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Sometimes you can't help but think about how much we owe YouTube. Think of all the hillarious things we might never know about, all the cats we might never have seen, if it hadn't been for this wonderous online invention.
In the past, you had to be an actual star to have your own video, or a child with relatively rich parents. But now all you need is a phone and an iffy sense of dignity.
This year has been good to us when it comes to online treats and we've rounded up some of the best videos of the past 12 months that kept us amused in 2012, from talent show shocks to the amazing video of Kim Wilde drunk on a train.
Check out our selection below.
10. Britain's Got Talent Opera Duet: Jonanthon and Charlotte
BGT's about two things, dancing animals and laughing at people who think they can do stuff they obviously can't. When these two took to the stage, Cowell remarks 'just when you think it can't get any worse'. He's then blown away when the rotund fellow belts out a flawless performance bringing the crowd to heir feet and making Cowell look like a bit of a fool.
9. Isaac's Live lip-Dub Proposal
This clip deserves to be included simply because of the insane amount of planning it must have required. Public proposals aren't anything new, and since we've had YouTube they've grown ever more eccentric. But a choreographed lip-synced performance, involving friends and family while the bride to be is perched in the back of a jeep being driven along the street is something else. A tip of the cap, sir. And thanks for setting the bar still higher.
8. 'Farmer Style'
For better or worse, this year saw Gangnam Style become the most viewed video on YouTube ever. As tends to happen, this led to string of YouTube parodies. Britney Spears was personally taught the dance by Psy on TV, and the posh lads from Eton have had a crack at it. But this version, promoting the importance of agriculture and the joys of a rural lifestyle from the Peterson Farm Brothers is perhaps the best.
7. Jay-Z's Subway Ride
While celebrities trying to connect with Joe Average is often one of the most cringeworthy things in the world, Jay-Z's subway ride warmed the hearts of YouTube viewers around the globe. Despite getting on a packed rush hour train with two huge bodyguards, his conversation with a lady called Ellen Grossman, who had no idea who he was, was one of the sweetest things we've seen this year.
6. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the back of a police car
We've all been there. One too many mulled wines in your local and suddenly you're in the middle of a tuneless rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that involves the whole pub with at least three people acting out the lyrics rather than singing. This Canadian was picked up for being intoxicated, and when his protests didn't have any effect on the cop, he realised there was only one thing left to try...
5. Nick Clegg's autotuned apology
Autotune is a wonderful thing. In the past it has been used to make a warning to an attempted rapist a pop hit, or make Charlie Sheen's breakdown interview even funnier. But turning Nick Clegg's somewhat pathetic attempt at apologising into a whinning ballad is perhaps the most appropriate creation of the autotune revolution.
4. 'That Gotye Song'
When Gotye released 'Somebody That I Used To Know', it genuinely was everywhere, but no one was willing to admit they liked it. This comedy duo absolutely nail how everyone's reaction to the song - spending the verses complaining about its ubiquity and poor musicianship before launching into heartfelt sing alongs for each and every chorus. Let us all hang our heads in collective shame.
3. V Festival urine shocker
Good on this bloke. He was ready to sacrifice his own comfort, to potentially spend the remainder of his festival covered in mud, in the interest of entertaining everyone else with his mud slide. What he weasn't expecting was to finish his slide in a steamy stream of wee being freshly expelled from a female festival goer. Comedians spend lifetimes trying to think of things as funny as this.
2. Carly Rae Jepsen with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots
While Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe' might have been everywhere this year, it wasn't exactly the coolest thing blasting across the airwaves. But if there's one band that can make anything cool, it's probably The Roots. When Jimmy Fallon roped them in for an impromptu rendition of the song backstage before the show, the song got 100% niftier in the space of just three and a half minutes. Questlove's kazoo performance should win some sort of award.
1. Kim Wilde serenades commuters
For the most part, getting up and singing on a train is not OK. No one appreciates it. But when Kim and Ricky Wilde were filmed 'serenading' commuters last week, it proved an internet smash of epic proporitions. That said, it might have been Kim's slightly less than sober demeanour, rather than the musical quality, that people liked.
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