History of the Entire World, I Guess
Part of a series on Bill Wurtz. [View Related Entries]
[View Related Sub-entries]
About
"History of the Entire World, I Guess" is an animated viral video created by Internet musician Bill Wurtz in which he narrates an abridged history of the universe in his signature style of non-sequitur humor, catchy melodies and colorful video effects. Upon its release on May 10th, 2017, the video instantly went viral, garnering over 3.2 million views within the first 24 hours.
Origin
On May 10th, 2017, Bill Wurtz posted a tweet saying how he was about to "explain the entire world, i guess," which received over 4,300 likes and over 1,200 retweets. Later that same day, Wurtz released the video to his YouTube channel. Within 24 hours, "History of the Entire World, I Guess" received more than three million views, becoming the #1 trending video of the day on YouTube.
Precursor
Prior to the release of "History of the Entire World, I Guess," Wurtz has experimented with historical narratives in a similar style, most notably through his first breakout video, "History of Japan", which went viral upon its YouTube debut in February 2016.
Spread
On the day of its release, Redditor t17389z submitted Wurtz' video to the /r/videos subreddit, where it was met with raving reviews and upvotes numbering in hundreds of thousands. Within 24 hours of the submission, the /r/videos post became the most upvoted YouTube video link in Reddit history. As of May 14th, the post has accrued over 153,000 points (85% upvotes). Meanwhile on Tumblr, many viewers began sharing dozens of animated GIFs excerpted from the video.
Media Coverage
In the following days, several internet news sites reported on the sensational reception of Bill Wurtz' "History of the Entire World" video, including the Huffington Post, New York Magazine, TubeFilter and What's Trending, among others.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Tumblr – Search for history of the entire world
[2] Tumblr – why i dont go outside
[3] Tumblr – when another history of video…
[4] Tumblr – that's bullshit
[5] Tumblr – When you made a dumb video about japan…
[6] Tumblr – Search Results for 'History of the Entire World I Guess'
[7] Tumblr – Search Results for 'History of the Entire World'
[8] Tumblr – Tagged Results for 'History of the Entire World I Guess'
[9] Reddit – history of the entire world, i guess – [19:26]
[10] What's Trending – Brilliant "a history of the world I guess" Video Take Internet By Storm
[11] TubeFilter – Bill Wurtz’s “History Of The Entire World” Gets 3.2 Million YouTube Views In Its First Day
[12] New York Magazine – Bill Wurtz Returns to Teach the History of the Entire World, He Guesses
[13] The Huffington Post – Psychedelic Video Explains The History Of The Entire World In Under 20 Minutes
[14] The Verge – History of the Entire World, I Guess could have been the best online video of 2005
Top Comments
Princeso Bubblegum
May 11, 2017 at 02:35PM EDT
Bilbo Swaggins Moderator
May 11, 2017 at 05:30PM EDT in reply to