Dramatic Chipmunk is a viral Internet video. The video is a five-second clip of a

prairie dog Prairie dogs (genus ''Cynomys'') are herbivorous burrowing Marmotini, ground squirrels native to the grasslands of North America. There are five recognized species of prairie dog: black-tailed prairie dog, black-tailed, white-tailed prairie dog ...

(erroneously referred to as a chipmunk) turning its head while the camera zooms in and dramatic music is played.

Origins

The clip became widely known through uploads on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

on June 19, 2007. An earlier and identical version, titled as ''Dramatic Look'', had been uploaded to YouTube on June 6, 2007. The clip of the prairie dog is from the Japanese television show '' Hello! Morning'' featuring

Mini-Moni was a sub-unit of the Japanese idol girl groups Morning Musume and Coconuts Musume. It was formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2000 and associated with Hello! Project. The group was founded by Morning Musume members Mari Yaguchi, Nozomi Tsuji, and ...

's segment, ''Mini-Moni Chiccha''. The clip has a

inside a transparent box being shown to the hosts in the studio. CollegeHumor also released a longer clip under the title ''Undramatic Chipmunk'', showing how the video looked in the original Japanese version. The audio used in ''Dramatic Chipmunk'' - sometimes known as the " Dun dun duuun!" sting - is taken from the score of the 1974

Mel Brooks Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodie ...

film '' Young Frankenstein'', which was composed by two-time

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

nominee (and longtime Brooks collaborator) John Morris, and orchestrated by Morris and

EGOT EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards, is the designation given to people who have won all four of the major performing art awards in the United States. Respectively, these awards honor outstanding achievements in telev ...

recipient Jonathan Tunick.

Popularity

Since its release, the video has received over fifty million views.Determining an exact figure is impossible, because the video is uploaded multiple times on different websites. Th
most popular version on YouTube
had over 36 million views
Other versions on YouTube
have received millions of views each. ''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''Peopl ...

'' named the Dramatic Chipmunk as one of The 10 Wildest YouTube Stars of 2007. In 2008, ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'' released an episode named “ Canada on Strike”. The Dramatic Chipmunk (referred to here as "Dramatic Look ''Gopher'') was featured alongside other Internet celebrities (including Tay Zonday, Tron Guy and the viral "Sneezing Baby Panda") claiming his "internet money." In 2008, '' The Powerpuff Girls'' released their 10th anniversary and series finale special, “The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!”. At the start of the special, Mojo Jojo is seen referencing the Dramatic Chipmunk meme when he is first introduced. Since 2013, the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

have been known to play the Dramatic Chipmunk video on the Jumbotron during home football games to distract opposing kickers. In the video game ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'' was released in 2016 with a success ...

'', the

Wrecking Ball A wrecking ball is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a Crane (machine), crane, that is used for Demolition, demolishing large buildings. It was most commonly in use during the 1940s and 1950s. Several wrecking companies claim to have inve ...

character – an enhanced-intelligent hamster that pilots a

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...

– was given a highlight introduction in April 2019 that spoofs the Dramatic Chipmunk meme.

Notes

References

{{reflist 2007 YouTube videos Film and television memes Internet meme characters Internet memes about animals Internet memes introduced in 2007 Individual rodents Prairie dogs 2000s viral videos Internet memes introduced from Japan