The Legendary Video
Numa Numa Dance is a flash movie from December 6, 2004. Gary Brolsma submitted this web-cam video of himself dancing in his seat to the Romanian pop song "Dragostea Din Tea" by "O-Zone".[1] Although it only took him fifteen minutes to make, it only took a few days for the video to be posted on the front page, and massive popularity soon followed. Although similar videos would eventually debut on YouTube, that site was very new at the time, making Newgrounds the only place to submit it. On September 8, 2006, Gary went on to produce a video called New Numa, which was a remix of a Russian song specifically produced by Variety Beats for that purpose. It was significantly less successful than the original, and has still not reached a million views on Newgrounds.[2]. Since October 2016, the video has been unavailable to view on the Newgrounds website. According to the last screenshot of the video, it had 16.9 million views and a 4 star rating.
Reception on Newgrounds[]
As of December 2011 it has 15.7 million views, 180,000 votes, and over 11,000 reviews, making it the tenth most reviewed video or game in Newgrounds history. It has consistently had an average score of over 4/5 and average review of over 9/10. Since the video became popular, Gary has improved the flash with options to remove the pix and to include subtitles.
Parodies and Tributes[]
Many parodies and tributes to Numa Numa Dance have been made, both Real film and animation. "American Idle" has had over one million views since 2005.[3]. The Clock Crew and the Lock Legion combined under ClockLock to create their version The "Numa Numa Dance" was featured in a sixth season episode of the TV series NCIS, and in the 2008 "Canada on Strike" episode of the animated TV comedy series South Park.
In Popular Culture[]
Since 2004, Numa Numa Dance has become the second most viewed viral video in history, after Star Wars Kid, with over a billion views in different formats. The video was featured in ABC's Good Morning America, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, and VH1's "Best Week Ever." In the South Park episode "Canada on Strike," Gary Brolsma appears along with several other internet celebreties. Gary Brolsma was voted the Number 1 Internet Icon by "40 Greatest Internet Superstars" on VH1.[4] Numa Numa Dance also was featured in an episode of NCIS.[5]
Sequels[]
New Numa[]
An sequel for the video titled New Numa was published on 2006. Gary, now on better quality, danced and sang a Russian song by Variety Beats, which was done for the video. Although this video wasn't popular as the original Numa Numa, it got an Front Page and a Daily 2nd.
Numa Numa 10-Year Reunion[]
10 Years after the original video, on 2014, Gary published an anniversary titled Numa Numa 10-Year Reunion. Gary danced and lip-synced various songs, which included songs by Stamper and Homestar Runner, along with "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" by Bob Dylan, and "Firework" by Katy Perry. The video received mixed feedback from the Newgrounds community and won a Daily 3rd and a Underdog.
Numa Numa (2023)[]
On 2023, on YouTube, Gary published an third sequel, titled just as the original. Gary danced to the same song while lip-synced it. The video has received positive feedback by mostly older audiences who considered it nostalgic.
Deletion[]
On October 2016, without prior notice, most of Numa Numa videos, including the original, New Numa, the 10-Year Reunion and the complete Numa Numa collection were deleted from Newgrounds. Although the pages were initially marked as "deleted by moderation", the Numa Numa page has been since redirecting to an Wiki page, which stats the video has been since deleted due to two factors: Newgrounds focus on Animations and the copyrighted music, also inciting users to use and/or publish music on the Audio Portal.
Numa Numa parodies without the song weren't deleted and are still on Newgrounds.