YouTube is having a laugh at the media’s expense today as the company reports it was just kidding about “Gangnam Style” breaking its view counter. The story originated in what now appears to be a very dry “break the Internet” joke posted on YouTube’s Google+ page which explained, “We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met Psy. ‘Gangnam Style’ has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)!”
Reinforcing the stereotype we just made up that journalists don’t get math jokes, the post was written up in a Washington Post story that was later referenced on a number of other websites, including this one. But a YouTube rep tells Variety that the post was an “easter egg” and “we updated the counter to 64-bit months ago.” Obviously. As of this writing, “Gangnam Style” has amassed a total of 2,158,505,118 views.