One of the latest "viral" videos making the rounds of college-humour websites, music blogs and email lists is the new music video from Weezer, the alternative band behind such hits as Buddy Holly and Beverly Hills.

In the clip, which has been climbing up the YouTube "most viewed" list since it came out a few weeks ago, singer Rivers Cuomo and the other members of the band appear along with a troupe of Internet "celebrities," including Gary Brolsma (who became famous as the Numa Numa guy), the Eepybird guys (who created a well-known video involving Diet Coke and Mentos mints), Tay Zonday (the somewhat eccentric singer of Chocolate Rain) and others. It's a great idea, and the video has become hugely popular with YouTube fans, bloggers and other geeks who are likely to recognize some or all of the "stars" who appear in the clip.

At the same time, however, it's also uncomfortably similar to a music video that Canada's own Barenaked Ladies did last year, for their song "The Sound of Your Voice." Although Tay Zonday doesn't make an appearance, the Numa Numa guy does and so do the Eepybird guys -- and so do some other YouTube "stars," including Matt Harding (from the "Where the hell is Matt?" videos), Tony Huynh (a Canadian YouTuber known as "the Wine Kone") and Brooks "Brookers" Brodack, who was signed to a TV development deal by Carson Daly based on her YouTube videos. As in the Weezer video, some of the stars sing along with the lyrics of the song, although the members of the Ladies don't recreate their own version of the Diet Coke fountains while they are playing, as Weezer does in their video.

Tribute, coincidence or rip-off? Hard to say. There have been other similar homages to YouTube stars, including an episode of South Park called Canada On Strike that featured the Dramatic Chipmunk character (which is actually a prairie dog) and other YouTube celebrities. And Dan Meth produced an animated tribute to YouTube stars called The Meth Minute, which hit the Internet last year, not long after the Barenaked Ladies video. In any case, it's clear which of the music videos the crowd really prefers: the Weezer video has more than 6.5 million views after just two weeks, and the Barenaked Ladies video has only 400,000 views after more than a year.

In fact, a video by Barats and Bereta (two comedians who are featured in the BNL video) that is effectively just a longer version of their part in the Ladies video has more views than the band's music video. How Canadian.