My daughter walks, she talks, she has teeth, she can stack cups, she can clap her hands, she can point to her nose, she can use a spoon, she has hit every developmental milestone expected of a nineteen-month old. Except for one.
My daughter has yet to become a viral YouTube sensation.
As a parent, it’s quite disappointing. Every time I open my inbox, someone’s sent me another funny baby video. For a few seconds, you laugh at the baby’s hilarious antics. Then your thoughts turn to the baby’s parents, basking in those million plus hits. Getting to go on Good Morning America. Watching their child get parodied by Conan O’Brien. Becoming a topical point of discussion for a minute or two. And then you think, their baby is no different than my daughter.
Where’s her viral video?
My daughter is cute. She’s funny. We laugh at her antics on a daily basis. Surely she’s worth millions of YouTube hits. She’s as entertaining, if not more, than a Panda sneezing or a cat eating spaghetti.
So I’ve tried to capture something with “share-ability” as they say. Something that will go “viral.” It’s just a lot more difficult than it seems. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle or winning the internet lottery. I have hours of un-viral footage of my daughter being an unfunny baby.
My daughter has yet to hilariously shake her booty while watching a Beyoncé music video. When my wife sneezes, my daughter doesn’t react with fear. My daughter has no younger British sibling named Charlie to bite her finger and no twin to debate in an undiscovered language.
Whatever viral video potential she has, it will just happen. You can’t force it. I’m not going to lower myself to feeding my daughter pop rocks or wasabi for a funny reaction video. No, it has to happen naturally.
The other day, I think it happened.
The video starts off simply enough. My daughter slides down a playground slide as I record. She lands feet first and begins to run around for another slide. Then BAM! Faceplant! You don’t even see it coming and it’s funny. You can’t help but to laugh, it’s schadenfreude. My daughter wasn’t hurt, which makes the laughing okay.
After sharing the video with a few friends, I logged onto to YouTube. I was ready to upload “Baby Faceplant LOL OMG”. I could just imagine the hits and the poorly spelled comments. Then I hesitated.
Was I Rebecca Black-ing her future? Was she going to become a national punchline? A baby Star Wars Kid? Or a toddler Tron Guy?
I decided not to upload the video. If people were going to laugh at my daughter, it wasn’t going to be millions of strangers; it was going to be her parents and her extended family.
Besides, since she’s started daycare, she’s gone viral every second week.
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