Dean Scream
You might remember it as Dean yeah, Howard Dean scream
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
Famous internet fails8 of 11
2004·Early web, before YouTube
The first political moment the internet replayed to death, and an early argument about context collapse.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- Dean yeah
- Spread in
- 2004
- Began as
- A television broadcast
- Where it started
- broadcast
- Format
- Event
- Said by
- Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont
- The scene
- A rally at the Val-Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Iowa, on 19 January 2004, after he finished third in the Iowa caucus
- Used to say
- Overexcitement that tips into the ridiculous
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
Why it matteredWhat changed
A candidate’s shout at a rally was replayed 633 times on television in four days. It is an early case of a political moment being made by repetition rather than by what happened in the room.
TimelineIn order
- Made
Howard Dean, having come third in the Iowa caucus, lists the states he says he will win and ends with a scream of “Yeah!”1
- Picked up
Four days later, television networks have aired the clip 633 times. Within a week the figure is 937.1
- Later
Dean suspends his campaign after finishing third in the Wisconsin primary.1
The version you rememberNot the same thing
A man screaming, with almost no crowd to be heard.1
A crowd so loud that people there could not hear him. The broadcast used a microphone that cut out background noise, and the networks did not show the crowd.1
What people misrememberSet straight
Commonly remembered asThe scream ended his campaign.
ActuallyDean and his staff blamed poor organisation and a strategy built on Iowa alone, and said he would have lost anyway. Reporters who were at the rally said nothing unusual happened there.1
Commonly remembered asHe screamed in a silent hall.
ActuallyThe hall was roaring. The sound that was broadcast came from a microphone designed to pick up only him.1
What it createdWhat came out of it
- Remixes that set the scream to songs, one of which crashed the site that hosted it, and a reference in JibJab’s This Land.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
This began as a television broadcast, not as a video upload. Originally published on broadcast.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a television broadcast, not as a video upload. Originally published on broadcast.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
ConnectedFollow it further
- Referred to by This Land (JibJab)2004
JibJab’s 2004 election cartoon includes Howard Dean’s scream among its jokes about the campaign.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things