--- description: What is it about that video of a cat playing the piano or a man falling off a ladder that makes the Internet go crazy? title: What makes a video go viral? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06219ff9914a171d/698857e9e53aba4b4b4de4da/screen-shot-2015-06-23-at-8-31-01-am.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # These Are the 5 Elements of a Viral Video by [Arpita Aneja](/author/arpita-aneja/) and [ashley Ross](/author/ashley-ross/) Jun 23, 2015 12:58 PM CUT  Source: YouTube by [Arpita Aneja](/author/arpita-aneja/) and [ashley Ross](/author/ashley-ross/) Jun 23, 2015 12:58 PM CUT You see it on your newsfeed, your Twitter account, even sometimes through email from an older relative: a video that suddenly has millions of views. What is it about that video of a cat playing the piano or a man falling off a ladder that makes the Internet go crazy? Well, there are lots of reasons, but here are just 5 elements of a video gone viral. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3931650/5-elements-viral-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3931650/5-elements-viral-video/"},"headline":"These Are the 5 Elements of a Viral Video","datePublished":"2015-06-23T12:58:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:23.562Z","description":"It's an art form","url":"https://time.com/3931650/5-elements-viral-video/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Children","animals","cute","viral","video","Funny","Fail"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06219ff9914a171d/698857e9e53aba4b4b4de4da/screen-shot-2015-06-23-at-8-31-01-am.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Arpita Aneja","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"ashley Ross","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-ross/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06219ff9914a171d/698857e9e53aba4b4b4de4da/screen-shot-2015-06-23-at-8-31-01-am.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"screen-shot-2015-06-23-at-8-31-01-am.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Source: YouTube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3931650/5-elements-viral-video/","name":"These Are the 5 Elements of a Viral Video"}}]}] ```