Numa Numa (video)
Numa Numa is an Internet phenomenon based on amateur videos 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
The first video to gain widespread popularity was created by Japanese Internet user Ikari, and features animated images of cats resembling Mona from 2 Channel and text based on a series of puns derived from interpreting the lyrics as Japanese or English words that they resemble:
- Alo ("hello") becomes "arrow," "alone," and Arlong (a character from One Piece)
- Salut ("greetings or hi") becomes saru (monkey)
- Sunt eu ("it's me") becomes sugoi (incredible)
- Un ("an") becomes un (yes)
- Haiduc ("outlaw") (or "hero" or "knight" depending on variation of translation) becomes haidoku (to read)
- Iubirea ("My love?") becomes ji bero ("tongue characters")
- Fericirea ("your happiness") becomes panchira (upskirt). It can be also understood as very ecchida (very naughty.) (Note: it is common in Japanese-Pop music to mix up English and Kanji in middle of the song.)
- The beep in the song seems to become beef.
- Nu ma, nu ma iei ("you don't want, you don't want to take me") becomes "noma, noma yay!" ("drink, drink, yay!")
- Chipul tau si 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.
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
A Flash-based video of now nineteen-year-old American Gary Brolsma (born 1986) 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].
Brolsma first published his "Numa Numa Dance" on the Newgrounds site on December 6, 2004. Since then it has popped up on hundreds of other websites and blogs, and he has made appearances on ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's The Tonight Show and VH1's Best Week Ever.
Brolsma is a resident of the state of New Jersey and is reportedly not happy with his fame, although he has created tweaked versions of the video since it became popular (see below). 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, 2005 article about him.
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").
Another common misconception is that Gary is Dutch, as the video showed up on several sites with the title "Funny Fat Dutch Boy". This is not true as he is in fact American & the song itself Romanian.
UBC Numa Numa
On February 10, 2006, eight students from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada released a four-and-a-half minute video in which they lip-synch and dance to the song. The video has attained cult status on campus, and, since the video was linked on Collegehumor.com, rapidly increasing popularity on the internet, receiving over 200,000 hits in its first two days online.
The main creators of UBC Numa Numa are fourth-year marketing student Jorgen Kjono (Jørgen Kjønø) (who wears an orange construction helmet in the video) and recent graduate Tyson Miller. Kjono, who has uploaded several other amateur videos on YouTube and owns a film production company called HBS Productions, filmed most of the video and did the editing. The video was filmed on the UBC campus, on Wreck Beach, and in Richmond, British Columbia at the airport, YVR, and features a pilot (Miller, wearing an authentic, borrowed pilot's uniform) who meets some UBC engineers and has fun with them. Cast in the video can be seen wearing UBC Engineering jackets and dancing next to the large concrete "E" which marks the Engineering department.
The students showed the video at the UBC Engineer's FilmfEUSt, an annual amateur film festival on the final day of E-Week. While the video was disqualified, as no one from the video is an engineering student, it received a standing ovation. Since then, the video has become popular among other students from different faculties and remains linked on the Civil Engineering Club website [2].
According to Kjono, who is still a UBC student as of March 2006, "It’s incredible how many people recognise us, especially Tyson [Miller]. I was sitting in class and these six Chinese guys were staring at me and then I acknowledged them and they all busted out the sprinkler [a dance move performed in the video]" [3].
A second video, Numa Numa: The Later Years, featuring footage that did not make it into UBC Numa Numa, is also available. Kjono and Miller have plans to make other videos.
Indikaatio's Go-Jyone
Another version, a flash video by Indikaatio of off-switch.com.au, achieved a cult status on Livejournal.com during Summer 2004 before its removal. The video featured a dancing androgynous chibi dancing to the song, and was well on its way to developing a strong cult following when it was deleted from Indikaatio's server, the creator citing bandwidth issues among the reasons for its removal. The original title of the flash animation was 'Go-Jyone', though it has also been known as 'Dance, Jyone, Dance!'. The flash video currently resides hosted separately at Thetsme.com, though is not currently as well known as other versions. Despite its late peak of popularity, this version has been spotted on the Internet as early as 2002. [4] [5]
Other versions
Dragostea din Tei's infectious beat has made it a favourite among amateur video makers, and there are hundreds of other Numa Numa videos to be found online, including one featuring a Sim from the computer game The Sims 2 dancing to the song.
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.
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- Ubyssey article on UBC Numa Numa
- Global tribute to Numa Numa : This is from the show Google Current on Current TV and is hosted by Conor Knighton
External links
O-Zone versions
- Dragostea Din Tei live
- The Dragostea din Tei music video (Real player needed)
- New York Dan Balan and Lucas Prata performing the made-for-America version of Dragostea Din Tei (Ma Ya Hi) at Rockefeller Plaza in New York
Selected amateur versions on the Internet
- Newgrounds collection, including original
- Maihahi: Japanese animated version
- Hebrew Numa: This version became popular in Israel when it was used as the theme song of a children's song contest
- Spanish parody, marica tú.
- UBC Numa Numa and Numa Numa: The Later Years
- US Navy CS6 Numa Numa Project
- Numa Numa 2006
Remakes and official releases
- Guo Mei Mei - Bu Pa Bu Pa
- Japanese version by Ken Maeda, which also lampoons Japanese ganguro fashion
- Nu-na Ei Kuum / Nuna's Dream by Hyun Young (Korean version)
- Alternate Version by Haiducii
General
- Lyrics (Romanian and English translation)
- Garybrolsma.net - Gary Brolsma fan website
- Numa Numa Dance on Newgrounds - Numa Numa Dance where it was originally submitted
- Commanda Keena dance - featuring Commander Keen