About

Crazy Frog Brothers is a homemade video of two kids dancing around their basement and lip-syncing to the "Crazy Frog" version of the song "Axel F." The original video was posted online in mid-July 2006, spreading as a viral video on YouTube over the following years. Since then, the clip has been referenced in various memes, remixes and other content on the web.

Origin

The oldest YouTube video, which is purported to be the original, is "Crazy Frog Bros" posted by user nalobi^[1] the July 15th, 2006. In the clip, the glasses-wearing boy in the black tank top dances with another kid in a red shirt and glasses as the two begin awkwardly moving to the Crazy Frog song. They ultimately produced four takes of the video, but the first is considered "the original" and is typically used in references.

The clip has been heavily shared and reuploaded since 2006, with numerous copies of the video being taken down, making an assessment of the views practically impossible. However, prior to its removal, the video accumulated millions of views (reupload shown below).

Crazy Frog Brand and Ringtone

The actual "Crazy Frog"^[2] was a character used to promote a viral 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 sound effect of a two-stroke moped engine created by Daniel Malmedahl.

Spread

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. Starting almost immediately after the July 2006 video, many parodies with modified faces appeared on YouTube, inspired by GIF animations made based on the original (examples shown below).

Follow Up Video

In 2007, the original Take 3 and Take 4 were made available on the YouTube account frogvids.^[3] While they don't list their names in the account, descriptions are written as though they are the kids in the video.

Gates in Childhood

On March 23rd, 2007, the video was imported to the Japanese video-sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND),^[4] giving birth to a fad there called "Gate in Childhood" (Japanese: 幼少期のゲイツ, Yōshōki no geitsu) because of the slight similarity between the kid in the red shirt and Bill Gates. A collection of more than 260 videos were made on NND.^[5]

In these videos, the "Gates boy" was mainly characterized as a boy who encourages Japanese people with dirty words. One of the most recurring expressions that can be found is "F**kin' Jap!" (糞ジャップ共!).

Typically enjoying the Crazy Frog videos in their own way, Japanese people left many comments concerning the slang used.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.