Crazy Frog Brothers

Note Redshirt on a friggin rope swing @ 2:08

The Crazy Frog Brothers is a homemade video of two kids dancing around their basement and lip-syncing to the song “Axle F” (“Crazy Frog” was actually a character used to market the song and a ringtone, unrelated to our two heroes)

While the boy in the black tanktop appears to be acting tough, his redshirt amigo partakes in dance moves that make even the best ravers look like schizophrenic mental patients trying to attack wheelchairs. Serious skills indeed.

They produced 4 takes of the video (!) but the first is considered “the original” (and funniest). The video was heavily shared & re-uploaded. Numerous copies of the video have been taken down, making an assessment of the views to be practically impossible.

The oldest Youtube video which seems to be the original is Crazy Frog Bros, posted by user nalobi the 15th of July 2006. Originally the audio was removed for copyright infringement, but more recently Axel F has begun using YouTube’s “monetize” options to sell MP3s and ringtones, cashing in on the video’s nearly 13 million views.

‘Crazy Frog’ brand/ringtone

The actual “Crazy Frog” was a character used to promote an annoying 2006 ringtone that was based on a computer animation called “The Annoying Thing” made by Swedish student Erik Wernquist, which was itself based on a foley soundeffect of a two-stroke moped engine created by Daniel Malmedahl. More info → wikipedia)

Youtube reenactments and parodies

Starting nearly immediately after the July 2006 video, many parodies with modified faces appeared on Youtube, inspired by gif animations made on it:

The same way, remixes of the video with different music tracks were made:

But, despite all the already impressive video remixes, what would strike first is the amount of reenactments made by other people:

“Gates in childhood”

On the 23rd of March 2007, the video has been imported to Nico Nico Douga, giving birth to a great fad there called 幼少期のゲイツ ( Yōshōki no geitsu => Gates in childhood) because of the slight similarity between the kid in the red shirt and Bill Gates.

Then, a collection of more than 260 videos has been made on NND.
In these videos, the “Gates boy” was mainly characterized as a boy who encourages Japanese people with dirty words.
One of the most reccuring expression that can be found is “糞ジャップ共!”, roughly meaning Fu**in’ Japanese !

Here is a particular example that has been imported to Youtube:

Typically enjoying the Crazy frog videos in their own way, Japanese people have been leaving many comments concerning the slangs used.

Following up

In 2007 the original, take 3 and take 4 were made available on the Youtube account frogvids. While they don’t list their names in the account, descriptions are written as though they are the kids in the video.