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We all love our viral videos. Would office life really be the same without these quirky little distractions and amusements? Sometimes hilarious. Sometimes profound. And sometimes just implausibly stupid. But they do entertain us and have become a mainstay of cyber life. Someone so aptly described viral videos as the “lingua franca of the new age”.

But once they’ve completed their mad dash around cyberspace, and enjoyed their 15 minutes of glorious fame what then? Typically they fade into obscurity and the ignominy of your trash folder.

But not any more. New life is being breathed into all those office viral videos in the unlikely domain of your lounge room - courtesy of your TV.

Premiering in the US in January MTV Networks’ VH1’s Web Junk 20 is an eclectic collection of the weird and wonderful videos that are being spread virally around the web. Whist it’s attracting impressive number of viewers in the 18-49 demographic, what’s really interesting is that it’s also reaching people across multiple platforms. Deftly tying into the company’s online video aggregator viewers are invited to submit their own video clips with the chance of getting them broadcast on the show. Using a fully automated tool, users can upload whatever video content they want to the site, with the chance of it being screened on air too.

Of course, from the networks’ point of view - what’s not to like - consumer-created content is even better than reality TV because it’s even cheaper and in most instances free. And once a viral video is aired on “Web Junk 20,” it stands to reason that it will become a mega traffic driver as even more people will want to check out the original download online. And just think of the online advertising inventory.

Not surprisingly other networks in the US are following suit and are set to launch their own shows each I’m sure with a unique and individual twist. I can only ponder if Eddie & co is working on something uniquely Australian for our palettes.

But it is bizarre really when you think about it. Sure viral videos are cool, but the fact that they are now being used for mainstream television entertainment is another example of convergence happening here and how. I’m not sure if this is life imitating art or art imitating life imitating art, but the floodgates have been opened.

With the next viral video never that far away, it’s no surprise to hear that the latest research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that almost 30% of web users in the US now go online on any given day without a specific task in mind.

Enter Office Pirates

Capitalising on this trend, in February Time Inc launched a new zine called Office Pirates which features a “daily blend of funny videos, strange news and downloads”. Aimed at males 21- 34, it’s a repository of smutty video clips and toilet humour. Even though I myself am just teetering out of the demographic, I’m sure its content will not be wholly lost on me either!

And whilst we have content that’s been made popular on the Internet becoming the mainstay of TV shows, we also have big budget advertisers scrambling to get their glossy TVCs available online.

Take this year’s Super Bowl – the annual beauty parade, indeed holy grail, of big budget TV advertising. After paying something like US$2.5 million per each 30-second spot, marketers, keen to defray the costs and win maximum exposure, made the spots widely and easily accessible online on sites like espn.com, nfl.com, video.google.com and video.yahoo.com for download onto PCs, video iPods, and mobile phones. Essentially giving users all the tools they need to “viralise” the ads.

But of course, you’re only going to download ads and pass them on if you thought they were worth watching in the first place.