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Numa Numa (video)

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Numa Numa (or "the Numa Numa Dance") is an Internet phenomenon based on amateur videos, particularly one by Gary Brolsma, made for the song "Dragostea din tei" by Romanian pop band O-Zone.

The phrase "Numa Numa" comes from the chorus of the song, "nu mă, nu mă iei," meaning, roughly, "(you) won't take, won't take me."

Maiyahi by Ikari

This is a romanian song written by the band called O-zone. The first video to gain widespread popularity[citation needed] was created by Japanese Internet user Ikari, and features animated images of cats resembling the fictional Mona from the Internet forum 2 Channel, and text based on a series of mondegreens derived from interpreting the lyrics as Japanese or English words which they resemble:

  • Alo ("hello") becomes "arrow," "alone," and Arlong (a character from the popular manga One Piece)
  • Salut ("greetings or hi") becomes saru (monkey)
  • Sunt eu ("it's me") becomes sugee (incredible)
  • Un ("an") becomes un (yes)
  • Haiduc ("outlaw") (or "hero" or "knight" depending on variation of translation) becomes haidoku (to read something precious)
  • Iubirea ("Love") becomes yubi Llama (yubi means finger)
  • Şi te rog ("And I beg you") becomes ji bero ("tongue with characters on it")
  • Fericirea ("The happiness") becomes panchira (upskirt). It can be also understood as very ecchida (very naughty.) (Note: it is common in Japanese-Pop music to mix with English words or phrases in the middle of a song.)
  • The beep in the song seems to become beef.
  • Nu mă, nu mă iei ("You don't, you don't take me") becomes "noma, noma yay!" ("drink, drink, yay!")
  • Chipul tău şi("Your face and") became Keep Dhalsim (A character from Street Fighter) while dragostea din tei becomes ago [chin] Study Day

Some sites incorrectly assume that these were honest attempts at translating the lyrics that mistakenly resulted in Engrish. The assumption is proven wrong by the final section of the video which shows the correct lyrics. The video can be seen here.

An episode of Smap X Smap featured the band lip-synching "Dragostea din tei" with the cast of period drama Ō-Oku, with all the performers loudly chanting "Noma, noma yay!" during the chorus.

Gary Brolsma

Main article: Gary Brolsma

A Flash-based video of American Gary Brolsma lip-synching the song energetically on his webcam brought the Numa Numa phenomenon to the US (video). Brolsma has stated that he first discovered the song in the Japanese flash animation [1] and thought it was Japanese.

Brolsma first published his "Numa Numa Dance" on the Newgrounds site on December 6, 2004, where it has since been seen more than 13 million times,[2] and copied onto hundreds of other websites and blogs. He has also received mainstream media coverage from ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's The Tonight Show and VH1's Best Week Ever, and, according to The New York Times, was an "unwilling and embarrassed Web celebrity." He cancelled media appearances, but in September 2006, reappeared with a professionally produced New Numa video.

A story in The Believer (June/July 2006) explores the song's spread and global homogenization, while arguing that Brolsma's video "singlehandedly justifies the existence of webcams . . . It’s a movie of someone who is having the time of his life, wants to share his joy with everyone, and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks."

One version of Brolsma's video also contains some puns, among them pictures of "feta cheese" during the lyric "fericirea" ("happiness") and a LEGO representation of Bob Ross during the singer's words: "sunt eu Picasso" ("it's me, Picasso").

Parodies

The Numa Numa dance is a popular Internet meme that has spawned many parodies. Many of them are on Newgrounds and Google Videos.

Thousands of amateur videos of people recreating the dance have appeared on YouTube. A lot of themes have been chosen for Numa Numa parodies. Video game characters have been chosen to be used in parodies, such as Mario, Luigi, River City Ransom, and Homestar Runner. There have also been items used for videos, such as Lego bricks and army men.

See also

References

  • "Internet Fame Is a Cruel Mistress for a Numa Numa Dancer". The New York Times Metro Saturday. 2005-02-26. p. B6. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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