Indie singer-songwriter Hari released the “Gwiyomi” song in February this year.

By CHRISTINE CHEAH
alltherage@thestar.com.my

JUST when we thought the world could take a break from Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake … here comes a new “dance” craze – Gwiyomi (or Kwiyomi). It is so cute that one could vomit rainbows just from watching the moves.

Unlike Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake – where one has to get up and gallop like a horse or simply act crazy with a bunch of friends (or strangers) – one needs nothing but their fingers and cute facial expressions for Gwiyomi. Oh, they should also be able to count up to 10 at least.

It all started with K-pop’s BTOB boyband-er Jung Il-hoon “counting in a cute way” during a segment in their MTV Diary BTOB series, and the gestures were dubbed as Gwiyomi Player. Gwiyomi is a Korean slang to describe a cute person, and the boys of BTOB are definitely more than just cute.

The Gwiyomi Player then inspired South Korean pop star Hari to record the Gwiyomi Song and that got everyone interested in making their own versions. Judging from the number of Gwiyomi

Song-inspired videos on YouTube and Facebook over the last few weeks, it’s safe to say that this latest Internet craze is here to stay (and annoy some of us) for a long time.

Local YouTube celebrity Joseph Germani was one of the many people who didn’t miss the chance to ride on this latest Korean wave.

He did a parody video titled Kiyomi WTF?!, which so far has over 120,000 views on the Germani Productions YouTube channel. Germani believes that people find Gwiyomi videos easier to recreate because it takes only one person to shoot it.

“I did the video because it was trending in social media and similar to other trends, it has a love-hate relationship with everyone. And because it is an act you could do alone, people want to try it out and put their own spin to it,” said Germani, 22.

Currently, there are many Gwiyomi videos online, mostly featuring girls and Lee Sherman, 23 couldn’t stand that any longer.

“I watched a lot of Gwiyomi videos and the song was so addictive that it stayed in my head. But what sparked my interest (to come up with the video) was the fact that it was mostly girls who are doing it and I wanted a guy version,” said the account executive.

Lee’s version of Gwiyomi is “manly” alright, as the video has none of the cute hand gestures made popular by Il-hoon. Although Lee had uploaded the video for fun, it has over 300 views so far.

But not everyone is a fan of this latest Internet craze. Arianna Abdullah, 19, hates it with a passion.

“I find this ‘acting cute’ act nauseating. I mean, it’s cute when a five-year-old kid does it but to see my grown up friends recreating the Gwiyomi Song video is simply painful to watch,” said the A-Levels student.

“Let’s hope that this craze goes away as quickly as it came. I don’t think I could handle seeing another friend posting a Gwiyomi Song video on Facebook … I might just go insane.”