YouTube Number Key Remixes

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About

YouTube Number Key Remixes are numeric key combinations that skip to specific parts of a YouTube video which are often used to play familiar melodies.

Origin

On October 25th, 2010, a post was submitted to the /r/todayilearned^[3] subreddit, which revealed that pressing the number keys 1-10 allows the user to skip to different parts of a video in 10 percent increments. Prior to being archived, the post gained over 4,200 up votes and 250 comments. On the following day, the /r/todayilearned post was featured on the technology blog Lifehacker.^[4]

Spread

On February 27th, 2011, Yahoo Answers^[2] member Emily asked why YouTubers leave comments telling others to press number keys while watching a video, to which user Marcus Abukari replied that the numbers correspond to certain parts of the video. On March 9th, 2011, Redditor donfolds submitted a video clip of Dwight Schrute and Jim Halper bickering in an episode of The Office to /r/videos. In the comments, Redditor MyOtherCarisEpona quoted a YouTube comment which instructed viewers to press 7 then 3 to hear Dwight say "blow in the rear."

On July 30th, 2011, Redditor melted laundry submitted a video of a man pretending to drive a stick shift under the effects of anesthesia (shown below) to the /r/funny^[5] subreddit, instructing users to press "9 8 7 9 8 5 7 9 8 7 8 9" to play the 1972 classic rock song "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple.

On August 29th, 2011, Redditor blizzard_man asked "what is the best YouTube video under 15 seconds" on /r/AskReddit, to which a commenter replied with a scare prank FAIL video of a guy getting punched in the face after unsuccessfully trying to ambush a friend by popping out of a garbage bin. In the comments, Redditor Didgeridoox pointed out that "If you press 5 over and over, the trash can talks."

On October 28th, 2011, Redditor basketbozo submitted a video clip of National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry recounting his encounter with a 45-foot-long whale to /r/videos, telling users to press 8 1 7 2 to hear the narrator say "My dick is 5 feet in length, it's as big as a bus and that's in the winter time."

On March 16th, 2012, the tech news blog Geeks Are Sexy^[1] highlighted a YouTube video of a screaming frog, which played the "Imperial March" theme from the fantasy film series Star Wars by pressing the numbers "6 6 6 8 5 6 8 5 6 3 3 3 2 5 6 8 5 6" (shown below).

On August 22nd, 2013, Redditor fireseed_ submitted a video recording of a spark plug operating at 10000 rpm in an /r/video post titled "Press 5 5 5 4 6 5 4 6 5 – 7 7 7 8 7 6 4 6 5." When pressed in that order, the viewer would hear the "Imperial March" theme.