Steamed Hams
You might remember it as an Albany expression
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Biggest memes ever15 of 32
2016·The platform era·funny
A four-minute Simpsons segment from 1996 that the internet rediscovered twenty years later and rebuilt several thousand times.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- an Albany expression
- Spread in
- 2016
- Began as
- A television broadcast
- Where it started
- broadcast
- Format
- Meme
- Taken from
- The Simpsons episode 22 Short Films About Springfield, first shown on 14 April 1996
- Made by
- The segment was written by Bill Oakley
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
Principal Skinner invites his superintendent to dinner, burns the roast, buys burgers from the Krusty Burger across the road, and insists they are steamed hams — an Albany expression. The kitchen catches fire. He calls it the aurora borealis. It is one segment of a 1996 Simpsons episode built from unconnected vignettes.
The Hollywood Reporter marked its twenty-fifth anniversary by asking the people who made it to explain the phenomenon, and none of them could. It is now the best example of a fixed piece of professional television becoming an open format twenty years after broadcast, without the rights holder's involvement.
Why it matteredWhat changed
A scene from 1996 became popular twenty years later, and was remixed under titles beginning “Steamed Hams but”. Its writer calls it the most famous thing he has written.
TimelineIn order
- Made
The episode is broadcast.1
- Took off
The scene becomes popular in Facebook groups about the programme.1
- Later
Oakley posts his original draft of the scene.1
- Remixed
A channel begins streaming endless computer-generated versions of it.1
More from hereIn this collection
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · copied, redrawn and reused until the original stopped mattering · 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.
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