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With the news that Psy’s monster K-pop hit ‘Gangnam Style’ has actually broken YouTube, the Economist has compiled a rather sobering infographic about the amount of time humanity has spent watching his gymkhana gyrating during the chorus.

Lasting 252 seconds, the song has more than 2bn views on the video-sharing platform, totting up to more than 140m hours. Which rather alarmingly adds up to 16,000 years. 

In terms of man hours worked, that adds up to 20 Empire State Buildings, four Great Pyramids of Egypt, or one-and-a-half Wikipedias.

[The Economist]

Whether or not that time could realistically have been used to cure disease or bring about world peace will never be known. We have, at least, united the world with one very catchy ear-worm...