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Puppets, racism and safari videos on YouTube's best of 2007 list

Fri Mar 21, 9:58 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - YouTube on Friday announced the videos its users voted the best of 2007, with Harry Potter puppets, a mesmerizing baritone and hungry lions playing starring roles in winning works. ADVERTISEMENT

"In 2007 the YouTube community showed the world that there's something for everyone on the site," said YouTube manager of community Mia Quagliarello.

"This year's YouTube Video Award winners not only include entertainers, they include those who served as a mouthpiece for everyday people, those who inspired and those who informed."

Awards were given in a dozen categories, ranging from music, sports and comedy to instructional, political, and "adorable."

US graduate student Tay Zonday won in the music category for "Chocolate Rain," a song with racially-tinged lyrics including "the bell curve blames the DNA" and "flipping cars in France the other night."

"YouTube's provided me with a place to experiment, showcase my creativity and share my identity," said Tay Zonday, whose online fame landed him a performance on a late-night US talk show.

"It's definitely exciting to receive a YouTube Video Award."

The award for best comedy video went to "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" in which puppets based on Harry Potter book characters dance and sing merrily before being blown up with a bomb by a gleeful Lord Voldemort.

A video of a baby prone to tumbling over in hysterics was voted most comic, and the creativity crown went to Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond, who used people to re-enact the videogame Tetris.

The stop-motion video clip was created at the "Les Urbaines" festival in Lausanne, Switzerland, in November of 2007.

Top honors for instructional video went to a US high school student that demonstrates how to solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle.

The winner in an Eyewitness category is "Battle at Kruger," a video graphically documenting a battle between lions, a crocodile and water buffalo they want to turn into a meal in Kruger National Park in South Africa.

YouTube's top-voted videos of 2007 and the finalists in each category can be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07winners.

YouTube's top-voted videos of 2007