It's Going Viral! - Internet Classics

Category: Cool-Stuff

Ever since the Web went graphical in the early 1990's, there have been people motivated to create websites that exist only to be amusing, annoying or completely useless. And like a car wreck, we just can't keep ourselves from looking at these things... and telling all our friends. Consider these Internet Classics required viewing...

Internet Classics

The early Web had some creative folks with time on their hands. And they created some enduring web pages that are part of Internet lore and legend. Everyone should see all of them at least once, but be warned, you can't un-see them once you do!

  • Go ahead... press The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything. Useless since 1994, the RBBTDDA is one of the first websites to go viral, meaning that it quickly became well-known by word of mouth.

  • You decide... is Samorost an adventure game or interactive art? When I first discovered this game, it was cleverly concealed in a deodorant website. (Requires Flash)

  • Evil Conspiracy Unmasked! All Your Base Are Belong To Us reveals photographic proof of a conspiracy so large and so complicated that well... you know. Zero Wing, a poorly translated Japanese video game for the old Sega Genesis console, served as the inspiration for this phenomenon.

    Really big button that does nothing

  • Pick the Music, the Jiggy and the Booty -- and watch Paul dance! Dancing Paul has been keeping small minds occupied for minutes on end, since it won a Webby award in 2001. (Requires Flash)

  • Singing, dancing, and a floating hat -- it's Hatt Baby! It's annoying, badly animated, and incomprehensible. But you will be drawn against your will to watch until the very end. One of the Net's most enduring memes.

  • It's just Good Science... the Traffic Cone Preservation Society seeks to ensure that future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy these orange pointy-headed critters.

  • If you scratched that itch a little too hard, then 75 years of Band-Aid may be just the cure.

  • Is it a word, a number, or something else entirely? Shfifty Five is one thing for sure -- proof positive that anyone with rudimentary art skills, a microphone and the Macromedia Flash authoring software can become famous overnight.

  • Yet Another Flash Abomination: The Kitty Kat Dance takes Bad Art to new heights. But for some strange reason, it's fun to watch.

  • If you've ever had a bad experience with online shopping, you'll find REEMCO: The Way E-Commerce Should Be absolutely hilarious. Be sure to go through the entire checkout process...

  • "A series of tubes" is a phrase uttered in 2006 by former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens to describe the Internet. In a humorous YouTube video which mixes actual audio from the senator's speech with still images, Stevens was mocked for his apparently primitive understanding of the Internet.

  • And finally, there's the End of the Internet. If you go here, you will have reached the "very last page on the very last server at the very far end of the internet." The original version of this page is long defunct, but you can read an interesting history of it here.

    Got a comment? Or a site you think is a must-see Internet Classic? Post your words of wisdom below...

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    Most recent comments on "It's Going Viral! - Internet Classics"

    Posted by:

    Lester Noyes
    22 Nov 2017

    I think the subtitling on "Hatt Baby" was early Swedish "bad lip reading"! Turned it into a party song. ("The drunkest guy gets to wear the hat", etc.)


    Posted by:

    Mac 'n' Cheese
    22 Nov 2017

    Remember Fedco, the Federal Employees Department Store? Remember when PONG came out -- one of the first video games?

    I remember what a Fedco employee told me as we played PONG on a demo station at the store, and it's the same thing I'd say about this collection of web sites: "This is a colossal waste of time." -- Mac

    EDITOR'S NOTE: It must be a matter of perspective. Watching "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" is never a waste of time. :-)


    Posted by:

    Richard Austin
    22 Nov 2017

    How about Hampster Dance?

    EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, and Badger, Badger...


    Posted by:

    olamoree
    22 Nov 2017

    Hi Bob, still waiting for your opinion/article on the FCC's move to crash Net Neutrality. I have signed petitions and made calls, but it seems like a done deal. Hope you are not effected...


    Posted by:

    Paul
    22 Nov 2017

    snarg.net has been around for many many years and offers a surreal exploration complete with sound.


    Posted by:

    Mike
    22 Nov 2017

    Bob, Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!


    Posted by:

    SysOp404
    22 Nov 2017

    I'm with Richard Austin, as those little beggars (like 'em or not) were the mindless go-to spot of the day. Even when misspelled, they could still be found. We'd wait forever for the site to load... and then spend the next three days trying to get THAT TUNE out of our heads!

    Nine years later, Keyboard Cat took over with another song that was hard to delete from our collective intellects. Ah well - so much for innocent days long passed...


    Posted by:

    Brian
    22 Nov 2017

    My favourite of all time, the dancing chimps.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLtR8_qw_yM


    Posted by:

    FuzzyRabbit
    22 Nov 2017

    Don't forget the Dancing Baby.


    Posted by:

    Doc
    22 Nov 2017

    It changed over time and now you have to know how to use the 'histroy' or 'used to look like' page to pull it up - It's http://www.disasterium.com/ >> and is a list of all the worlds disasters, huge ones and small ones, but all the worlds disasters from the wound in Iceman or the broken ribs and pelvus in Kenniwick man - to HUGE mineing disasters (10K in one cave in alone) -- all in one place - but the new owners don't do IT justice, kinda like you used to get a pancake the size of your serving plate, and now you get on that has 4 inches around the pancake and edge of the plate. Booooo! -- Also there was a 'White Trailer Park' place, then turned into a p**n site that morphed even more - but it was a howler too. And Jib-Jab - is it me, or had i changed to not being funny anymore? (and MY mother said it would make me blind - but it just sapped my sense of humor I guess"


    Posted by:

    Andrew
    23 Nov 2017

    Maukie the Purring Cat,
    http://www.sundropcrystal.com/store/maukie.html


    Posted by:

    Pete Laberge
    23 Nov 2017

    Then there is the song:
    Zero Wing Rhapsody.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE6emvdmg-M


    Posted by:

    Tracey Mason
    23 Nov 2017

    Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Dancing Baby and anything from Joe Cartoon are other internet classics that haven't faded from my mind and wasted a lot of my time in the mid to late 90s.
    Apparently Frog in a Blender (or Gerbil in a Microwave) are still going strong.


    Posted by:

    Cherylb
    24 Nov 2017

    Anyone else remember the site that had absolutely nothing on the screen except the box at the bottom? The title was "wait all day" and the box on the bottom of the screen kept printing things like "loading soon" or "waiting to load" and other comments that suggested that the page would load soon....which it never did. I have this weird sense of humor and would go to the site just to see how many times the comments would change. It's gone now.....although we we lose the internet as we know it, we may become familiar with all those comments again. :-(


    Posted by:

    cal67
    25 Nov 2017

    Joe Cartoon used to be funny and a great time killer. Sold out years ago and I haven't been to the site since.


    Posted by:

    David Hakala
    29 Nov 2017

    I second "Frog in a blender" http://joecartoon.com/games/play/65/Frog_in_a_Blender

    Add "Bonsai Kitten," which went offline in April, 2016, but is preserved in a mirror site.

    http://ding.net/bonsaikitten/


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