TV interviews that have gone viral on the web

We look at the most popular TV interviews that have not only been viewed millions of times, but have catapulted subjects to super web-celebrity status. Watch them here:

A clip from a video of Charles Ramsey talking to a reporter after rescuing Amanda Berry, who was kidnapped in 2003 and thought to be dead.

Eating my McDonald’s

When Charles Ramsey, with a mouthful of McDonald’s, heard a girl screaming for help from inside his neighbour’s house earlier this year, he was surprised. The Cleveland resident went to her rescue, thinking it was a domestic dispute. Moments later, a young girl threw herself into her saviour’s arms, after having being held in captivity with two other girls for a decade.

Ramsey had, quite accidentally, found Amanda Berry, who was kidnapped in 2003 and thought to be dead. But for the Ohio dishwasher, something else was more remarkable. “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms … Dead giveaway,” he told a television reporter.

Since the interview went online on May 6, it has become a viral YouTube sensation, and got more than seven million hits in less than a month. A remixed auto-tuned song, Dead Giveaway, by the New York band The Gregory Brothers, has been an even greater hit, with more than 15 million views on YouTube. Watch it here

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Another internet sensation is Kimberly Wilkins, aka Sweet Brown. The Oklahoma resident was interviewed after fleeing a fire in her apartment complex last year. She said she had woken up to get a “cold pop” and thought someone was barbecuing, before realising it was a fire. She told the local TV channel that the smoke she inhaled had given her bronchitis. “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” she then exclaimed.

The clip was an instant hit on the net. Now, a year later, it has been seen by more than 39 million people. Needless to say, Sweet Brown has been milking it for what it is worth by appearing in commercials, including one for dentistry, with her famous catchphrase. She has featured on several radio and TV shows. The interview was also remixed by The Bob Rivers Show into a song, I Got Bronchitis, which has had 34 million hits. Watch it here

Hide your kids

The one who takes the viral sensation catchphrase crown is no doubt Antoine Dodson. When his sister was attacked by an intruder in her bed in their housing project, Lincoln Park, in a small town in Alabama, Dodson told the local television news reporter that people need to “hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband, cause they’re raping everybody out here”. Dodson became an overnight internet celebrity. Dodson’s fame grew when The Gregory Brothers remixed the interview, released it as the Bed Intruder Song on YouTube and iTunes and shared the profits with Dodson. The song reached No 89 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and has had more than 115 million views since it was uploaded in July 2010. A video clip of the interview has surpassed 54 million hits. See it here

Rainbows all the way

The American Paul Vasquez started crying when the rainbow he was filming at Yosemite National Park turned into a double and then a triple rainbow. The video he posted to YouTube in July 2010 of his overwhelming moment, in awe of nature’s raw beauty, went viral and has had more than 37 million hits. It was remixed – again by The Gregory Brothers – and has got more than 32 million hits. See it here

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