Submitted via IRC for Bytram
What, exactly, is the Hampsterdance? If you were online around the turn of the millennium, you probably think you know the answer to this question. I did, anyway. And the first, seemingly obvious definition is that it's a website. It's the kind of website you probably haven't seen in a decade, at least — lost to the pixels of time along with stuff like Zombo.com and the emo rants you used to publish on LiveJournal. But it's a website, just the same. One page with one purpose: deliver 392 animated GIFs of dancing rodents and the most infuriating .wav file ever uploaded — a sound that, way back when, threatened to blast out of your speakers every time you checked your email.
It's weird to think about now — weirder than a website devoted to hundreds of cartoon rodents. But 20 years ago, the Hampsterdance was revolutionary, an example of "going viral" before anyone was even using the phrase. Want to make someone LOL? Send them the Hampsterdance. Want to prank your boss? Teacher? Roommate? Get everyone to load the page at the same time. It infiltrated the culture, both online and off, even popping up in a TV ad for Earthlink. And it made its conquest before iPhones, before social media — spreading through email and old-timey word of mouth.
When you consider all that, it's fair to call it the world's first online meme — or one of the first, depending on your source.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:10PM (3 children)
All I remember is kia commercials. Now those were pervy demented hilarity.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snow on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:35PM (2 children)
It was big. Big enough that your computer class would clog the dual ISDN connection that your school had.
You'd stand up and peek over the top of your monitor at the other kids and see waves of dancing hamsters. I'd think 'stupid idiots', then get back to looking for 30 second real player clips of Cartman getting an anal probe (that would take 30 mins to download).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:21PM
ISDN, hehehe.
Actually, the trip-hop album was pretty damn good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @09:48AM
Thanks for reminding me. I never did finish Tripping the Rift
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:40PM (1 child)
Lets be honest, its better for everyone than Facebook, and arguable cuter and more entertaining.
Seeing the past with rose colored glasses, lets be honest someone stupid enough to type in any domain I say is gonna get goatse'd, anyone smart enough to think about what they're typing would never fall for "some crazy hamster bullshit" in the domain name BUT I could get them to bring up the official federal government executive branch website at whitehouse.com (the .com instead of .gov is, or was, important).
Now there were team efforts. I know damn well what is (or was) at whitehouse.com and my idiot buddies in the audience screaming whitehouse.com hurr durr I'll play stupid and type it in.
whitehouse.com has changed a bit over the years. I seem to recall it used to pop up with a "naughty intern" costume'd actress giving an actor portraying a former president a BJ, but who knows I saw a lot of that stuff in the old days so I might be mis remembering or whatever. The new site is pretty uninteresting in comparison to the good ole days.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:00AM
The original hamsterdance sound was Roger Miller (King of the Road) being a singing rooster in Disney's Robin Hood played at double speed.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:54PM (6 children)
Contrary to the belief to those born after the Reagan Administration that all history began around 1990, particularly when it comes to computers, but there really was very active online activity in the 1980s and *gasp* even earlier. Today's online intercourse is a pale shadow of the glory days of usenet where if you didn't lurk, you had to survive with great argumentative skills, great wit, or you had to be an excellent troller. It is where the idea of flamewars and needing your asbestos underpants came from, among many other, shall we say, memes arose.
Perhaps all those early memes got eaten by the arpavax?
Or, maybe a meme that is a bit more close to home for some here,
1. Make idiotic claims supported by no evidence
2. Post it on a click-baity site
3. ????
4. Profit!
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:57PM (5 children)
Fuck you, decrepit BBS lUSER! The web is the real internet and your generation's garbage dialing in and editing a text file was nothing compared to my generation's awesome marquee and blink tags.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:09PM
Don't forget the ant crawl border
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:32PM (3 children)
BBS user?? Son, go get me a glass of water and I'll tell you about the Internet before Al Gore opened it up to all you dialup trash.
We were out blowing each other up on DECWAR [utexas.edu] and other things on the VAX.
You want another meme??? Meet Bob. Maybe I'll tell you about his SubGenius church sometime.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:47PM
Alternately, you can just read all about the Church of the Subgenius [subgenius.com] at their official site. The guy more-or-less in charge of it, Ivan Stang, is a friend-of-friends of mine, and I've shaken hands with him a few times, he's a fun guy to have around.
The real question, though, is whatever happened to Kibo.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @01:40AM (1 child)
Did you already have flat-earthers back then ?
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Friday January 04 2019, @01:30AM
This make me sad. I miss one of the old flat earth society pages. (From the era of the "Springfield Effect".)
There was a site that had a great picture of the astronaut on the moon standing next to the US flag. It was the real photo, but photo-shopped to look like it was on a small stage on a wooden riser with a backdrop raising up from the back if the riser. The terrain on the riser and the picture on backdrop looked exactly like the real moon photo except the shadow of the astronaut and flag "bent" to go up the backdrop wall. I wish I could find that again. It was hilarious.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:24PM (5 children)
Anyone even bother to look up the page size?
They demonstrated an enormous amount of activity on a page with a minimal download, as they used hundreds of instances of the same object.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:34AM (4 children)
That was one of my arguments as to why Google survived those first few years. Everyone else was trying to cram 50-100k on their front page. Its front page was under 4k (gif and all). That was mega important in the days of dialup. If it takes forever for your page to load people would get board and leave.
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:16AM
California beaches!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:50PM (2 children)
I really wish, they'd stayed true to their roots in that manner.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @11:09PM (1 child)
Me, too.
Way too many business pages give me fits. Its almost impossible for me to navigate NAPA Auto parts, albeit EBay and Rock Auto work fine.
I am of the belief that some corporate webmasters job is to code in such a way so that the CEO can see the corporate site just fine.... Everyone else gets an error page.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @12:29AM
Most of that sort of thing is slapped together by contractors who really just do not GAF. It works and they move onto the next company to work for. Anyone who comes after is afraid to touch it fundamentally and just add more.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dw861 on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:37AM
As if Nanaimo Bars weren't already enough of a contribution to world civilization. This is one town that is punching above its weight.
(Score: 1) by jman on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:44PM
(The site is still alive, but the days of finding that command that would make him flip you the bird are loooooong gone.)