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2004·Early web, before YouTube·funny

Numa Numa

The webcam video that showed a generation that the thing to do with a camera was point it at yourself.

You might remember it as Numa Numa Dance

From the early web

See where it was on YouTube.

The story

What this was

Gary Brolsma sits at a desk in front of a webcam and lip-syncs and dances, from the chest up, to O-Zone’s "Dragostea din tei". The name is from the song’s refrain.

It first appeared in 2004, during early web, before YouTube.

It is a person enjoying a song alone in a room, and the enjoyment is the content. The BBC ranked it the second most-watched viral video of all time in 2006. It is credited, alongside Evolution of Dance, with sending a wave of people to make accounts of their own.

Brolsma described himself as an unwilling and embarrassed web celebrity and cancelled his media appearances. He returned in September 2006 with "New Numa" and a $45,000 contest, appeared in Weezer’s "Pork and Beans" video in 2008, and has released music since.

You were there

More from 2004

The same internet

Early web, before YouTube

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Related

Grouped by explicit relationships where evidence exists, and by shared theme otherwise.

Behind the record

Where it came from

Original source uncertain. This is the earliest copy currently known.

No original upload has been established for this record. The index is showing the earliest copy it currently knows about, and says so rather than guessing.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

What happens
Gary Brolsma sits at a desk in front of a webcam and lip-syncs and dances, from the chest up, to O-Zone’s "Dragostea din tei". The name is from the song’s refrain.
When
Originally published December 2004.
Where
Known on YouTube.

Other copies the index knows about. None is claimed to be the original.

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