Move over Bunny, there’s a new Penn-produced hit YouTube video.

Exploding onto the YouTube scene is Penn’s very own Indian a capella group, Penn Masala

According to Masala Business Manager and Wharton sophomore Ricky Sharma, the idea first came up when the group was returning to the United States from a trip to India.

“YouTube has become so popular we figured we’ve give it a shot,” he said in an interview.

But even Sharma admitted he was taken aback at the response the video has received. “We had no idea it would catch on as fast and as widely as it has,” he said.

It’s definitely caught on. The piece was a “featured video” on YouTube.com’s homepage for more than a day, lending enormous visibility and traffic to the video. The short’s accompanying Facebook group has nearly 1,000 members as well, from schools around the country and Canada.

And Masala’s video struck a chord by combining one media darling (YouTube) with another (Facebook).

“There’s been this emergence of Facebook and YouTube as places to establish niches,” Sharma said.

Its popularity can also be attributed to the topic itself — the somewhat-creepy level to which some people look at and keep tabs on their friends’ hobbies, photos and messages to each other. The song, sung of course, by Masala, begins with,

Would you poke, if i sent you a poke? Or would you run and never poke back? Is it weird, that i know your hobbies? Would you be my friend tonight?

It may have been their first video, but Sharma and Co. obviously knew what they were doing. YouTube parody videos–now being labeled “virals”–have become a sensation, from the Box in a Box music video by Penn’s own Melissa Lamb, to the much-talked-about Hilary/1984 ad.

Well, with the video being “favorited” 4559 times, it would seem Penn Masala has done more than just established a niche; the group has staked out a loyal cadre of fans (if there weren’t enough Masala fans already. They regularly pack Irvine, which is more than Sonic Youth can say

So, will there be more Masala-tinged parodies on the way?

“It’s definitely something we’re going to look toward in the future,” Sharma concluded, adding that those who enjoyed the video may want to head to Irvine tomorrow at 7 p.m., because while YouTube videos are great, nothing can replace live a capella.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.