Gangnam Style demolishes Call Me Maybe in the viral video race

How long does it take to become a major Internet sensation? Many say “overnight,” but in the case of Gangnam Style, two months of YouTube hits, parody videos, and fan re-dos made one band and their “horsey-dance” more relevant to pop culture than Call Me Maybe.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call me Maybe had the right elements to become an Internet sensation. It was catchy, quirky, celebrity endorsed (watch Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez’s parody video here) and more importantly, people were able to think up memes to make fun of it. According to analytics company Visible Measure, Call Me Maybe reached 350 million views, including parody videos and live performances posted to YouTube, in 112 days.

Gangnam Style reached 350 million views in 60 days.

The video involves South Korean rapper PSY dancing throughout the country singing about, what I assume to be the right kind of woman to date. (Sorry, I only know two words in Korean. 감사합니다!) His dance looks like someone riding a horse without the horse, and reminds many in the U.S. of LMFAO’s comedy-raps.

But what really made this video soar are the fan parody videos. Visible Measure put together the top 10 best parodies, the top three of which already have over 18 million views together. Below are three of our favorites. Check out the rest of the top fan re-makes here.

Everyone loves a mom and son duo:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJXgiUe_EM]

This one is the most accurately recreated, we think:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmIlbyLIcKg]

Think they were trying to make a tourism video for Malaysia?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUNb4yBz9Ck]

Call Me Maybe meme image via KnowYourMeme