If you’re old enough to remember the beginnings of YouTube before it was acquired by Google, it was truly a simpler time. In an age where the platform was dominated by more or less just cat videos, niche vloggers, Smosh, NigaHiga and Leeroy Jenkins – it was more or less a blissful and inoffensive corner of the internet.
Well, we regret to inform you that a big part of that age of YouTube has died. Shot dead. Never to be heard from again, apparently. The original viral “Numa Numa” dance video to the tune of O-Zone’s “Dragostea Din Tei,” performed by Gary Brolsma, appears to be deleted from the platform, according to TikTok user ashelytravels715:
Indeed, upon our own inspection of YouTube, it would appear that Brolsma’s official video is no longer anywhere to be seen, marking a sad day for millennials and any other generation that embraced YouTube in its early years. While there are facsimilies floating around as well as reuploads, it’s just not the same as visiting the original video from Dec. 11 2006 and doing the standard millennial thing of leaving a comment saying; “Still listening in 2023.”
A concrete reason as to why the iconic video has been taken down is yet to be determined, but whatever it may be – I think we can all be in agreement that this is treason of the highest order, and a concerted effort to do away with an important part of internet history. It’s probably something to do with YouTube’s increasingly stringent copyright rules, but we’re sticking to our guns with the whole “j’accuse” thing.
In the immortal and incensed words of “Fabulous” Neil from Community – “It’s riot time.”