Ripples

"Dracula," Tame Impala's song with a viral remix featuring JENNIE, had its biggest day yet on Halloween: 2.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams on Oct. 31, according to Luminate, a new single-day high by a nearly 40% margin, Billboard reports. Rolling Stone says the original and the remix together drew 16 million global on-demand streams from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.

It still trailed the perennial favorites on Oct. 31: Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (10 million), "Monster Mash" (7 million) and Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" (6.6 million). But Billboard says it led 21st-century spooky songs comfortably, ahead of Rihanna's "Disturbia" (2 million) and Lady Gaga's "Bloody Mary" (1.4 million). The song, in its 58th week on the Hot 100, has topped Billboard's Radio Songs chart for seven weeks.

Karol G drew 4.8 million entries and 3.6 million unique viewers to a TikTok Live performance on Wednesday, Nov. 4, which Billboard Español, citing a press release, calls the most simultaneous viewers ever for an artist on a TikTok Live. The one-hour set for TikTok LIVE Premiere, the platform's flagship live series, celebrated her album No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto, Digital Music News reports.

About 2,000 fans were at Quarry Studios in Mexico for the show, where she performed 11 songs, including a remix of "BbY WOW" with DJ John Summit, Billboard Español reports. The album, released Aug. 7, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart and spent 11 weeks there. The stream was a warm-up for the Latin American leg of her tour, starting with stadium shows in Monterrey on Nov. 6-8.

NBC News election analyst Steve Kornacki became the internet's favorite part of midterm night again. Fans set clips of him walking into the studio to sports-entrance music, as if it were "Game 7 of the NBA Finals," For The Win reports, using The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," the Chicago Bulls' starting-lineup song "Sirius" and NFL Primetime music.

NBC's "Kornacki Cam," a livestream of him working the big board, drew "29 million views across all platforms," according to an NBC News press release cited by Entertainment Weekly, which called it the top election livestream of the cycle. Just over 10 hours into a planned 13-hour stream, at about 3:26 a.m., Kornacki said he needed "about five minutes" and walked off. About 30 minutes later he posted on X: "I was sure 13 hours would be fine but things caught up to me in a hurry at hour 10."

Harry Styles wrapped up his Madison Square Garden residency on Oct. 31, its 30th show and the second night of his "Harryween" concerts, dressed as New York's Pizza Rat, Billboard reports. He took the stage in a furry brown onesie with oversized pink ears, a long tail and black sunglasses, carrying a giant foam slice of pizza, a nod to the viral 2015 video of a rat dragging pizza down subway stairs. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson made a surprise visit.

On Oct. 30, Billboard reports, Styles opened as Elvis Presley while his band and dancers dressed as versions of Styles from across his career, then changed into the outfit from his 2010 X Factor audition and sang Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely," the song that got him through that round at 16.

New this week: Walt Zerod, the Red Baron delivery worker whose run-in with a prankster went viral (we covered the fundraiser in Issue 6), has paused the GoFundMe set up for him, The Detroit News reports. As of Nov. 5 it had raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars from about 22,800 donations. It was started on Oct. 27 by an Arizona man, Luke Oakenshield.

"I still cannot believe how much you have all rallied behind us," Zerod wrote on the page, adding that he has been able to spend extra time at home with his family. He said he has become friends with Oakenshield and will not give media interviews: "My family's safety and privacy come first, and I feel this is the best decision for us." In the original two-minute clip, the prankster played a fake Apple Pay sound and claimed to have taken $10 from Zerod's phone while he stocked frozen pizzas.

Instagram is reportedly offering one-off payments of up to $500,000 to a selection of big-name creators to post long-form videos in Features, its new format for horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, Social Media Today reports. It is also giving long-form video a prominent spot at the top of the Explore page for some users, per screenshots shared by creator-economy analyst Lia Haberman.

The push addresses creators' main question: why post long videos on Instagram when its payouts are nowhere near YouTube's Partner Program? Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has acknowledged the app will need to change its payment program to attract long-form creators but hasn't settled how, Social Media Today reports. This follows Instagram's test of Features, which we covered last week.

Surveillance video from Bagel Dock Express in Southport, North Carolina, shows a 3-foot alligator coming in through an open back door, passing through the stockroom and kitchen and ending up near the front counter, NBC 6 South Florida reports. The shop was closed at the time, on Oct. 29, and owner Jesse Driscoll was there while a new oven was being installed, Boston 25 News reports.

"Never in a million years did I think I'd see an alligator," Driscoll told WWAY. He called 911; Southport police and Animal Protective Services caught the young alligator and relocated it, and no one was hurt. Police joked "Alligator- Isle 1" on social media, and the shop's Facebook post of the video said "word of our fresh bagels has made its way into the swamp!" The video spread widely this week.

A sculpture of La Catrina, the elegant skeleton of Day of the Dead imagery, standing in Mexico City's main square is now the Guinness World Records holder as the tallest Catrina monument, Popular Science reports. At nearly 110 feet, roughly 11 stories, the steel-and-fiberglass figure tops the 92.3-foot Catrina built in Puerto Vallarta in 2023.

About 140 people assembled it. Her purple dress is more than 88 feet long, and the ofrenda (memorial altar) around her is surrounded by an estimated 70,000 marigold plants grown in the Xochimilco borough. Day of the Dead is observed on Nov. 1 and 2.

Comedian Connor Wood, known online as @fibula and a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, told BuzzFeed in late October that Jennifer Lawrence was his biggest celebrity crush and that he just wanted "a little acknowledgment" from her, Complex reports. Lawrence replied on Instagram: "I saw you on 8th avenue drinking a smoothie and you paid me no mind." The exchange went viral.

New this week: Smoothie King and Wood released "Connor's Paid Me No Mind Smoothie" on Nov. 5, a limited-time, in-store-only strawberry-banana drink with 26 grams of protein, zero added sugar and electrolytes per 20-ounce serving, according to the company, Complex reports.

Layla Clark, a senior mallet percussionist in the Thomas Jefferson High School Marching Band near Pittsburgh, went viral playing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" in the band's arrangement, Allegheny County Spotlight reports. The West Jefferson Hills School District shared the clip, credited Clark and the band, and later said it had passed 3.1 million views.

Reactions came from several platforms, the Spotlight reports: one Threads user suggested she tackle the song's famous guitar riff next, another made sure the viral "Xylophone Girl" was credited by name, and film producer Franklin Leonard weighed in on X. (Some outlets, including CBS Pittsburgh, describe the instrument as a marimba.)

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark spent Halloween night scaring trick-or-treaters in her neighborhood in a skull mask, then handing out candy, The Big Lead reports; the children likely had no idea a WNBA star was behind the mask. Heavy reports that Fever photographer Bri Lewerke posted the video on TikTok.

It came days after the Fever's front-office shake-up following a first-round playoff exit to the Las Vegas Aces: team president and general manager Kelly Krauskopf stepped down and Amber Cox was fired, Heavy reports.

A video of a prankster pretending to steal money from a Red Baron employee's phone spread widely online this week, Newsweek reports. The worker, a father of four identified only as "Walt," angrily told the prankster it was not a joke to him; he said he was working late to make ends meet and was due back early the next morning to cover more stores.

A stranger in Arizona started a GoFundMe titled "Support a Harassed Red Baron Worker." Per Newsweek, it stood at about $5,500 on Wednesday afternoon, passed $48,000 that night and topped $100,000 on Thursday. Conservative commentator Benny Johnson helped spread the appeal, VINnews reports. The prankster's Instagram account has gone dark, according to Newsweek.

Newsweek's Shane Croucher argues the happy ending is "a lottery": viral attention rescued one worker, while most crowdfunding campaigns fall short.

YouTube is testing a Shorts bonus program, invitation-only, with creators in the US, UK, Germany, Brazil, Japan and South Korea, Music Ally reports, citing YouTube's Rene Ritchie in a Creator Insider video. It offers a minimum payment for uploading a set number of public Shorts per month, plus a monthly "promotional payment" based on views.

The required numbers are not public; YouTube says they will be in the invitation emails. Music Ally notes the test follows YouTube raising its Partner Program thresholds in August and saying earlier this month that the Shorts algorithm will favor original content over re-uploads.

Several dozen people gathered outside Liberty Mutual's headquarters in Boston's Back Bay on Sunday, Oct. 25, calling on the insurer to stop running ads with its fuzzy yellow "Liberty Biberty" mascot, The Boston Globe reports.

The protest was organized by Connor Harvey, a 19-year-old YouTuber from Wilmot, N.H. He told the Globe it "initially started out as a joke" in a video called "Death of Mascots"; his follow-up "official announcement" drew more than 600,000 views and briefly topped YouTube's most-hyped list. The mascot, which debuted this summer, had already drawn mockery on Reddit, TikTok and late-night TV, including an Oct. 11 Last Week Tonight segment in which John Oliver said, "I hate this thing."

Protesters carried signs such as "Liberty from Biberty," and Harvey called it "the next Boston Tea Party." He said they would leave if asked. Liberty Mutual did not immediately respond to the Globe.

Videos of children dumping whole bowls of unattended Halloween candy into their bags, often caught on doorbell cameras, have become an annual viral debate, Parents reports via Yahoo. Data from the short-form trend platform Virlo, shared with Parents, puts candy-bowl etiquette videos at about 91.7 million views across social platforms. The article cites a survey finding doorbell cameras in about 39% of U.S. homes.

Virlo cofounder Deniz Sancar says the footage makes viewers "feel like they're standing on the porch," and the comment debates add to its shareability. Texas counselor Brook McKenzie argues that posting the clips confuses "accountability with humiliation" and that online ridicule can follow children through school. The article says taking the whole bowl is still wrong, but suggests parents correct it privately.