My very first Exposure to an Internet Meme circa 1999

It's hard to see in this Screengrab but this was my Set up from late 1999....

Well.... technically this was my Dad's Set up since he was the one who bought that COMPAQ PRESARIO 5477 back in 1999.

Anyway, This was a screen from one of my old 1999 High8 TAPEs featuring me when I was 2 years old and in it, I was eating some GUMMY WORMs. 

And I was watching this meme called HAMPSTER DANCE.

This is a very interesting internet meme that permeated mid-to-late 90s INTERNET alongside the DANCING BABY but in an interesting way.

Whereas the DANCING BABY was an accident based on the leaking of a 3DS STUDIO file to others who have access to the software and proceeded to share it to this guy in WASHINGTON STATE named ROB SHERIDAN, 

The HAMPSTER DANCE was just an early meme created by a CANADIAN Martial Arts instructor at NANAIMO, BC who goes by DEIDRE LACARTE.

She was in a competition with her best friend and sister on who could generate the most web traffic on their websites.

The website host she decided to use was GeoCities.

Remember GeoCities?

Anyway, she created the webpage and dedicated it to her pet hamster at the time who went by the name of HAMPTON HAMPSTER. 

The website consisted of nothing but a bunch of GIF images of Cartoon Hamsters dancing.

And it was often paired with a snippet of music lifted from the 1973 Disney Animated film ROBIN HOOD.

Specifically the part in the song WHISTLE STOP

where a part of ALAN-A-DALE vocalizes to the song in his own way.

And that part was sped up:

dedodedo

Infectious. Isn't it?

Don't make me share that photo of LITTLE CAT from TWEETERMAN287 trying to cover his ears again!

"TOO LATE!"

Even after the original GeoCities website has long since closed down, the meme still lived.

It was given it's own MUSIC VIDEO done with more oomph and I remember having to listen to that version of the song back in elementary school in the mid to late 2000s.... specifically during a Dance Class we had in one of the basement cafeterias at what's referred to as the PRIMARY BUILDING.

And to this day, the website has found a new home which I'll provide a link to:

THE NEW HAMPSTER DANCE WEBSITE

Such were the times of PRE-DOTCOM BUBBLE BURST era of the Internet.