Not all of it was video

The internet was sharing things long before it was uploading them, and it never stopped sharing things that are not clips.

Images and animations people rebuilt in their own words, over and over.

• Look Dancing Baby 1996Early web, before YouTube
• The story The GIF 1996Early web, before YouTube
• The story Lolcat 2007Early YouTube
• The story The image macro 2007Early YouTube
• Look Trollface 2008Early YouTube
• Look Pepe the Frog 2008Early YouTube

Flash cartoons, pages that would not leave you alone, and things that only ever existed in a browser.

• The story The Trojan Room coffee pot 1991Early web, before YouTube
• The story JenniCam 1996Early web, before YouTube
• The story Hampster Dance 1997Early web, before YouTube
• The story Hot or Not 2000Early web, before YouTube
• The story All Your Base Are Belong To Us 2001Early web, before YouTube
• The story Xiao Xiao 2001Early web, before YouTube

Single images the whole internet argued about.

• Look Grumpy Cat 2012The social era
• Look The Oscar selfie 2014The social era
• Look The Dress 2015The platform era
• Look Disaster Girl 2008Early YouTube
• The story Boo 2009Early YouTube
• Look The monkey selfie 2011The social era

Things somebody typed that went further than anything they filmed.

• Read The :-) emoticon 1982funny
• The story Make.Money.Fast 1989
• The story Copypasta 2006Early YouTube
• The story Reblogging 2007Early YouTube
• The story Shitposting 2010The social era
• The story Weird Twitter 2010The social era

Things with no single original, because everybody made their own.

• The story GeoCities 1996Early web, before YouTube
• The story Newgrounds 2000Early web, before YouTube
• The story Something Awful 2001Early web, before YouTube
• The story Rickrolling 2007Early YouTube
• The story The hashtag 2007Early YouTube
• The story Hatsune Miku 2007Early YouTube

Audio and lines that outlived whatever they came from.

• The story Eternal September 1993Early web, before YouTube
• Read The Streisand effect 2003Early web, before YouTube
• Watch Despacito 2017The platform era
• The story OK boomer 2019The platform era
• Watch The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet 2019The platform era
• The story Karen 2020Short-form and streams

Broadcast moments the internet kept after the broadcast ended.

• The story Boaty McBoatface 2016The platform era
• The story Fyre Festival 2017The platform era
• The story The Tumblr adult content ban 2018The platform era
• The story The GameStop short squeeze 2021Short-form and streams
• The story The Reddit blackout 2023Short-form and streams
• The story The Spirit of Christmas 1995Early web, before YouTube

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