Great Dane becomes YouTube sensation

"The Annoying Orange" web series has become a YouTube sensation and was featured on the front page of Monday's Wall Street JournalIt's not often I read about someone I know in The Wall Street Journal, and I can't remember the last time one of those people was on the front page. 

But there he was, Dane Boedigheimer, former bakersfield.com videographer turned YouTube sensation of the moment. 

The Journal was profiling Dane and his crazy web series "The Annoying Orange," which has become a viral hit that has attracted the attention of Hollywood producers.

And these videos are consistently big draws, not the one-off car wrecks like "Leave Britney Alone."

"When Dane puts up a [YouTube] show on Friday, by Monday it has a million and a half viewDane Boedigheimers. Any cable network would take those numbers," his manager Dan Weinstein told the Journal.

To be honest, I had never heard of "The Annoying Orange," but after watching several episodes it's right up my alley: cleverly silly and totally different in a sea of commodity video humor.

And it's a far cry from the fun stuff Dane produced for bakersfield.com, like the "Fair food eatathon," a mockumentary in which Dane goads two Bakersfield Californian staffers into overeating food not otherwise fit for sane humans. But even back then, we knew Dane was destined for bigger things (fair food brings mere mortals to their knees), which is why he left Bakersfield to tackle the film industry down in Hollywood. Here's to Dane's newfound fame; let's hope fortune follows shortly.