken the time to view, laugh at, and get annoyed by, this special orange. 

First of all, the orange is really annoying. The orange on the counter with the eyes and mouth has a high-pitched voice that is unpleasant to the ears. To make matters worse it has an irritating laugh and it simply won’t shut up, right to the last second of the video. It might annoy the audience, but this is the unique point of this video that people might use the same way to annoy their friends as fun. Unlike Family Guy or the Simpsons, these videos are not satirical and don’t have any heavy or insulting jokes that people can seriously take offense to. If audiences really want to read more into what the creators intended, then perhaps audiences need to lighten up. Overall, the idea is to simply make people laugh without making political statements or making people think too much to get the jokes. It is all lighthearted and simple enough for kids to enjoy along with audiences.

Besides that, the element of danger is also one of the points that make this video viral. The setting is in a kitchen where all kind of foods get sliced, diced and cooked. The other foods arrive only to be tortured by a small, annoying, citrus fruit on the opposite counter before their sudden demise. Of course the orange offers a two second warning before the screaming starts, as the already victimized foods become meals. It makes such an ordinary thing like slicing an apple seems like a horrific act, and it makes us laugh because it’s a ridiculous idea.

Next, it’s viral due to the familiarity. Audiences all know the characters, so it is easy to dive right into the story. Orange, apple, pumpkin, cheese, grapefruit, bananas, and other foods have made appearances and it is interesting to see how they are given personalities. Audiences all have a mental reference to these things, and the twist is refreshing. Not to mention the Mario and Pac-Man episodes, which bring in classic video game characters that audiences all know and love.

It’s also providing an escape from reality. Many people use funny YouTube videos to unwind. Stress at school or work is more than enough reason for some to tune into that annoying orange. Life can also get mundane, depressing, and overly busy. These videos can help audiences forget about reality for a few minutes and laugh a little. 

In most cases, people watch things because they heard about it from a friend or family member. There are so many easy ways to share things online these days, so it is easy for a series of funny videos like this to go viral. Audiences can email, blog, post on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks about what audiences see, and before audiences know it friends tell their friends and soon it seems like everyone audiences know has seen it. A lot of people have read tweets about the videos, scrolled through YouTube and saw the title, or heard someone talking about the “Annoying Orange”. The simple title simply spurs curiosity and some people just have to find out what everyone is talking about. After they watch the first one, they become even more curious about whom the orange will annoy next, and therefore watch the other videos.

That is why so many people tune in to watch the many Annoying Orange videos. It’s good clean fun for the whole family.