The Viral Spiral: A-Ha! My Little Pony’s Musical Super Bowl

Well, ladies and germs, it’s Friday. And that means it’s time for Magnet’s “resident Internet culture expert” Debbie Saslaw to run down her picks for the week’s best (and most bizarre, in many cases) viral videos in “The Viral Spiral.”

Best Off-Off-Off Broadway musical

I’m desperately trying to remember how I found this video of a real, live My Little Pony singing the theme from Dreamgirls, but nothing is coming to me.  All I know is that I’m glad to live in a world where this exists.

Best Viral Advertisement Super Bowl Commercial

In the dreary days before YouTube, I used to watch the Super Bowl solely for the commercials. Thankfully, they’ve already been posted and re-posted countless times, so the only reason I’ll be tuning in is to catch Madonna’s performance at half-time. Hopefully I’ll also catch Matthew Broderick’s playing an older, wiser Ferris Bueller in full television-quality HD.

Best Baby Steps

Watching these English bulldog puppies take their first steps will literally melt your heart. They are like two living, breathing squeaky toys crawling across a carpet. SO #CUTE.

Best Electronic Music Made Using Actual Electronics

Someone mixed a track using all the bleeps and bloops and clicks of our electronic devices and it’s surprisingly catchy, if you’re into that sort of thing. However, I received a text message while watching this and got extremely disoriented.

Best Oddball from Across the Pond

This woman can tell the future just by looking at a stalk of asparagus. I think I’ve said enough.

Best Mental Breakdown

If you’ve been on the Internet at all this week, you’ve probably already seen Kristen Bell crying over sloths. I really, truly did not want to re-post it in this week’s spiral, but I can’t ignore something so adorable.

Best Video to Show Your Mom When She Asks Who “Lana Del Rey” Is

One of my favorite things on the Internet is NMA.tv, a hilarious animated news series from our friends in Taiwan. This week, they try to make sense of the musical train wreck that is Lana Del Rey. I cant decide what I love more about this video—the music critics hitting her album cover with frying pans or her backup band of flannel-clad violinists.

Best Mildly Offensive Sarah McLachlan Parody

This lipdub of Sarah McLachlan’s depressing ASPCA commercial had me falling over in my chair. If you don’t believe me, ask Ryan Swearingen, since I forced him to watch it with me. [Editor’s note: The editor claims no responsibility for any offense taken to this video… - RS]

Best Form of Nostalgia

The Human Jukebox covers songs from the 90’s for over 6 minutes using a Melodica. And yes, I had to Google this instrument to find the correct term for what I thought was a keyboard harmonica.

Even Better Form of Nostalgia

Just when you thought you’ve heard enough covers of A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” a group of accordion players from North Korea uploads one more. Is there really enough room in this world for another 80′s cover band? The answer is yes.

**BONUS VIDEO** (Because we go to 11…)

Best (and First!) Viral Spiral Repeat Offender 

In last week’s spiral, we met Alana, the Toddlers and Tiaras terror. She’s back with a vengeance on Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers, chugging her special juice and spinning in endless circles of insanity. I suspect that Alana will be viral forever, or at least until she suffers from a Mountain Dew-induced diabetic shock.

Any other great videos you discovered this week? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. And stay up-to-date on the latest from the blog with our free newsletter.

Debbie Saslaw makes up 1/2 of Magnet Media’s post-production staff and doubles as the company’s resident expert on Internet culture. She also edits a weekly supercut for Slacktory and her viral videos have garnered more than 1 million hits after appearing on sites such as Buzzfeed, HuffPost Comedy, Uproxx, MSNBC.com, and The Daily What.