I’m sure almost everyone who surfs the Internet has viewed at least one video via YouTube. Allowing people to easily post videos for others to see seems like a simple idea but YouTube did it better anyone else. Sure there was some luck involved but it’s the favoured site to post your videos to.
Because anyone can post their videos and because the site is so popular now, YouTube has created Internet stars. As far as the Web goes, these people are genuine celebrities. Their videos are viewed by the thousands. In a course of a week, a video can generate as many as 100 000 views. A single video can elicit over a thousand comments in the same time frame. I can only dream of a blog post with that many comments.
One such Internet sensation is a twenty-something male from Toronto, Ontario. His name is Tony but he’s much better known as “The Wine Kone”. He’s a bit of rarity on YouTube since most stars there are teenage girls. TWK’s videos, for the most part, are funny, well-edited, and entertaining. There’s no doubt he has a sense of humour, which skews at times towards the self-deprecating. Now where have I seen that before? Hmm…
Strangely, TWK has garnered YouTube groupies. These are girls who find TWK attractive and funny. They leave flattering comments for him to read. It’s almost rock star in nature.
Now with stardom does has his price and in this case, it comes in the form of detractors. I believe the kids these days refer to them as “haters”. On the Internet, it’s much easier to criticize than to create and TWK has dealt with his fair share of critics.
Nonetheless, I find it fascinating that in this day and age, you can be well known to hundreds of thousands of people without being a TV star, movie star, or serial killer. Be sure to check out one of TWK’s latest videos above where he describes his university graduation. I know it might seem long but it’s well worth your time. Funny stuff indeed. His entire collection can be viewed here.