"Gangnam Style" as universal as "thumbs up"?

Is it a safe bet to assume that with the 1.87 billion views "Gangnam Style" has on Youtube, that a person could do the dance, in almost any major city around the world, and the average person would know what it was?

This is history in the making. I know that sounds cheesy but think of it like this. In all of time, has there ever been a single thing viewed as many times as this silly and extremely catchy Youtube sensation? I know that soccer comes pretty close but it's short lived for most viewers compared to learning a dance. What amazes me is that people will continue to discover the music video, increasing the odds of it becoming a universal form of communication. That's powerful stuff!

Let me break it down. GANGNAM STYLE!!! (you know I had to)

My hypothesis: Replicating the Gangnam Style dance anywhere in one of the countries listed may serve as a cross culture form of communication, much like giving "thumbs up."


According to the U.S Census Bureau the following population sizes are true:
-United States: 313.8 million people
-Japan: 127.1 million people
-Russia: 142.4 million people
-Brazil: 202.6 million people
-All of Europe: 739.2 million people
-South Korea: 50 million people
-Australia: 22.7 million people

Adding all of these up, the total population comes to 1.6 billion people. Now I left a great number of countries off the list but I wanted to target the larger populations that will have knowledge of Youtube.


Now I know there are variables within the hand gesture of "thumbs up" and I specifically selected the countries above, as all use the hand signal with an understanding that it means "good" or possibly "we are in understanding" (Japan being a special case in which it refers to genitalia, but also the previously mentioned communications).

I do want to address the variables within the view count on the video as well. Now I will not pretend to understand exactly how Youtube keeps track of views on a video, but I do know that a single individual may contribute more than one view on a video (so long as a certain amount of time lapses between viewings). This means that trying to solve for odds of an individual in a country different from the individual doing the dance as a form of communication is useless. Yeah that sounded confusing to me as well.

Let's just say that within the countries listed, there is a good chance that most everyone who knows about Youtube has also seen the video. This means that if you wanted to forgo sign language and body gestures, you could communicate that you know how to ride a horse...or pretend to be a horse? ...or whatever it is exactly Psy is trying to teach us.

If you'd like, leave me a comment with your opinion on this subject. If someone feels so inclined to continue this topic, but use universal forms of communication such as: wink of the eye, waving of the hand, nod of the head...etc., I would be interested in reading what conclusion you arrive at. If this was just so stupid that you'd like to rage at me for wasting your time, I suppose that's okay too.