Numa numa

"Numa Numa" specifically refers to a Flash-based video of 19-year-old American Gary Brolsma lip-syncing the song energetically on his webcam. Formerly, all traces found seemed to be clipped and out-of-sync near the end of the song. Recently, the original version on Newgrounds appears not to be out-of-sync near the end.

While Brolsma's version is undoubtedly the most popular, he was not the first person to record himself lipsynching to the song. A version with an unknown man came out well before the now famous version by Brolsma. It is easily identified because the man DJ Rotterdam smashes a record over his head as he is singing it. [1]. There have also been many imitations and parodies of Brolsma's Numa Numa video clip.

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

Gary Brolsma first posted his "Numa Numa Dance" on Newgrounds on December 12, 2004. Since then it has had over 2,300,000 hits, popped up hundreds of websites and blogs and made appearances on ABC's Good Morning America, CNN, and VH1's Best Week Ever.

Brolsma is a teenager who lives in the New York City suburb of Saddle Brook, New Jersey. Reportedly, he is not happy with his fame. According to The New York Times, Brolsma has become an "unwilling and embarrassed Web celebrity". Brolsma has stopped taking phone calls from the media; he canceled an appearance on NBC's Today Show on February 17, 2005, and he did not cooperate with The New York Times for their February 26 article about him.

There are a number of other videos using the song, including several Japanese cartoons based on 2ch Shift JIS art and a LEGO dancing video. One version even includes a sim from the computer game, "The Sims 2" dancing to the song. The 2ch version may seem completely random, but the images and text are a series of puns based on interpreting the lyrics of the song as English or Japanese words that they sound like (for instance, in the first line, Alo = Arrow, salut = saru (monkey), sunt eu = sugee (incredible), un = un (yes), haiduc = haidoku (to read), and şi te rog = ji bero (tongue characters).)

Gary Brolsma's "Numa Numa" video has arguably become one of the most famous online video clips since the birth of the World Wide Web. Even Gary Brolsma's own name has become known in many countries throughout the world, and his video clip is also responsible for popularizing many of O-Zone's songs, which were not well known outside Europe prior to Brolsma's "Numa Numa" video.

On Newgrounds.com, Brolsma commented on all of the publicity, saying, "You people are crazy!" Joi Ito has a post discussing this current and growing meme.

See also

• Dragostea Din Tei
• Ghyslain Raza
• Jared Smith

External links

• Garybrolsma.net – Gary Brolsma Ultimate Fan Website with photos, videos, news and more.
• Gman250.Net – Gary Brolsma's personal site.
• Brolsma's Numanuma video at Newgrounds

Press coverage

• New York Daily News Article.
• MSNBC "You go, Gary! 'Numa' takes Web by storm"

Other versions

• LEGO Numa Numa Dance
• Numa Numa Dance
• FOX 6 in San Diego: News Anchors doing the "Numa Numa Dance" during the 10pm newscast (WMV Stream)
• Lyrics (Romanian and English translation)
• Original Numanuma video
• Joi Ito: O-Zone madness
• Japanese cartoon video
• Lego dancing video
• French man and his own Numanuma dance version
• "American Idle" animated version
• Napoleon Dynamite Numa Numa Dance
• Feujcity.com version
• The first Numa Numa Dance
• Newgrounds: Numa Numa Dance Collection
• The Sims 2 version
• Yansa.net: "The Flash Movie, Yes?" version