Hampsterdance, an oral history

December 29, 2018 12:09 PM

It was just supposed to be a quick assignment — a hit of kitschy Y2K memories for anyone who remembered a weird website or a goofy novelty song or even just some gag from Are We There Yet? But with every person who agreed to be interviewed, the Hampsterdance turned into one more thing: a hairy beast of a saga.
posted by clawsoon (40 comments total)

The "singing rooster in a Disney movie" was country/pop singer Roger Miller, and it was sampled, speeded up and used in the Hampsterdance several years after Miller died from lung cancer due to a life-long smoking habit. Although better known for songs like "King of the Road" and "Little Green Apples", I suspect that nothing else he wrote or recorded had a bigger total audience than that snippet.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:45 PM on December 29, 2018 [7 favorites]

So, I was sure that there were earlier memes/viral sites before Hampsterdance. But I couldn’t find any.

My three sure-fire bets were YTMND, All Your Base, and I Can Haz Cheezburger. But the first two date to 2000 and 2001, and Cheezburger is (astonishing, to me) much later, in January 2007.

Dayum. The past 20 years seems like an eternity in Internet culture.
posted by darkstar at 1:07 PM on December 29, 2018 [8 favorites]

I miss that internet. I didn't really get Hampsterdance (I actually never visited the site when it was popular), but just seeing people enjoying something so wonderfully stupid. Some of us rolled our eyes at it at the time, of course, but it beats 4chan and Russian political memes any day.
posted by JHarris at 1:09 PM on December 29, 2018 [10 favorites]

So, I was sure that there were earlier memes/viral sites before Hampsterdance. But I couldn’t find any.

My three sure-fire bets were YTMND, All Your Base, and I Can Haz Cheezburger. But the first two date to 2000 and 2001, and Cheezburger is (astonishing, to me) much later, in January 2007.

"Mr. T Ate My Balls" was created in 1996.
posted by dismas at 1:12 PM on December 29, 2018 [24 favorites]

My fourth guess was Terrible Secret of Space, which I’m at least gratified to find that it dates back to 2000.


PAK CHOOIE UNF
posted by darkstar at 1:14 PM on December 29, 2018 [11 favorites]

After further research, it appears that Dancing Baby may slightly pre-date the Mr. T meme by just a few months in 1996.
posted by darkstar at 1:26 PM on December 29, 2018 [10 favorites]

What about Walter Cronkite Spit in My Soup?
posted by adamg at 1:37 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

The "singing rooster in a Disney movie" was country/pop singer Roger Miller

I remember watching the Disney Robin Hood DVD. I kept asking myself "This is so familiar. Where have I heard this before?" I played it repeatedly, then had the "aha" moment.
posted by eye of newt at 1:40 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I first saw Hampsterdance on NSCA Mosaic running on a Solaris box. The machine had no speakers because it was for Doing Science. Hampsterdance with no sound failed to impress.

A friend finally showed it to me on their PC and I suddenly realized what a was so funny about it.
posted by BrashTech at 2:43 PM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

I read up to the point where the creators got a letter from a dad whose sick daughter found joy watching the hamsters dance... And then I just closed the browser, because I can't imagine anything else good would show up from that point on.
posted by meese at 2:48 PM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

Godwin's Law has a strong case for being the earliest internet meme - it predates the World Wide Web.
posted by Merus at 3:51 PM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Didn't even read the article and I have that song in my head.
posted by Grandysaur at 3:51 PM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

I remember watching the Disney Robin Hood DVD.

I was intimately familiar with the Disney Robin Hood DVD VHS tape long before I saw the Hamster Dance, and recognizing the song was why I liked the Hamster Dance so much. BTW, it was Little John the bear singing in that audio clip, not the rooster.
posted by heatherlogan at 3:57 PM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

hello.jpg
posted by alex_skazat at 4:28 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I remember Bert Is Evil (1997), Real Ultimate Power (2002), Find the Spam (difficult to date because of search static, but definitely pre-2000) and Zombo.com (HTML5 version), which Wikipedia dates to 2000 but seems like it must be older.
posted by JHarris at 4:47 PM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

There's also joke Usenet groups, like alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die, if they count.
posted by JHarris at 4:49 PM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

I had the Hamsterdance CD single. I remember I got it at Best Buy, not having any idea what it was but thinking it looked hilarious. I think it had six tracks, the original Hamsterdance and an extended version of the Hamsterdance and then a few remixes of the Hamsterdance. I vaguely recall it also had a CD-ROM component so you could see the hamster gifs when you popped it into your computer for those of us who still didn't have the internet yet.
posted by phunniemee at 4:57 PM on December 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

I also would have guessed the Leonard Nimoy Should Eat More Salsa Foundation (previously) was earlier, but it also seems to date from 2000.
posted by mubba at 4:58 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh also the CD insert was a lenticular print of the hamsters and when you moved it the hamsters actually danced, it was great.
posted by phunniemee at 5:03 PM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

I referred to Memepool, but it “only” dates back to 1998, and it looks like it’s been away for years; it’s been squatted since I last looked.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:17 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Badger Badger Mushroom?
posted by allthinky at 5:27 PM on December 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

Little John the bear singing in that audio clip, not the rooster.
posted by heatherlogan at 3:57 PM on December 29

Actually, if we're talking about that twangy bit at around the 50 second mark, I think it's from a scene featuring the wolfish Sheriff of Nottingham and his two vulture pals Nutsy and Trigger, although I find myself doubting my conclusions, which is something I never expected in relation to this movie.
posted by sardonyx at 6:13 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yes, JHarris!

I hadn’t thought of them, but those joke USENET sites are definitely the immediate precursor/ancestor to internet meme sites. When the family tree of memes is constructed, I’m convinced they will be right next to each other on the same branch.
posted by darkstar at 6:57 PM on December 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Heh — incredibly, that’s the first time I’ve seen Zombo.com and it made me smile. It’s held up pretty well. :-)
posted by darkstar at 7:08 PM on December 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Welcome, darkstar! You can do anything there. Anything at all. The only limit is yourself.
posted by JHarris at 7:20 PM on December 29, 2018 [7 favorites]

We got the name copyrighted because you can spell hamster with a p or without a p.

Wrong. The letter p does not appear in the correct spelling of hamster.

You may now resume your previous levity.
posted by bryon at 9:41 PM on December 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is the first time I've heard of Terrible Secret of Space, and it was nice to unearth a forgotten relic and be genuinely surprised as it builds.
posted by Merus at 9:47 PM on December 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

The letter p does not appear in the correct spelling of hamster

Prescritivist.
posted by Segundus at 10:29 PM on December 29, 2018 [9 favorites]

I didn't realize that (of course) her site was stolen and monetized by someone else. Amazing that she still seems good-natured about it.

The earliest I online memes (not that we called them that yet) that I can remember are Bert Is Evil, and Jared, Butcher of Song [song], which is apparently from 1995... do I win?
posted by Mchelly at 4:53 AM on December 30, 2018

There's also joke Usenet groups, like alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die, if they count.
Was that before or after alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork?
posted by Daily Alice at 5:04 AM on December 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm a frayed knot.
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:50 AM on December 30, 2018

I don't care if it is later, I am a Jeff Goldblum is Watching You Poop guy!
posted by Meatbomb at 7:14 AM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pre-internet, and even pre-USENET, I think the biggest viral memes were “Frodo Lives”, “Jesus Saves” and “Kilroy was Here”.
posted by darkstar at 7:29 AM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

For context, Dramatic Chipmunk and Chocolate Rain both date to 2007. Tay Zonday is still making videos, pretty awesome ones I think. Three weeks ago he released Alien Christmas, which I rather like.
posted by JHarris at 9:58 AM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

This thread made me pour a bowl of hot grits down my pants.
posted by lkc at 2:56 PM on December 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think there's a difference between internet memes that stayed on the internet, versus ones that broke out. Hampsterdance is definitely one of the first of the latter. Mahir Çağrı did the same around that time, sometime in 1999, and broke out into the mainstreamest of mainstream media, even being prominently referenced during the 2000 edition of Eurovision.
posted by Kattullus at 3:29 PM on December 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

How about alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork - does that count? Usenet had a lot of running jokes, which is what memes used to be called once upon a time, but I'm darned if I can remember them all.
posted by Devonian at 7:28 AM on December 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

we should just find a copy of dave barry in cyberspace (which featured mr t ate my balls) and see what he talks about
posted by dismas at 10:07 AM on December 31, 2018

dismas: we should just find a copy of dave barry in cyberspace (which featured mr t ate my balls) and see what he talks about

Twelve years ago, I accidentally took a copy of that book home from a campground. Here are the websites he features:

The Toilets of Melbourne, Australia
Giant Collection of Viola Jokes
Guide to Crackers
Mr. T Ate My Balls
Chewbacca Ate My Balls
The Spam Cam
Piercing Mildred
Banana Labels of the World
Wave to the Cats
Trojan Room Coffee Machine
Captain and Tennille Appearances
Cursing in Swedish
Dutch Traffic Signs
Federal Corpse Slice Photos
People With Toasters
Fabio
Deformed Frog Pictures
Musical Sand
Exploding Whale
World Record Barbecue Ignition
Flaming Pop-Tart Experiment

Try to guess which ones are still alive before clicking.
posted by clawsoon at 1:24 PM on December 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

I remember an even earlier version of the Pop-Tart idea, Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow Torches, which goes back to 1994! Two other meme things to look back on fondly are Will It Blend? (2006) and Ask A Ninja (2005).
posted by JHarris at 3:59 AM on January 1, 2019