Just kidding, of course you will, because it's Rebecca Black, and Rebecca Black is 2011's most important entity across culture, politics, and the whole of the space-time continuum. But what else mattered in our cosmos, YouTube-wise? Let's explore!
Following Facebook and Google's trend of highlighting a whole bunch of inane horse shit with the occasional historical event sprinkled in, YouTube's most popular videos don't quite reflect the whole social media changing the world notion—although we did turn to the 'Tube for videos of change in Egypt, war in Libya, and disaster in Japan that couldn't be found elsewhere. Just not in numbers that can compete with Ms. Black—who in all honesty, is pretty stellar in her own way.
The rest of the top 10? A talking dog, a Jack Sparrow parody song, two babies talking to each other, Nyan Cat, Karmin's ear-ending, life transforming Chris Brown cover, an SNL skit, a little girl on the piano, a VW commercial, and some cats. Phew.
Jennifer Lopez claimed the most popular music video of the year, perhaps offering proof that Rebecca Black's existence truly has opened up some sort of wormhole.
But what were we searching for? The top ten includes Ted Williams, that homeless guy with a nice voice who later turned out to be a criminal or something, Born This Way, Tsunami, Bin Laden, Drake, and Skyrim. You know, the stuff that will be in history books.
So there you have it—the most popular moving image of the year was so because it was the year's most reviled. A new renaissance is upon us. [YouTube]