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Viral video sets Philly’s weirdest events to 6ABC’s ‘Action News’ theme

The video has been taken down from YouTube but can still be seen on Twitter.

Opening shot from WhyHelicopter's viral video
Opening shot from WhyHelicopter's viral videoRead moreTwitter

Philadelphia has witnessed plenty of strange events over the last couple years, and one recently released viral video runs down just about all of the major incidents with 6ABC's famous "Move Close to Your World" Action News theme as the soundtrack.

However, the original video, which was uploaded to YouTube this week by Reddit user WhyHelicopter, has since been taken down due to a copyright claim from the station, according to a notice on the clip's page. 6ABC declined to comment about the video, which contained footage from multiple local news broadcasts.

While the original video has been removed from YouTube, it can still be viewed on websites like Twitter, where some users have uploaded the clip.

Warning: This video contains images that may be deemed inappropriate. View at your own discretion.

At just over two minutes, the "Move Closer to Your World" clip is about as Philly as a viral video can get. From the soda tax and the Philadelphia Zoo's escaped peacocks to the aftermath of the Eagles' Super Bowl win and the so-called "Great Philadelphia Trash Fire of 2018," few big events in recent local memory are missing.

Conspicuously absent, though, is any mention of the hitchBOT debacle of 2015, as well as the Eagles fan who ate horse feces after the Birds Super Bowl win, as some viewers have noted online. The video also focuses on mostly negative events, which some users on Reddit, where the video was initially shared this week, noting that it might upset officials attempting to attract tourism to the city.

"This is the most lovely and staggeringly realistic depiction of our majestic city," one user wrote.

Despite being peak Philadelphia, the video is not the first of its kind. In 2009, the viral "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video" hit the web, and has since garnered nearly 10 million views (a followup released the same year has earned more than 11 million views). Similar in tone to the "Move Closer to Your World" clip, the Cleveland videos sarcastically attempt to drum up tourism by discussing the city's least flattering points.

Warning: This video contains language that may be deemed inappropriate. View at your own discretion.

Philadelphians, of course, have been taking that self-deprecating approach since at least the 1970s, when Action Philadelphia, a civic group, launched the infamous "Philadelphia isn't as bad as Philadelphians say it is" tourism campaign. A later campaign was less negative, reading "If you like Philadelphia, tell people. If you don't, do something about it."

Those campaigns are still memorable today, but it looks like the "Move Closer to Your World" video's run is just about over. As creator WhyHelicopter noted on Reddit after the video was removed from YouTube, he won't be challenging the move or re-uploading the video. "I hope the WPVI execs at least got a laugh out if it," he wrote.