Francis Vachon, a Quebec City-based freelance photographer who has shot photos for various news agencies (and The Gazette), created a four-hour time-lapse video of his infant son playing with toys, and posted it on YouTube so he could embed it on his blog.

I thought it was cute.

Then I noticed it was getting attention from the local blogger-vedettes like Dominic Arpin and Patrick Lagacé.

And then … Boing Boing. Kottke. Neatorama. Urlesque. Urlesque again. Le Post in France. The Guardian viral video chart. BuzzFeed.

And Boing Boing wannabe websites that copy them without mentioning their source.

And lots of mommy/baby blogs. And personal blogs. And foreign–language blogs. And Andrew Sullivan. It’s even being used as a throw-away reference in online video media analysis.

Less than a week after it was posted, the video has been watched 172,793 357,655 times, favourited 935 1,677 times, and has received 32 most-viewed and most-discussed honours.

It’s even been Benny-Hillified.

Will his Rue Petit-Champlain time-lapse get as much attention? Is this a YouTube star in the making? Will Weezer have to feature him in their next video?

UPDATE: Le Journal de Québec has a story about Vachon and his kid. He estimates the clip, which has 4,071 images, has been linked to from 4,000 websites. Vachon has his reaction to the craziness on his blog, and notes that it will be on ABC’s Good Morning America, where the virality will only get worse.

UPDATE (Feb. 13): The Globe and Mail looks at how this video has affected the career of the artist whose music Vachon used. (Feb. 20): Coeur de Pirate has released their video of the song used by Vachon (via).

UPDATE (Feb. 23): 10,000 Words makes mention of the video comparing it to other interesting forms of online photojournalism, including this messy kitchen cleaning time-lapse.