Bzzzzzzzzzz / World Cup Vuvuzelas (2010)

About

Bzzzzzz is the onomatopoeia of the droning noise made by the Vuvuzuela, a stadium horn popularized during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Spread

Knowledge of the instrument and the sound that it makes spread immediately from the stadiums to the rest of the globe via the mediums of TV, radio, and the web simultaneously. The horns could be heard throughout the stadiums as fans blew the horns with enthusiasm, as a declaration of support for their teams and their countries. Despite the best intentions of most horn-blowers, the sound has been received by many as an annoyance.

Last Year

As early as June of 2009, a full year prior to the World Cup, the BBC published a story addressing the bad reputation of the Vuvuzela in an article entitled, In defence of the vuvuzela.

Excerpt:

The electrifying atmosphere generated by the ubiquitous instrument at the ongoing Confederations Cup has left many of the onlookers spell bound.
But many in Europe say the incessant blowing in the terraces is irritating and have complained that it is drowning out their TV commentators.

June 8th

On June 8th, 2010, BBC Comedy web series Misery Bear was posted to Youtube, and Misery Bear is seen packing a Vuvuzela prior to the official start of the World Cup; foreshadowing that knowledge of the Vuvuzela was already fairly widespread prior to this year’s games.

[WORK IN PROGRESS – FILLING GAPS]

June 11th

As Mexico and Russia squared off in the first World Cup match, comments began appearing in Spanish language discussion threads about the particular “bzzzzzzzzz” sound of the horn:

The same onomatopoeia began showing up the same day on reddit threads, and even Yahoo Answers as well.

June 13th

On June 13th, Reddit user sobmorok posted Vuvuzela Instruction Manual [pic] which quickly reached Reddit’s front page with around 280,000 views.

The Daily What reblogged User Manual of the Day: Your Vuvuzela And You: A Step-By-Step Instruction Guide later that day reaching an esitimated 40,000 additional viewers.

Buzzfeed user anteater posted Vuvuzela, meet world

Time magazine published What is that weird hum during World Cup games? which was subsequently reblogged to Buzzfeed.

[WORK IN PROGRESS]

On the night of June 13th (anything prior?) thread containing image macros of vuvuzelas and posts of the word BBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZ began appearing all over 4chan, resulting in 4chan sysop (presumably moot) adding an audio clip to play in the background on /b/. The clip contains a sample of Jim Carey’s famous line from the movie Dumb and Dumber: “Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?” followed by a sample of a vuvuzela.

June 14th

Someone created a twitter account @the_vuvuzela and proceeded to tweet numerous Bzzzzzzzes. @thevuvuzela’s Twitter stream was then posted to Buzzfeed by Top 10 Buzzfeed user Tanner Ringerud. After 10 hours the account has nearly 1700 followers.

The BBC published the article Can you block out the blare of vuvuzelas? but on the sidebar, it was listed as “Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Can technology block the blare of the vuvuzelas?”

The New York Times published the article The World Cup Will Drone On which reported that, despite complaints, vuvuzelas would not be banned.

June 17th

Newswire service Reuters even seems to have adopted the BBBzzzz term, publishing the story BBBBzzzz! Noisy iVuvuzela latest app.

Google Maps also incorporated the instrument into Street View. When looking at maps of South Africa, the pegman appeared with a mini red vuvuzela. My Google Map Blog covered it on the 17th and Mashable posted about it on the 25th.

June 21st

Hitler is informed about the Vuvuzela:

June 23rd

YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing site, joins in on the BZZZZZZZZZ phenomenon by adding a “vuvuzela sound generator” button to its football-related videos.

Additional Vuvuzela Youtube Videos