Strike it rich in the YouTube lottery
Posted by drocolate on May 16th, 2010
Last week something caught my eye on the Yahoo! homepage. It was a link to this:
It’s a video of a kid playing a Lady Gaga meets Tori Amos cover of Gaga’s “Paparazzi”. I watched the video and was impressed that this little dude was so comfortable belting this song out in front of so many of his teenage peers. Good work, dude.
From there I went on with my day and forgot about him.
The rest of the world however, had other plans.
In the next few days this kid’s video accumulated like a bazillion YouTube views, he was invited to appear on Ellen Degeneres’ talk show and he was being lauded as the next Justin Beaver Bieber, which I guess is a good thing in some circles. This kid, whose name is the Greyson Michael Chance (yeah that really is his name… i didn’t make that up… and no he’s not a comic book character), had struck gold and he had done it solely by uploading a video onto YouTube. He had essentially won the lottery.
All of this got me thinking.
For millions of Americans it is a routine to swing by the gas station on the way home from work one night a week and pick up a lotto ticket. Then these folks check the winning numbers and lose week after week.
I would suggest to these hopeful suckers that they stop wasting money on lotto tickets and start making YouTube videos. Don’t put too much thought into it, just do it. Just think about these examples of past YouTube lottery winners:
That couple who recorded the unorthodox way that they entered their wedding. Remember them? You think they ever thought their crazy idea for a wedding entrance would be parodied on The Office? Yeah, I don’t think so.
Or maybe that bizarre “Leave Britney Alone” dude who spoke out against the press for mistreating his favorite popstar. You think he ever thought he would get his 15ish minutes of fame for that? Well, yeah he may have, but it was still a one-in-a-million shot.
Or the dudes who made the now classic “Unforgivable” clip. There is no way they ever thought that thing would explode like it did.
Or how about Bieber himself, who was discovered via YouTube by Usher. Yeah, Usher uses YouTube. He got lucky. Very, very, very, extremely lucky.
[I'm not putting a Beaver video on here. I have standards.]
That’s just a few. The list goes on and on. I’m sure you all can think of at least two or three of these YouTube “stars” right now. And while not all of these people reached the level of fame of a Justin Bieber, they all were provided with opportunities that they never would have been before uploading their videos. And that sudden surplus of opportunity is what winning the lottery is all about.
So I say again: Stop buying lottery tickets and start making videos. Set aside the small amount of money you’ve been shitting away on those meaningless tickets and buy yourself a cheap camera. Then make a video of the weird way your dog plays fetch or how your cat reacts to your new iPad. You’ve got just as much chance of winning at this contest as you ever did in the state lotto, and you’ll probably have more fun doing it.
And who knows, next thing you know you may be the next Greyson Michael Chance (which is still a totally ridiculous name… it’s like a fictional astronaut name or something… yeah, whatever… I’m just jealous).
Tags: Justin Bieber, lottery, youtube