I know I'm behind the curve on this stuff typically so you all probably already know about Gary Brolsma the "Numa Numa Guy".  But if not, read on.

I'm sure we all remember the "Star Wars Kid", a pudgy kid shoots some video of himself pretending to be a jedi fighting with a double-bladed light sabre.  A rather unkind person manages to get ahold of the video and upload it to the internet and suddenly the youngster's private off-kilter antics are being laughed at the world over.  Then came the parody videos where people added subtitles, music, and animated lightsaber blades to the action.  Fortunately, in the case of Gary Brolsma, the story is a lot happier...

Gary is a teenager who lives with his folks in New Jersey.  One night he decides to have some fun with his new computer/camera and shoots some video of himself lipsynching and half-dancing (he never leaves his chair) to a pop song performed by a band from Romania the Republic of Moldova.  He edits in a few pictures of his friends making silly expressions and some crude messages and makes the video available to some friends over the internet.

And of course, they pass it on to other friends, and ultimately people upload it to various servers and within a few days, Gary's funky dance moves are playing on computer monitors the world over.  Gary is invited to appear on television.  There is apparently some discussion of the band that recorded the song shooting a video with Gary.  Blogs everywhere discuss the Numa Numa phenomenon.

Gary's home movie gets mentions and in some cases airtime on The Today Show, MTV, VH-1, CNN and other mainstream TV venues.  He has his own fan club.  Congratulations Gary, enjoy your moment in the sun, you earned it.

Apparently Mr. Brolsma received hundreds of e-mails asking him to edit the video to include only himself dancing!  As a result the site I linked to above (here it is again) offers three versions of the video: the original, the new version with subtitles, and the new version without.  The latter two are safe for your kids to enjoy, while the first one contains some crude humor.

I laughed out loud when I watched Gary dancing, and contrary to what people might think, it isn't because I thought he was a terrible dancer.  What gave it so much appeal for me was that it was very genuine.  I mean sure, it is silly.  Here's a guy enjoying this music and goofing off uninhibitedly as one might do when alone, or when trying to make one's friends laugh.  That goodhearted silliness is infectious, and it's hard not to laugh.

Gary looks like the sort of person that you would want to hang out with--it's hard not to like him... at least based on this performance alone.

The music by the way is "Dragostea Din Tei" by O-Zone.  In English it translates to "Love in the Linden Trees" (lyrics).  The chorus repeats the phrase "nu ma, nu ma iei" which is why it is referred to as the "Numa Numa" song.