The Insanity of 2000s YouTube Viral Videos

[@STRANGEONS]

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[@Nouandur]

Your spine will only be selected and collected if properly prepared with a helix sleep mattress

[@Shrekkkkkk]

Ok

[@taitheteaguy]

thank you strange æons

[@Shottinf]

I enjoy your naked rat cat

[@angusmcnay5449]

Harbinger, soft g

[@SophisticatedBanjo]

Early KZbin was like when our grandparents only had 2 shows on television. We got like one funny video every six months and just had to watch it til the next one came out.

[@swimmingsquid6523]

this is literally a genius brain level take 😱 I wonder what the comparison will be for the next generation

[@jprochnau33]

THIS MAKE ME FEEL OLD NOOOO

[@crptpyr]

you can guess someone's age based on whether they call him lemon demon or Neil

[@crptpyr]

@selachimorpha absolute madlad, but you're probably old enough to remember his videos from back in the day but still young enough to be in the same social circles that just rediscovered his music and started calling him lemon demon straight up

[@TimmehJay]

Your grandparents most likely had cable, even as children lol

[@rayceeya8659]

I never laughed once at the "Leave Britany Alone" video. I truly felt for that person. Cara Cunningham has risen like a phoenix from that viral video and done well for herself. Being queer in rural Tennessee could not have been easy.

[@TheEepyMagi]

I remember my siblings showing me that video as something "funny" and my only response was concern. It's just a person crying :(

[@nothinkin69]

Being from Tennessee, you're not wrong. See "Blue Lives Matter", MAGA, and TRUMP 2020/2024 flags everywhere

[@Axqu7227]

Oh good to hear she’s doing well and transitioned!

[@skaerkilde]

The fact that she was bashed for being 'bad queer representation' is so insane to me like... she's a person, not a character. She wasn't trying to represent the community, she was trying to advocate for someone. It really highlights the hypocrisy that exists even in our own communities, that we would ignore her message of empathy and compassion and instead focus on what a "bad reputation" she gave the rest of us. I'm sorry, Cara. We should have done better for you.

[@rayceeya8659]

@@skaerkilde Last I heard Cara is doing well. Did something happen?

[@Vahrden]

The Charlie the Unicorn finale is nuts. It reveals that the blue and pink unicorns are corpses puppeted by demons and there's a song by a ferret wizard ghost with a rap breakdown from his boyfriend, a coat.

[@camerondon3712]

I haven't seen the finale, but that sounds about right.

[@wohdinhel]

exactly what i expected

[@ane3sha]

spoilers damn............ (jk)

[@TarisLuna]

Wtf, I have never seen the finale but it does not sound any more fricked up than the rest.

[@sklerpo]

what the fuck

[@atmosphericentry0]

Middle school recesses were not the same after The Mysterious Ticking Noise came out. I swear we all gathered around and chanted it word for word like some type of cult ritual.

[@TalleyBellum]

Crazy how the guy that made that also made Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and Brodyquest which can be considered some of Neil's most mainstream media out there.

[@galaxygirlstudio5347]

The theater kids of my school would probably do that if we had recess

[@lays5277]

Y'all had recess in middle school???

[@ms_cartographer]

Cara was right about Britney and the media. I never understood why people mocked her for having empathy.

[@acrylicabyss]

I was confused when ÆONS said that the creator is a trans-woman because I always thought it was a cis woman from the original video . So ig I always knew the truth, lol.

[@OuchMyHooves]

@@acrylicabyss SAME THO

[@ellem8990]

@@acrylicabyss so she's actually a woman?? I remember people being like "lol no that's actually a guy", when I called her a woman. I guess they were just transphobic.

[@caitlinzhang1709]

@@ellem8990 looking at her wiki page, it looks like Cara had detransitioned for a period of time ~2012 & had stated that she didn't identify as strictly feminine/masculine.

[@AppleIPie]

@@caitlinzhang1709 yeah. I remember a point where she was clearly dressing masculine and using he/him and aggressively putting out "I'm normal guys please stop bringing up the old video" vibes. Transitioned in 2021? Very recent stuff.

[@peachscreams]

I would kill to see you do a whole deep dive on Neil Cicirega's history as basically king of internet culture, it's honestly mind blowing how much he's done.

[@ItsAsparageese]

Sounds like an awesome video for Strange or also/alternatively Tiffany Ferg

[@adogprobably2304]

YES.

[@nof_real]

YES I NEED THAT

[@w0rmg0rl]

yesss it's so fascinating how he stayed a core part of internet culture through so many rapid changes in the nature and use of the internet!

[@pzkitty6783]

yes!!!

[@bemodreamy]

"How much of 2000s humour was just bullying?" Truly.

[@IQzminus2]

I mean yeah it truly were tons. It was a very harsh and bullying atmosphere in a big part of KZbin A big part of 00’s KZbin comments were just calling everything “fake and gay”, and just filled with mild homophobic insults no matter what the video was about. And the worst part is that KZbin and internet culture wasn’t even the worst offender. 00s reality tv-shows and gossip magazines, but also just comedy shows. A lot of it felt like it was pretty bad back then, and it really really doesn’t hold up looking back.

[@nefertitimontoya]

As someone who clocked this as a child and got the brunt of a lot of it, it's bittersweet that now people see it and have changed it

[@awkwardnerd.]

Unfortunately this type of 'humour' didn't really go away

[@Samsen_]

being a teenager in that era was awful

[@crenfick7750]

Nothing is worse than looking at the reply video dogpile on pruane2forever.

[@auberginebear]

I used to get mocked for saying that Chocolate Rain was about systemic racism until Tay confirmed it.

[@klisterklister2367]

That sucks.

[@OlySamRock]

i was never part of the conversation around it at all and yet the first time I heard it I picked up on that. wild how much people denied

[@coolsenjoyer]

It's so weird he had to confirm it. The lyrics aren't even subtle

[@brianco28]

@@coolsenjoyer deadass. like it straight up talks about the bell curve.

[@WishGender]

I remember listening to it and thinking “huh this sounds like a commentary on racism” and then googling it and finding out that yes it is in fact about institutionalized racism.

[@K-bb2bc]

I never thought “leave brittany alone” was funny even as a kid. Even though I didn’t understand the context at the time, I still was like “why is it funny to see somebody so upset?” Nowadays I agree with her even more. It’s so sad what she went through.

[@CelestiaLily]

Similar experience here; although I will add my discomfort didn't start out as an entirely "moral" objection when I first watched it. Tbh some of my discomfort as a kid was because the ""comedic timing"" just didn't land - in a time when "badger x4 MUSHROOM MUSHROOM" was hilarious, I didn't find it funny enough to care. Of course a bit later I realized the footage wasn't *intended* as anything other than raw, achingly sincere distress at the horrible treatment of another human being. and yeah that basically soured a previously meh joke into a "hey this is too mean i'd rather see i can haz cheezburger instead".

[@AoiUsagiOtoko]

SAME! i always felt bad for her more than anything, even to this day memes about people crying just upset me. :(

[@Margatatials]

I think it was the para-social relationship aspect. People have a laughter reaction as a release of tension to the seaming absurdity of someone being so personally invested and having such an intense reaction to the personal problems of someone they don't actually know.

[@ihurtmyarm]

I think at the time Britney was one of the early celebs where the public wanted to know every aspect of her life. She transcended the old idea of a celebrity in which you just consume whatever they produce and don't know much about them. So for a lot of older people at the time it seemed really bizzare to know and care about a celebrity as a person. I think the reason people laughed at her was the same logic as boomers laughing at "snowflake triggered libs" nowadays.

[@uamdbro]

To this day, there is still a weirdly high amount of people on the internet who seem to find other people getting upset/angry to be the funniest shit on earth.

[@into_the_sketchiverse]

“the passage of time disgusts me” is such a mood. i hate that don’t hug me im scared is 10 years old.

[@AaronEatPaper]

ITS TEN YEARS OLD???😭😭😭😭😭

[@vireo2543]

WHAAATTTT?!

[@rx500android]

No way😭

[@m_rceleen]

That makes me 3 when it came outWTF

[@busterb7482]

Yeah but on the bright side a tv show is coming out! It's still alive and being found by newer fans and stuff and I think that's pretty cool

[@frickinfrick8488]

Cara selling her video as an NFT is the only NFT sale I can tolerate, she gets a pass after the shit she went through

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

based

[@jacksyoutubechannel4045]

I'm glad a lot of people who were memes (especially people who weren't the original poster of the content) got some compensation. Would _you_ want to be "Overly Attached Girlfriend" for free for the rest of your life?

[@rugalprohibido]

I just hope she doesn't support NFTs further than this, but hope her grandma's doing well and her transition's swell, but, seriously, I hope she doesn't go into crypto nonsense (firstly, cause of the environment, and secondly, imo cryptocurrency is just a huge scam at the end of the day). Really dumb she had to go through so many years of fucked up shit tho.

[@carriefernandez8705]

@@rugalprohibido i follow her on insta, she hasn't mentioned nfts beyond just hers. she also said that while she did get a decent chunk of money, it wasn't enough to do anything long term like pay off her house. i'm finding that the figure was $41k, not sure how accurate that is, but i can definitely see that getting eaten up quick by her grandmother's medical bills alone. she supports both herself in her own house and her grandparents in theirs.

[@beeaggro2593]

@@jacksyoutubechannel4045 tbf with her she basically decided to own and made a killing off it too

[@Cesaryeyo]

The first clue that the person in the "Leave Britney alone!" Video was a woman was that she made an emotive and completely correct call for empathy and it resulted in society collectively deciding to ruin her life

[@BassGal92]

And she also wore a skirt when she was in Tosh.0

[@cw2010]

Oh oof

[@tempesttossed6029]

Damn. True tho

[@MichaelTurner856]

Men do that to. Normal ones anyways

[@OsirusHandle]

early internet was real crazy toxic, still is but in quite different ways i think. the big change occured around gamergate/2016 i think which was probably just a tipping point of the internet becoming universalised.

[@AmandaJo_]

One of my cats is named Badger and sometimes I pick her up and dance around my apartment singing the Badger song at her 😂 She tolerates it, but she does give me an intense look of disappointment the whole time lol.

[@Kick0a0cat]

I love your cat

[@horacegentleman3296]

@@Kick0a0cat i love all cats

[@InThisEssayIWill...]

Cat, I'm a kitty cat. And I dance dance dance. 😆

[@Kick0a0cat]

@@horacegentleman3296 every kind of cat. I just wanna hug all of them, but I can't.

[@MsFeyCreature]

"I'm not angry, human. I'm just disappointed."

[@fayealbertson265]

Growing up with the name Charlie was great fun. There's nothing I loved more than being accused of biting fingers and being invited to candy Mountain

[@petrichorbones]

one of the "popular" kids in my middle school was named charlie so there was always a group of popular girls flocking around him calling him charlie the unicorn lol

[@faolanj66]

Did you bite any fingers at Candy Mountain?

[@kimorayn1733]

420th like.

[@ccblack3983]

I feel seen.

[@outrageouslamp4539]

Friday by Rebecca black was definitely another early one people liked to make fun of. The internet unsurprisingly took things way too far and started attacking Rebecca, sending her (a child) death threats.

[@diarmuidallen5899]

She makes music again and has a remix of friday that goes hard she's super cool now

[@ReptilianTeaDrinker]

I hated Friday, but I never understood why people sent her death threats. Like, yeah, the song was fucking awful and easy to make fun of, but the fact people attacked Rebecca over it is just too much. I always look back at the 2000's and just how fucked up some things were.

[@universal_stupidity]

@@ReptilianTeaDrinker yea like, kids deserve the rights to make shit songs and not get death threats

[@MajaBiana]

I agree with what you say apart from "early" as it was in 2011. Both youtube and the concept of viral videos were well established at the time and even people like me (who generally avoided viral videos and lived in a country where most people never watched youtube) saw it.

[@genericname8727]

I remember she eventually appeared in Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)” video and she did a new song, Saturday, that was good and made fun of Friday a bit. She’d been taken advantage of by the producer who set her up to look bad, if I recall correctly. I think he was found to be behind other “viral” cringey videos of kids singing something a bit cringe. I don’t recall the specifics. I think though that he’d profit off them going viral even if it hindered their professional careers.

[@TenaciousTheSketcher]

I absolutely HATE the argument, "you make us look bad" when someone is ridiculed for their empathetic and compassionate plea.

[@TheNecromorphkiller]

That's why trans people at large hate vaush

[@ReverieNightengale]

Hearing about how Chocolate Rain was seen as a funny, quirky song when it had lyrics like "Chocolate rain raised your neighborhood insurance rates/makes us happy living in a gate" is just kinda sad. Like, I'm glad Tay Zonday took it in stride, but I can't imagine how it must have felt having something that was written in earnest be made into a punchline. But I think he's doing well for himself now, so that's... something.

[@catlovingnerd21]

very much reminds me of the old poem that was eventually turned into a song (i can't remember the name rn but it was about racism and murder and the words had to do with fruit hanging from a tree) if anyone remembers/knows the name, pls lmk! it's really impactful and sad

[@gduffey2615]

@@catlovingnerd21 Are you talking about Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday? I don't know if it was a poem first, but it's definitely about racism and uses fruit imagery.

[@catlovingnerd21]

@@gduffey2615 yes! tysm! and yes it was a poem written sometime in the mid 1900s that was turned into a song and given to Billie Holiday to perform

[@brianabeeblebrox5399]

@@catlovingnerd21 I believe it was actually written in the mid to late 1800s and turned into a song by Billie Holiday in the first half of the 20th century. She faced a lot of pushback on that song, a lot of big wigs didn't want it to ever be released and the response from white supremacists was... predictable. The poem was originally written by a schoolteacher.

[@genericname8727]

I remember not understanding it at first but then all the kids at school started being like “you know it’s about racism, right?” So it kind of became a “fun fact” about it later that had people relistening to pay attention to the lyrics. I didn’t understand back then a lot of the elements of racism that the song touches on, so I wonder how many people he introduced to the concepts and had looking into them more? I’m sure the song probably had a net positive, even if most who listened to it were school kids just obsessed with how deep his voice was or whatever.

[@JackgarPrime]

Chocolate Rain is both still a banger and still sadly relevant. If anything, it's only grown more and more relevant over time.

[@stevenyukabacera160]

"Build a tent and say the world is dry" is honestly a really cutting line

[@robbiirvine1038]

"The babies born will die before the sin." Dude wasn't wrong.

[@genderender]

"The bell curve will blame the baby's DNA"

[@inacatt]

I was a little kid and had no idea what it was actually about. I did know it ended up being referenced in My Little Pony as the chaos deity makes cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk as a call back to this viral song. It's kinda strange considering racism was address in many episodes and mini arcs throughout the show. Hell, in his debut episode, said chaos deity takes away the magic from unicorns and wings from pegasi so that all the main ponies had equal physical abilities. Man, my childhood was so weird.

[@Bourikii2992]

And then he immediately sold out to Pepsi with a cherry chocolate Dr pepper ad.

[@Customfurball28]

God i love neil cicierega. He's been the mostly creditless pretty much first influencer, somehow always managing to make content that gets popular.

[@wolfdwarf]

Lemon Demon??

[@iDKVibe]

@@wolfdwarf yep.

[@coolbugfan]

Absolutely love him

[@azurdlywisterious]

had an argument with my friends once about how i discovered that he was the guy behind ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny and potter puppet pals. i still dont think they've fully accepted it haha

[@niiknook]

neil made the internet and i live him for that

[@sentretsparkle]

After hearing so many horror stories about children getting bullied for old videos online, seeing that David is fine and actually likes the fame and attention was really relieving. I hope he's doing okay.

[@natsmith303]

Now that you're talking about KZbin rather than Tumblr, I'm feeling a very, "Don't cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written," moment.

[@clairification7206]

She brings up Newgrounds a bit, which reminds me of the ancient stuff from that website, like Madness Combat, The Matrix Has You, The One Ring to Rule Them All, etc.

[@pootoobaby738]

Same haha. Like the other poster said, new grounds comes to mind and the cursed meme site ytmnd 🤣 “You merely adopted the dark. I was born into it, molded by it.”

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

Lo, I too was there.

[@ItsAsparageese]

@@pootoobaby738 Oh wow, I don't think I've seen ytmnd mentioned in like a decade 😂 Y'know, this one time, I ... Saw some wookies. Great big wookies. 🎶 They came to maaaaaul Daaaarth Vaadeerrr! 🎶

[@psychotophatcat]

As somebody who was re-uploading things from Newgrounds and other internet media dump sites to this website the year it was made, I feel this deep to my bones, through to the marrow and plasma and into my soul. I still get people asking me how I've been on this website for so long... it's because I'm in my 30s, friend. I have always been here.

[@TheDirtysouthfan]

Not just that, but KZbin is increasingly segregated. Back then videos would be promoted based off of popularity, there wasn't targeted ads nor algorithms deciding what you should watch, everyones experience with KZbin was more or less the same. Now there's tons of subcultures, depending on your demographic the site is completely different in terms of what content you're exposed to. I'm always surprised to stumble across some random creator I've never heard of and find out they have millions of views on their videos. In that context it's pretty hard to get such an all encompassing meme that breaks across demographic lines/

[@PierroCh5]

Exactly, which could also explain why the only meme related things to transcend internet niches are meme formats, and not memes themselves. Think of soyjaks for example. A meme format is just a mode of expression, a tool to use to create humoristic content, to rebuke an argument, etc... It doesn't express any idea in itself, or at least it no longer does. It's a meme who has been stripped of its specific characteristics, and can therefore be used however you want. If you spend a lot of time on Twitter, you can see this transformation happening before your eyes in a matter of days, or maybe weeks. I'm sure memes are fascinating to study in a serious, sociological and linguistical way.

[@rctecopyright]

Very true. I kinda miss non-curated content. Sometimes I have to keep telling the feed I don't want to see what it's suggesting anymore hoping it'll throw something new my way which doors happen from time to time.

[@poogissploogis]

This is super true. I've been saying that this is the reason why there are so many quotable vines that everyone knows, but you can quote a "viral" TikTok meme and have no one understand it.

[@crazy808ish]

Which is just sad because that just means this isn't the result of the natural evolution of the internet and people's habits as a culture over time, but plain and simply youtube's manipulation thanks to algorithms. We could've had an entirely different reality if it wasn't for that.

[@englishwithkristin8962]

So much better this way!!

[@LindsayEllisVids]

thank you for making me fall through time for 25 minutes. I remember watching the Badger song back when it was a flash video so many times the sound eventually falls out of sync

[@52wbending52]

And I will never forget the best videos from ancient internet. Trogdor for president 2004

[@alcyonae]

Hope you’re well, Lindsay. Much love always

[@mikematson6323]

My friend once sat my now-ex wife in front of the Badgers loop and told her to watch it all the way through..

[@jeslynlane]

so glad to see you here!

[@happychaosofthenorth]

Miss your awesome and insightful videos, Lindsay. I hope you return to KZbin someday, but only if you want to.

[@sparksfly13]

honestly it makes me so annoyed that seeing the same magazines who would've bashed britney back in 2007 are now promoting the #FREEBRITNEY movement as if they weren't the ones who pretty much put her in her conservatorship. i feel so bad for her because she was obviously going through a bad time but of course, both her and the video creator were the butt of every one's jokes...

[@sarahoshea9603]

Weakness will be exploited. It's not a secret. Act accordingly

[@anothermiddleschoolburnout8816]

​@@sarahoshea9603 That's an awful way to live your life.

[@midoriya-shonen]

One day several years ago I mentioned to my mom that someone had reminded me of that duck song from youtube years ago. Her face instantly went slack with horror. Apparently I was obsessed with that thing as a kid and completely forgot about it. She would have to listen to it on repeat as I watched it on the family computer, which was in the kitchen. I cannot imagine her pain.

[@maximilian6829]

Apologize to her

[@SeraidenAF]

As a parent with a 9 and a 7 year old... I've been through that phase twice already. *soblaugh* I'm never having more. xD

[@themagicalllama8514]

That was my little sister with "what does the fox say" and " What is love". I can't even listen to "What is love" any more.

[@18Hongo]

Oh, it's YOU. YOU'RE the antichrist.

[@Ziffelzoovop]

I was half expecting her to say "don't forget to rate and comment!" at the end of the video as a call back to the 5 star rating system KZbin had. Fantastic video though! I remember all of those quite vividly

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

srsly tho what was wrong with the star system? much more granular than like/dislike and all the SHIT videos could be downvoted to hell

[@ReptilianTeaDrinker]

@@transsexual_computer_faery Agreed. The star system was better.

[@universal_stupidity]

@@transsexual_computer_faery it didn't promote controversial videos enough, now dislikes do nothing but help the video in the algorithm, so obviously KZbin doesn't care if a video is good or not, just if it's clickable

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

@@universal_stupidity yeah... =(

[@maddiej135]

The ones I remember are like 'Can't pet every cat' and 'nyan cat' or 'how animals eat their food'. I actually don't know how "viral" these videos were, but it seemed like everyone I knew were constantly talking and referencing them.

[@stellasdoesstuff]

Omg yess

[@notshardain]

Nyancat was def viral and also iirc sold as an NFT (booo). I remember the games I had on my ipod touch and would play back in highschool lol.

[@YoursTrulySonikku]

@@notshardain Wait nyan cat sold as an nft??? Shit bro noooo 😭

[@semogecarg]

i completely forgot about "how animals eat their food" omg and i just went back and watched it and honestly i still laughed a lot it's pretty funny in a lolrandom simpler time way

[@loresmith4470]

How animals eat their food, oh my god. My fifth grade teacher showed that to us in class lmfao

[@GeteMachine]

Being attacked as "bad representation" always bothered me, because it comes off more like people are mad that bigoted people who already don't like them, won't like them because of cherrypicked examples of others used as some sort of justification or comparison to what bigoted people tolerate less. It only really soynds like a mentality from those wanting to be accepted by bigoted as "not as gay" or "not as stereotypical" never actually leads to acceptance. It only leads to people harboring hatred of others they think embarass them to the views of bigoted people/society.

[@sarahbearbabygirl]

this is very true. I find that the majority of people who harass other queers for “bad representation“ are cis and/or white, because they already possess a certain level of social capital from those privileges, and therefore have a stake in holding onto those parts of their privilege. POC do not get to pick and choose when they are discriminated against for their race, and trans ppl don’t either if they do not “pass” to cis people’s liking - but other aspects of queerness can be tailored to present as more amenable to the public or to any social situation one enters into and assesses. so even if they are not ashamed of being queer, cis and white queers often want to use that flexibility in perception to their advantage, in such a way that they don’t put off the people in the areas in which they still hold privilege. it’s why the sweater-wearing beautiful rich white male couple had been largely accepted into society decades before any queers who don’t fit that perfectly sanitized picture. and i can’t blame people for not wanting to be discriminated against and using whatever social capital they have to their advantage in their personal life - whatever gets you through it my man. but achieving that by harassing other queers who do not fit their acceptable version of queerness, or putting down presentations of queerness they fear to be less presentable, is truly despicable to do. it’s choosing self-preservation over empathy and justice. it’s protecting oneself while actively harming the community they claim to proudly be a member of, redirecting the hatred towards a subsection of the community rather than fighting the discrimination head-on. it’s the difficult choice between what is right and what is easy.

[@budgetcommander4849]

Remember, thinking marginalised groups have to be held to higher standards than dominant groups to stop bigotry is bigotry.

[@aeddiefarmer]

Yeah, I think basically every marginalised community has a version of this. The other reply on this saying its only the most privileged members of a group who do this feels kind of comfy and true, but in practice I suspect it's also perpetuated by anyone accepted in the community. People who have a tiny bit of social capital in an in-group will happily shit on those below them in the hierarchy, and blaming it all on rich cis white people feels way too easy.

[@LavenderLinguist]

The degree to which I found 'Shoes' hilarious and delightful when it came out was - in retrospect - another giant flashing neon 'gay' sign that I should have noticed much faster than I did

[@PhoenixRoseYT]

That truly explains everything in my life damn

[@brigade7678]

1000% true, I didn't ever connect it to just how much I adored it

[@symfo]

the emotional whiplash i went through from 'awww, the charlie bit my finger family did a little feature on the video's 10 year anniversary' to 'the video was sold as an NFT and removed from youtube' was. staggering to say the least

[@scarletrose2880]

I wonder if the viral nature of the "leave Brittany alone" video meant that Brittany herself might have seen it and got something positive from it. And let's be real a lot of the bullying that came for Cara probably had something to do with her being gnc.

[@danigirii]

sorry but what is gnc?

[@citylights903]

@@danigirii gender nonconforming

[@danigirii]

@@citylights903 thanks~!

[@citylights903]

@@danigirii No problem!

[@merrittanimation7721]

The gnc part was certainly how I was first lead to interpret it (not my best moment)

[@bobjeezorham7658]

I remember relistening to Chocolate Rain two years ago or so and was surprised by the obvious messages I completely missed as a kid. Also realized it was a genuinely good song.

[@rfrolicarts]

I remember when it was a fun activity to go over to someone else's house and literally just watch KZbin for hours on end. You showed most of the viral hits I remember seeing at that time. There was also a time where it seemed that just a few professional music videos had been uploaded, and the ones I remember most was Lip Gloss and Milkshake.

[@jillsarah7356]

Truly simpler times lol. I was starting college around this time so we just hung out in each other's dorms doing this. Wholesome

[@5musictomyears5]

Watching Weird Al Yankovic, Backstreet Boys and Shakira music videos on KZbin with friends. Those were the days.

[@kyndramb7050]

My husband still does this to our guests. Lol. They're good sports.

[@ivytaylor1494]

Lip Gloss omg!!

[@rosiejl2798]

Yup I couldn't watch youtube at my house (we had 1gb of data a month) so I would watch all these classics at other friends places especially sleepovers.

[@RevalisPyross]

Oh man, I was in my mid-late teens during this era and this was a real blast from the past. Off the top of my head I can also remember: - The Numa Numa Guy - Creepy Girlfriend's Justin Bieber parody - Star Wars Kid (Both the original and edited version) - He-Man's version of 'What's Going On' - They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard - Salad Fingers And the Trollololol song was EVERYWHERE

[@padfootprophet]

I still think about the He-man video every time I hear What's Going On

[@llwellynn]

wavywebsurf actually made a video about the "What's going on" song and it's quite interesting, if you want something to watch. o wo

[@WorldofFood]

This video could have been 2 hours long, there's so much to cover lol

[@annamelvina216]

The KZbin rewind videos of the time should showcase a lot of the viral videos of the time.

[@RisingSunfish]

Taking the Hobbits to Isengard is a classic and a banger, but PO-TAY-TOES is probably the more impactful entry in the weirdly-specific subgenre of Lord of the Rings techno remix memes.

[@Jykinturah]

Honestly I might Hate NFTs With An Incandescent Burning Rage but I fully support Cara getting that bag and wish her a pleasant life.

[@eazy8579]

Eh, she made money of a bunch of losers and used it for a great cause; nothing wrong with that in my mind?

[@jasperjazzie]

@@eazy8579 my only issue is the environmental aspect of nfts but honestly at this point there's worse things out there

[@thequeenofcringe1585]

There is only one case in which I endorse someone selling an NFT and it is this one

[@jtlovescodelyoko]

@@thequeenofcringe1585 same here

[@emilyfallaw5912]

The environmental impact is truly horrific and outweighs any good in the situation. Do some research.

[@caodesignworks2407]

It might have come a slight bit later, but Tight Pants/ Body Rolls by Leslie Hall needs to be on here. What a real phenom that was. Also, I saw it performed live and it was amazing. She deserves every drop of fame

[@madelinecampbell3603]

Omg we use that song for workouts in marching band and it’s kinda everything

[@beansandboarsontherun5762]

Oh my god I have thought about that fucking video on and off over the years but could never, Ever remember the name of it. It haunted me. I couldn't even remember the actual lyrics so I couldn't just look it up. Thank you so much for allowing me to experience it once more.

[@imaginarygrace-mov]

MY DAD PLAYS THIS SONG ALL THE TIME ITS ICONIC I LOVE IT SO MUCH

[@spacejasontodd]

Bless your fucking soul, gotta put this one back on again

[@anothermiddleschoolburnout8816]

My Mom and I frequently reference this song and it always puts a smile on our faces.

[@aquadrizzt]

Shoes is an excellent litmus test of someone's familiarity with early 00s internet culture.

[@bonesfindsmoss]

It's as old as me

[@wohdinhel]

i have never met a person aged 25-35 who is not viscerally familiar with it

[@ally939]

I still remember someone making a Club Penguin music video of that song filmed with unregistered hypercam 2 Ahhhh, those were the days

[@Tareltonlives]

I don't actually remember it myself.

[@sklerpo]

i think i was just too young for it, im 20 now so i would’ve only been 4 when it came out

[@eileensnow6153]

I feel so bad for Cara Cunningham. She called us all out as a society and we really just ruined her life. I hope younger people somehow find the “LBA” video and at least give her some internet clout. She deserves it. Cara, if you’re reading this, I’ll buy LBA merch!

[@hollandscottthomas]

Sounds incredibly accurate for 2000s internet culture, tbh. "Oh, you want to express sincere emotion? Can't have that!"

[@PunkZombie1300]

Honestly I've never seen the original video (just occasional clips of it popping up), and I always thought it was a parody/joke video. Really sucks that she got so much hate from it, super undeserved, but at least she managed to get some money out of it in the end. Doesn't make up for everything but it's better than nothing.

[@eileensnow6153]

@@PunkZombie1300 yeah at least she can make a bag

[@GeoNeilUK]

@@hollandscottthomas "Sounds incredibly accurate for 2000s internet culture, tbh. "Oh, you want to express sincere emotion? Can't have that!"" The 2000s did immediately follow the perma-ironic 1990s so there was a hangover from that. Also, the internet was seen as entirely separate to real life back then. Just log off, sadsack! But even IRL culture was different, these were the days of Jeremy Kyle, Steve Wilkos, Jerry Springer, Maury, Geraldo, Vanessa, Trisha... this led to a more and more judgmental culture that kind of changed with the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 when people discovered that _anyone_ could end up a guest on the Jeremy Kyle Show. People they _knew_ and _loved_ were now long term unemployed through no fault of their own, people who had "done nothing wrong". Then came GamerGate, Trump, BLM, COVID and the Cost of Living Crisis and we've sort of realised than none of us are above or better than anyone else. It was a very different time back then.

[@crenfick7750]

Fortunately she got very validated recently with Free Britney

[@Revha2]

Hyped for this one Strange. I suffered from being exposed too early to the internet. Brainrot is real

[@GamesFromSpace]

Exposed like goatee.

[@flawlix]

I remember feeling like poor David after anesthesia. Like, I was trying to explain that I knew I was drugged and that’s why I felt funny and was being a little weird, but I could still understand what was happening. And I remember getting increasingly frustrated by my inability to communicate properly and the way they were giggling at me.

[@gogreen2496]

Awww I'm sad you didn't mention Actual Cannibal Shia Lebouf. I watched to original animated version in HS and was ecstatic to see the live version years later. A level of payoff most people sadly did not get.

[@mimigigihere]

that one was more 2010s, the guy who made it, rob cantor, was also in a band called tally hall (who made their own old school meme videos as well as some truly incredible music) and now he works for disney making the music for the show “the ghost and molly mcgee”

[@cactoyote]

@@mimigigihere IM SORRY WHAT. I HAVE JUST MADE THIS CONNECTION BETWEEN ACTUAL CANNIBAL AND TALLY HALL, AND YOU FUTHER IT WITH THE GHOST OF MOLLY MCGEE? JESUS CHRIST. it's my own lemon demon moment.

[@jessicacreed7773]

My friends and I regularly reference that song in the year of our lord 2022. "But your leg, ah, it's caught in a bear trap!" and "But wait, he isn't dead- Shia surprise!" never fails to make everyone laugh lmao

[@mimigigihere]

@@cactoyote yep, that all happened … also zubin was in actual cannibal shia laboeuf. and apparently joe hawley and lemon demon could have collaborated but joe pissed off neil

[@magicrainbowkitties1023]

My first DnD campaign our DM set up an encounter where we recreated the events of Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf without any of his players (save my little brother) knowing what it was. It was hilarious

[@steakjones]

when I was younger, my sister went to a potter puppet pals event at the mall of america. she brought me back a snape puppet picture signed by neil that said “sam. you are cool.” and then his signature. I LOVED it and put it up on my walls. a few years later, I wasn’t really into PPP anymore, and took it down off my wall. and, not realizing the treasure I had, I think I may have thrown it away. I’m genuinely devastated by this like. I had fucking NEIL CICIEREGA’S SIGNATURE. and, at BEST, it’s lost in the ether of storage, most likely ripped and crumpled. and is more likely gone for good. even though I fucking despise jk rowling and harry potter now, GOD.

[@catlovingnerd21]

i absolutely hate jk rowling but i still like harry potter and can't bring myself to hate it just because its creator is a bigot 😭i won't buy any harry potter stuff though (at least not that is produced by the actual franchise)

[@eonilem8428]

@@catlovingnerd21 pretty much everything is connected to her unfortunately, the only ethical HP thing I have is a stolen Thermos cup.

[@Sl1mch1ckens]

@@eonilem8428 my dark mark tattoo is ethical technically. And atleast now we know jk is a bellend having voldemort be my fave seems smart now if jk is anti trans any villian she writes is probably pro trans.

[@RealLukeWilson]

In December 2016, there was a Yule Ball tour stop right down the street from my apartment and I think it was one of the first live shows PPP had done in a while and I am KICKING MYSELF that I didn’t go

[@nokeksgiven]

What's wrong with ol' J.K.?

[@ItalianPokeMage]

On The Mysterious Ticking Noise, I have a fond memory of performing it in my theater class during an exercise in making a bigger scene with smaller sounds. None of us planned to collaborate beforehand. I just went up on stage repeating, "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape," hoping that others would catch on, and it worked!

[@samstalgia]

Dude, that video has 199 MILLION VIEWS NOW

[@k3rog4rdens]

i rember when I found out that Neil cicierega made it after i became a lemon demon fan a few years after watching the video lmao

[@ItalianPokeMage]

​@@k3rog4rdens The lemon demon rabbit hole is an experience. You just keep going, "That was him too?!?!" Like the unused gravity falls intros and "It's gonna get weird" were him!!!

[@els1f]

"The passage of time disgusts me" 100% Edit: Aww, the "leave Brittany alone" ending was sweet ♥️ helping her grandma and helping pay for transitioning. At least something good came out of that🥺

[@mc.gemstone]

Not gonna lie, I kinda miss this era of KZbin but I also forgot that we don't get viral videos anymore. Everything goes viral now with how big the internet has gotten over the last 10 to 15 years. Also, I just realise a lot of viral videos happen in 2007 which like dang a lot of stuff happened in that year alone.

[@allisonb8912]

I feel like the last time there was something like this was Vine. Tiktoks can be funny and spawn memes, but there was something about vine (and subsequent vine compilations on youtube) that had almost the same power as early youtube viral videos.

[@mc.gemstone]

@@allisonb8912 Same Vine did have that sorta simillar feel to old viral videos of the old internet era. I feel like at times TikTok can sorta be like that and maybe give it 10 or 15 years the people that grew up with TikTok will feel the same way with some of the videos on there. Though its not fully the same as old KZbin but who knows only time will tell of what will happen next.

[@NIHIL_EGO]

2007/2008 was when the Internet truly started to spread in everyone's home, notably through smartphones, so it's not surprising.

[@mc.gemstone]

@@NIHIL_EGO Oh yeah that makes sense forgot the first iPhone came out that year.

[@animeloveer97]

its not viral nowadays its pushed content

[@zab416]

Poor Cara. She was so right. Britney is my age and it's just pretty horrifying to think of her with that conservatorship all those years when I was having sometimes wild but still pretty normal 25-40 year old lady things, but I like, had free will. It's really screwed up. The 00s were so oof, like I have fond memories and viral videos were fun in some ways, but the humor... if anyone has an Xennial parent or boss or anybody in your life, you might be able to say "I know what kind of jokes you made in '05" and just win any argument because they will so ashamed haha.

[@ma.2089]

Shit like that kinda feels like child slavery. Parents throw your child into the limelight, train them throughout the years to become really good at their job, let them take the brunt of negative attention they’ll receive in the industry & audiences, don’t help them emotionally or mentally or help them stay grounded as a regular person. The adult relies on the kid for money and lives it up while the child deals with the financial pressure from a young age, and the “responsibilities” for who uses the money and what for falls to the “adult”. and when they go “crazy” you receive justification to take all their earnings for years. The person who lost their mind due to pressure and no childhood, will never get to see their earnings cuz it belongs to their parents.

[@jacksyoutubechannel4045]

I think the humor actually said a lot of positive things about where we were as a society. I think very few people who made jokes based on someone's age, race, sexuality, gender, etc. were _actually_ doing so because they didn't like a particular group (I know I didn't). And I don't think most people who were a part of those groups and heard the jokes were offended by them (I know I wasn't). In general, I think our wide ability to joke and the minimal criticism it got at the time is reflective of how we felt about one another--like our race or gender didn't matter, and we were just friends making jokes. Empirically, we can actually see that, for example, race relations in America were at their peak at the same time so many jokes that would lose you your job today were commonplace. It's just a lot easier to joke about potentially sensitive things when both sides know there's no malice behind it, and that's something we knew at the time. (It's not like anyone in the 00's thought it was okay for actual racists or sexists to make those kind of jokes.)

[@katzea.a7880]

@@jacksyoutubechannel4045 You look at Cara's video and the response it got and tell me "we we're just friends making jokes"

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

@@jacksyoutubechannel4045 we get it, you're racist. Calm down.

[@MajaBiana]

@@jacksyoutubechannel4045 That wasn't my experience at all. People were genuinely hurt and offended, but it was even less accepted than today to say that out loud and be heard etc. Which is why I and many others didn't make those jokes 🤷‍♀️

[@allisonb8912]

As someone born in 1991, and therefore a 7th grader when youtube started, I think my age group (I would say people born 89-93) was uniquely in the perfect situation for these videos to entirely shape our personalities. Nearly every one of these videos is still present in my consciousness 24/7. I cannot say "mushroom" without conjuring the badger song. I say "shun the non-believers" unironically, and hate myself. I would watch these videos once a day for at least 3 years. My brain is irreparably warped by these references, and I simply will never be normal.

[@MAndSquared]

It’s strange how I’m a decade younger than you (I was born 2001), and yet what you wrote doesn’t seem entirely dissimilar to me. While the mention of badger, mushroom, or snake doesn’t necessarily bring the song to mind, any mention of two of either word at the same time or the word badger being said twice will bring the song to mind. And while I don’t unironically say “shun the non-believers” there are still times that my siblings and I will quote it together

[@jayelkay1]

Also 31. My feelings exactly. At least the internet was a little more pleasant those days.

[@Treeeboy]

Same buddy, same.

[@mothturtle7897]

Before KZbin, I remember trawling websites like AlbinoBlacksheep. Stuff like the End of the World, L33t Romeo and Juliet, Schfifty Five, Peanut Butter Jelly Time... It was a simpler time.

[@Venya9]

Another -91 here and this is exactly my thoughts. My brother and I still sing and dance the badger song randomly every now and then. These videos and especially the flash stuff I used to watch on Newgournds are a part of my soul and personality.

[@ralphisxamida8533]

I love "the myterious ticking noise" and " the duck song". What I remember: "why is the rum gone?", "there taking the hobbits to isengard", the" trolololo" Video (with saruman), the "saxguy", "nyancat", the one with patrick answering the phone (no I'm patrick), " I can swing my sword" and other songs from tobuscous, "diggy diggy hole" and a lot of 10 hour videos. That was s really creative youtube. Like everywhere greedy people (like youtube management) destroyes that.

[@Milkikomori]

David After Dentist made me so terrified of getting my wisdom teeth out because I didn’t want my family to take the opportunity to record and humiliate me - which they would. I refused to be put under for the surgery for that reason and… it honestly wasn’t that bad. But I still have a fear of being humiliated after surgery to this day.

[@fionamclary7631]

This!! I never saw the exact video and I know my family wouldn't record me on anesthesia (so sorry yours would), but this kind of video is also why I was so nervous about getting my wisdom teeth out. So many people had recorded their family members' and friends' scary disorienting drugged up moments and, removed from all context, made me terrified of losing control of my mind/body. That (and the fact that I have a relative who had a weird reaction to NO2) is why I opted not to go under.

[@dyvfsdgdrgkhgderx9282]

@@fionamclary7631 I got put under for my wisdom teeth and I woke up and didn’t act silly at all, I remember waking up really vividly and just feeling tired. Nothing was funny, I didn’t say anything stupid, it just hurt.

[@conceptualfoxsky]

I remember being really paranoid that I would get filmed by my parents after I got my wisdom teeth removed in high school, only to immediately pass the fuck out the second I got into the car. I, did not know that the child was on ketamine.

[@nunomaltez804]

ok , lol & lmfao imho! btw omg xD had special k minutes ago....pardon my french..

[@necrodeus6811]

I was terrified that I'd out myself as gay somehow, since it seemed like you'd just blurt out whatever was on your mind. It's obvious now that you still have self control on painkillers hahaha. At the time I didn't know

[@gleaminglotus]

I'm genuinely surprised the "Numa Numa" video didn't make it on here! I remember seeing that one as a teen before I ever saw Shoes or Charlie the Unicorn. That video is from like, 2001, and it was super popular. (for context it's a video of a guy enthusiastically lipsyncing to Romanian pop song Dragostea Din Tei)

[@CestLaVieAZ]

Oh yeah I remember watching that on newgrounds in like 2004 when I was around 9 yrs old. Such a classic.

[@Howdyasdo]

Or the nyanza cat! That was like the first viral video I saw

[@EphemeralTao]

That and the original Llama Song. Classics.

[@danthadragnman99]

I used to know every word in both languages lmao

[@ruedelta]

It's because she's too young to remember albinoblacksheep, which is where the truly ancient memes kicked off. Think Milk and Cereal, Mashed Taters, End of Ze World, Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. Anything before that and I think it was just too big to transfer over dialup.

[@ranchustars3050]

i never found the song chocolate rain itself funny because i easily found out its meaning, the only funny thing is the text saying he moves his head away so he can breathe without having it in his song lol

[@liliumastrale]

agreed, I never understood why everyone though it was hilarious (other than the head moving away from the mic part)

[@guineverehaas2427]

This was the mid 2000's when most white Americans were still under the idea that racism had mostly been "solved," even though obviously it had not been (plus children generally don't understand racism so that's a big chunk of the audience). If you're able to ignore the actual content of the song it's functionally competent if not a little repetitive and that's about it, which also describes just the video itself coincidentally. So yeah besides the big obvious part about institutionalized racism the only other thing that sticks out is the breathing away from the mic. Chocolate Rain just barely flew under the critical radar because of a lot of different converging factors. Most people who saw it on KZbin, at the time largely kids and people upper middle class enough to have a home PC (since this was largely before smartphones), just didn't really think about what the song was really saying. But because of what the song was saying people and organizations outside the internet (e.g. news stations) were hesitant to talk about it. If this song had come out a decade later and still somehow been at relatively large on the internet (which would be very unlikely in this age of the internet) then people probably wouldn't find the video all that funny. Hopefully it would've been taken more seriously in that version of reality, but it would've been so much more politicized in the eyes of viewers I can only imagine what kind of fights it would've started. *edit: please read through mine, MC's and Asparageese's discussion from here as well as there is a lot to learn from it :)

[@Lucinoxe_Halliday]

@@liliumastrale they literally just went “haha Chocolate Rain so silly and random XD” and didn’t pay attention to any other part of the song

[@WeeWeeWermWangStalker]

@@guineverehaas2427 as a black person, I'd like you to stop whitesplaining smile

[@guineverehaas2427]

@@WeeWeeWermWangStalker I am sorry, it's an incredibly complex issue and I tried my best to not leave too much out but that's obviously impossible in a few paragraphs on KZbin. If you could let me know what I've gotten wrong I'll edit my comment to be as correct as I can. A good amount of my comment was based off impressions from when I was a sheltered kid, and it's difficult for me to properly convey living in the mid 2000s for anyone other than a sheltered white kid, much less a person of color. I want to learn more so please explain as much as you feel you need to, if that means I'm wrong about most or even all of what I said then that's how it is.

[@rawesome3773]

I still say Tay Zinday is brilliant and was so ahead of his time. When I was younger I just thought chocolate rain was a silly song, but as I got older, more aware of the injustices of the world, and learned what it was actually about my mind was blown

[@alexanderscott6959]

Man I love this, hoping for a part 2 including: salad fingers, llamas with hats, don’t hug me I’m scared, asdf movie, and the gummy bear song. I think I’m maybe skewed towards a newer set of “viral” videos, but it was crazy to revisit them

[@catarcela1997]

omg the gummy bear song, I HATED IT. thanks for the reminder tho

[@seedh1674]

Yes please! It's worth mentioning salad fingers is being continued and several episodes came out this year.

[@FeralFelineFriend]

Banana phone....

[@librasuperstar3779]

Personally I'm genuinely surprised Nyan Cat wasn't mentioned. When Teya said there was another example of a viral video being sold as an NFT my immediate thought was Nyan Cat

[@forest_green]

A few days ago I was out at a fast food place and a bunch of guys rocked up to the counter playing the Crazy Frog song out loud.

[@xanderguyer7512]

Literally so glad you brought up the message of Chocolate Rain. The song itself is so often neglected. Genuinely a good song with a somber message.

[@RisingSunfish]

Did he (or anyone else) ever try and remake/remaster it? Seems like it would have a much better chance of going over as intended in recent years.

[@Lenape_Lady]

I’m happy for those of you who weren’t old enough to remember or witness what The Media did to Brittney. It was HORRIFIC. Absolutely horrific. That’s why so many older women were SO passionate about the Free Britney cause, we saw what they did to her.

[@astridarideout1864]

yeah- i remember watching it as it happened, and while i had zero interest in her music i was kinda cheering her on during that drama- "you go girl! shave your head and tell them all to fuck off"

[@johnr797]

At the time we had NO wider context. Shaving her head for no reason doesn't exactly seem like something a mentally stable pop star would do. The media were predatory, but it's not hard to understand why so many of us thought she was just losing her mind.

[@greendayrox489]

As an ER nurse, I’m here to say that ketamine is the “new” it drug for conscious sedation procedures and non emergent intubations. It’s fun when young patients find out we’re using ketamine and ask to be put in the k hole. If you weren’t “David after dentist” when you had your oral surgery it’s probably because they used propofol (yes the Michael Jackson drug - yes everyone asks that)

[@LARVAMOLT]

interesting thank you!!

[@guytrashgurtdog]

I’ve done ketamine recreationally and I really do not understand why people WANT to be in a k hole, it’s not fun 💀 in small doses it’s fun and silly but k holes are scary as fuck

[@Baphomets_Kid]

@@guytrashgurtdogIt depends on your personality. Some people like the k hole.

[@jnnx]

It’s not a “new” drug. The Chemical Brothers released “Dig Your Own Hole” in 1997 (And yes, it’s a K-Hole reference). Also, Ketamine is EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE.

[@DeathlessOrchid]

@@jnnx They didn't say it was new, they said it was the "new" "it" drug for the purpose they mentioned. The quotation marks around "new" should denote that they know ket isn't new.

[@swoosh3217]

Every clip was a consecutive punch to the gut, and I am grateful that the audio for What Does The Fox Say wasn't included, even if only because the timeline didn't reach that far The guy who did the Duck Song made lots of other songs too, just little goofy songs for kids, my friend in 4th grade showed them to me and I used to be bummed that they didn't get popular even though they were way shorter and less annoying than the Duck Song

[@baileywatts1304]

It's weird. I've heard people talking about What Does the Fox Say but never heard the song until recently. At the time the songs tearing up my discord channels wer The Government Knows and Bank Account (both still bangers)

[@elizabethsmith3374]

I was 11 when all the Britney Spears drama happened and I didn't understand it at all. I was like why is this woman being photographed having a meltdown. As an adult who's been through so much at the hands of a family member for 4 years I look up to Britney Spears for how strong she is

[@theoddbox]

When I got my wisdom teeth removed everyone was telling me how funny I was gonna be but instead I couldn't open my eyes without getting dizzy, was vomiting and really pissed off for some reason. Viral videos lied to me

[@AP-uc7oz]

When I got my teeth out the FIRST thing I did when I woke up was ask my nurse if she had seen Supernatural. I did not shut up about it for the entire 10 minutes it took for me to fully wake up and go out to my husbands car lol. I then was just irritable because I was hungry lik

[@thepinkestpigglet7529]

I had two of mine out and they literally just gave me numbing stuff. I went to work like an hour later.

[@theoddbox]

@@thepinkestpigglet7529 must've been nice :[ I was in bed in and out of consciousness throwing up for like four hours

[@ravenofroses]

yeah, it was dizziness and serious agitation for me. i was really mad that i couldn't make my body move the way i wanted it to, and i texted my friends half-coherent messages about it. my mother said i freaked the nurses out because i initially dropped my cell phone walking out of the room, but they didn't know i had a second prepaid one i was using up the minutes on. so they just see this angry teenager curled up on a bed texting with a phone they didn't recognize and probably thought i stole from somebody.

[@emo6577]

I got a bit too much laughing gas during the removal and saw some crazy stuff, but afterwards I was pretty normal but just very emotional/sensitive

[@LinRuiEn]

I remember I hated the leave Britney alone video because I was like 12 at the time and I was a fan of Britney since I was a kid (and also a very prone to crying and being visibly upset) and when that video came out my family constantly laughed at me and mocked the video at me because I felt the same way and even at 12 could tell that Britney really needed to be left alone and stop being hounded. And everyone who treated me and that video like a joke back then were so #freebritney when that became big. I can only hope it was personal growth that made them change and not bandwagon-ing.

[@accordingtosophia]

Went back to revisit the comments section of "Chocolate Rain" after 2020, expecting the newer comments to have a lot of stuff like, "ohhh, I get it now," "this is still really relevant after George Floyd/the BLM movement," etc. There were a lot of new comments, but they were still mainly about how it was a "quirky," "nostalgic" 2000s viral song, with only a relative few about the meaning of the lyrics. One thing that sort of stands out in my mind is how one commenter made up a series of new lyrics specifically about summer 2020 and the BLM movement, and all the replies were like, "it's just an internet song, don't get too deep into it," "cringe," etc. That really surprised me, because I thought a ton of people would have been more aware of it by now.

[@SpoonyBard88]

Idiots don't tend to have good media analysis skills, and idiots tend to be more conservative-leaning, so...

[@paleposter]

It’s funny to revisit things like that bc on one hand there’s “whoa shit was more meaningful than I realized while also still being a banger” aspect but there’s also the “damn shit hasn’t changed” aspect

[@medicineman152]

The meaning was lost on most when it came out, too.

[@Kagomai15]

The comments under Neil Cicierega's rework of this song "Like Tears in Chocolate Rain" are pretty nice at least!

[@thekalenichannel1812]

The lyrics are literally so blatant

[@MadameCirce]

I would like to file a complaint with the manager that Liam Lynch's "Drinking Out of Cups" and the He-Man version of "What's Up" were not on this list as those are two of my personal faves. But at least Kelly was there. Icon!

[@BigHeadDeadass]

Think he's freaking Charlie Noble

[@alitaniak7404]

Kelly and He-Man regularly get unironically quoted in my house to this day

[@MadameCirce]

@@alitaniak7404 Same. I'm gonna be on my deathbed as an old lady and still be muttering them to myself and giggling.

[@MolecularMachine]

I never understood "drinking out of cups."

[@popsensationwhitneywhitney188]

the numa numa erasure as well :/

[@saturnings]

the amount of nostalgia I get from just seeing potter puppet pals on the thumbnail is insane

[@dorian8470]

The weirdest experience is my 5th grade students referencing these videos and then trying to explain them to me, as if they weren't an integral part of my formative years. Thanks for this trip, I didn't realize it's been this long and I'm still saying shoes like Kelly does.

[@faolanj66]

The way you handled the maker of Leave Britney Alone changing her name is *the best* I've seen of any time a trans person has come out after getting internet famous~!

[@fairesmashysmash]

In 2007 I was a young adult working at a gay and lesbian bookstore and I remember the staff talking about Leave Britney Alone, most of us saying that we thought Cara was right. So even at the time there were definitely people who “got” what she was saying and agreed, though that obviously doesn’t negate all the harassment and ab*se levelled at her. It’s really awful that she was scapegoated and punished so harshly for saying what a lot of people were thinking to begin with, but weren’t outspoken about when tormenting Britney Spears was such a popular pastime for tabloid media and it’s consumers. With the Free Britney movement in recent years, I’ve often thought about how the public at large was often complicit in the ab*se of both Britney Spears and Cara Cunningham, and how Cara was publicly ab*sed specifically for speaking out in defence of a woman who … was being publicly ab*sed. It’s honestly a little terrifying to look back on! I think NFTs are kind of the worst but in this case I’m just glad she finally got some material good out of the video and was able to reclaim some power over it.

[@KevinAlibert]

I wasn't speaking english at the time this video was released so I never understood the appeal. however you got me curious on one thing. you worked in a gay and lesbian bookstore? how does that work? is it just a safe place for homosexual to read books and socialise? was it books that specifically cattered to the LGBT community? that sound like a great idea and very progressive for the time

[@fairesmashysmash]

@@KevinAlibert a gay a lesbian bookstore is basically what it says on the tin! The store where I worked was located in the “gay village” part of the city, we carried books by and for LGBT+ people on a variety of subjects (from Oscar Wilde to Alison Bechdel) and also had an “adults only” section in the back for videos and accessories of a more NSFW nature (which became kind of a popular spot for cruising lmao). Everyone who worked there was some flavour of LGBT, and we’d frequently partner with nearby gay bars for local events like trivia nights and etc to raise funds for local LGBT organizations/causes. It was just a really safe space for LGBT+ people - occasional bomb threats from homophobes aside. In Canada there used to be a small handful of bookstores like this throughout the country, mostly in big cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Sadly many of them have closed even since I worked at one, though the one where I worked is still around (and very much a part of LGBT history in Canada). For many years they were at the centre of a thorny anti-censorship case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada… but that’s another story lol

[@kayd9405]

Craig Ferguson talked about how it was wrong to laugh at her on his show

[@kodirawr]

I was 14 and I remember being inspired by Cara. Sure, most of her videos were troll-y and over the top, but the self-assured, relentless attitude really had an impact on me at the time. I came out to my friends that year. I embraced my effeminate side. I found my own sense of identity and exaggerated it. I sometimes miss those angsty years, even though it was such a dark time for me.

[@englishwithkristin8962]

I remember the first time someone showed me the leave Britney alone, and they were confused about why I didn't laugh... and I was confused about why everyone thought the video was funny...

[@forest_green]

Thank you for not deadnaming Cara Cunningham and sticking up for her and Tay Zonday. People were awful about them and they were always 100% right.

[@Blame_Uranus_Astrological_Club]

Oh my God thank you for just clarifying that. I get it now I’m sorry for being an old gay with the time delay on some of my responses part is because I had a stroke last year but he totally glitched on who made the Brittany video because I thought….. When I read Ciara’s name didn’t sound familiar and also I guess I retroactively miss gendered her? And yet questioning myself in perhaps the person who I thought of in a different pronoun might have indeed transitioned. Thank you for not making me feel so much more like a pain in the ass boomer who isn’t capable of evolving. I just take a couple seconds to catch up. I hope Cara is doing well and I remember that I was really moved at the time to see a kid that was so capable of being compassionate and putting herself in Britney's place but it's so many people blindly reading tabloids and disrespectful of the personal life privacy and mental health....? ALL the people in her life were somehow complicit I believe in her breakdown and after that with conservatorship. It’s really disgusting that she didn’t have any real allies in her family or even A publicist with a conscience. Dr. Phil tried to capitalize on it I remember. I was in school finishing up my annual mandatory weekend of continuing education so I can keep my license as a counselor and there I was in a hotel where the seminars were held Eating some crab food hangover psychologist notes and there’s that scam fraud huckster and a Doctor Who has no Active and valid license to practice in California by the way I’m not sure if his credentials are up-to-date in Texas and I really don’t care with Dr. Phil in the ambulance and poor Britney. She was so young I mean she’s only seven years younger than I am but at that point she was like still almost a kid even though she was a man wife where the hell that her parents are on sister her baby sister try to capitalize on that conservatorship it’s just so sad LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE on indeed.

[@jimdingle4521]

@@Blame_Uranus_Astrological_Club yikes

[@elwiwi4638]

Fr People say "modern internet is so soft" but like we're just normal now, chocolate rain was taken so out of context and misunderstood because not caring was so normalised

[@thequeenofcringe1585]

@@elwiwi4638 we have not gone soft, we have grown up

[@elwiwi4638]

@@thequeenofcringe1585 That's literally what i said

[@julianbell9161]

Leave Britney Alone was one of my favorite as a kid. I don’t remember anything from the vid other than the iconic, generation defining quote. My friends and I would just yell it at recess in like third grade or some shit. I didn’t know she dealt with so much shit over it. I will say, NFTs are awful, but this might be one of the few times NFTs have been positive for someone. Not the guy who bought it, but for the girl who got 40 stacks to fund her transition. I’m glad she got a happy ending out of it.

[@KazmirRunik]

Niel Cicierega and TheWeebl/AlbinoBlackSheep were always geniuses for this type of content, but it's understandable that you only let each of them have one entry here. From "Potter Puppet Pals" to "The Ultimate Showdown," from "Badgers" to "Do You Like Waffles," they both had some real powerhouse energy.

[@animeloveer97]

isnt do you life waffles a parry grip song? /did everyone also forget nyan cat lol

[@mariaah3073]

@@animeloveer97 please don't put nyan cat back into the collective conscience I beg you!!!!

[@dracofirex]

Legendary Frog and Sexual Lobster were up there too!

[@Wraiven22]

Oh my gosh ultimate showdown!!! I like the gay orgy version even more lol

[@Tornado1994]

Bill Watterson.

[@galactic-hamster7043]

As someone who had no real access to youtube or the web until like, 2017, I am a H U G E internet history buff, i love learning abt this stuff from like a behavioral psychology videos Also the passage of time disgusts me too

[@iforgotmynameagain9512]

Why are you me

[@ItsAsparageese]

I just wrote a long comment naming cool internet nostalgia facts from back in the day since I got constantly online in like 1996 and inviting any questions so I can share about anything I remember, and it got autofiltered immediately before I could remember to copy my text from it just in case, and I'm so sad now, and I hope it gets manually restored from some mod queue or something because NAPSTER AND BASH AND I HAVE THINGS TO CONTRIBUTE WAHH. Oh great but THIS one stays despite having a bunch of the same key words and not being informative lol. Sigh. Hopefully by the time anyone sees this the other comment will be restored and my whining will look silly 😝

[@CrowLady0_0]

i was pretty young when i watched Charlie the Unicorn and i honestly dont remember if i enjoyed it or not. i did like llamas with hats a bunch more! once my mom gave me these plushes of a pink and purple unicorn for valentines day (it was just what walmart was selling) and i really liked them but i couldn't bare to sleep with them on my bed because i was so paranoid they would steal my kidneys. i remember thinking it was dumb, but hey untreated anxiety disorders do that sometimes! i felt so guilty about it. i dont know if i still have them or i got rid of them at some point

[@animeloveer97]

i think charlie the unicorn was the first video i watched from youtube (back when most of us didnt have internet in smaller cities) opened a whle new world for me

[@moss_yt]

Since I was a kid when all of those repetitive KZbin songs came out I was immune to finding them annoying. And you better believe I abused that power! I loved (and still love) the Duck Song and Nyan Cat and the Badger song with all my heart. While I’m sad that the old “wild west” of KZbin is gone, I’m glad that the internet is expansive enough for us to make our own ways with it, either thru watching channels we like, or by making our own content, which is easier than ever.

[@emma-di5ly]

I had the same immunity. And I still know all of the lyrics by heart.

[@hibiscuspuddle]

The difference in meme lifespan is so stark. I was born in 2005 but when I started becoming exposed to the internet in the early 2010s, memes such as chocolate rain, Charlie the Unicorn, Badger, etc. were all still popular. Now most memes have a lifespan of what, a week?

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

like 1-4 weeks, usually 1 . the best memes like 2-6 months. tho like, the blåhaj meme has been going for years. as an example.

[@eddiejames4006]

‘Here It Goes Again’ by OK Go was really popular when I was a kid, and definitely viral. As far as I remember it was one of the earliest music videos to be really ‘internet culture’-like and represent the KZbin motto of “broadcast yourself”, without being too weird/internet-y for your parents to understand. It survived on traditional media since it was on TV a lot. Having your video on TV was like getting a seal of approval, so something originating on YT being on TV seemed like a big deal. The video was a perfect blend of unique/easily recognisable and impressive, but also replicable (and if you could replicate/parody it accurately then people would find you impressive too, which gave viewers an incentive to try). You’d ask your friends “did you see that video of the guys on treadmills?” and they’d know exactly what you meant.

[@nutjob51]

Getting in blazed and watching OK GO videos was my favourite university pastime

[@gabiferreira6864]

Ok GO was and is still fantastic!

[@llynxfyre]

I watched soooo much okgo content with my dad. He'd put it up on the tv and my dad, my sister and i would watch it. Amazing music.

[@AnAwkwardBlue]

I remember my mom showing me it as a kid - I loved that song!

[@DeeFig66]

Nah, that came after. Also, you should look up their newer videos from that point on, they just get more and more impressive!

[@lunacanyonrose8436]

Yeah, ketamine is no joke. I was put on some when I broke my arm and lemme tell you that I was straight up tripping that I could perceive in 360 degrees with bug eyes and going on a floating train ride around the doctors trying to reset my arm. I don’t think the like 7 shots of morphine before that helped any considering that I was only in the 5th grade.

[@Daelyah]

I don't know if I should be jealous, or concerned on how you turned out afterwards...

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

man american doctors really love to dope people out of their gourds

[@essneyallen6777]

Was this in the us? That healthcare system is wildly concerning.

[@brigade7678]

@@essneyallen6777 bruh its wild to know every decade of our medicine, even up to now, sounds wildly innapropriate to most other countries of similar medicine capabilities. We seem to just take medicine and throw it like spaghetti to see what will happen. Yet they do it while acting like its all according to plan & totally safe. ((My mind goes to oxycontin in the 90s.... So many heroin addicts that were just kids in the 90s but were given straight up large doses of oxy for like a broken arm or tmj! ))

[@lunacanyonrose8436]

@@essneyallen6777 Yep! The good U.S. of A. The two ambulance rides I took that day cost a small fortune too! I was a kid so my parents didn’t let me know the total amount that everything cost but I can only imagine seeing as we went to three hospitals in the same day.

[@JamesLacroixx]

"The passage of time disgusts me" is exactly how I feel about seeing these 'old' viral videos now. This is my childhood.

[@amyhatch3761]

I rewatched Shoes a few years ago and I can’t believe the production value??? There’s so many people in it! How much effort must have gone into it? I swear no one else had put that much effort into a KZbin video before

[@Shartreuse1312]

“The passage of time disgusts me” is probably the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard and I will be saying it forever henceforth

[@ashd1836]

Today i learned: Strange is only 6 years older than me. Like im only 17, it feels like that number should be higher. I kind of hate that,, im so used to seeing people on the internet and being like “yeah thats an adult, they’re like in a separate world from me” and now people closer to my age are doing shit online and its strange to see

[@AdamGaffney96]

That was me back in the old days, and now I'm the opposite, today I discovered Strange is 3 years younger than me and now I'm grappling with realising that I'm now living in an age where all the KZbinrs are younger than me.

[@NoxiousAffection]

@@AdamGaffney96 same hat 😭

[@kamilee4123]

You’re 17???? Nah that’s not real lol

[@aw7145]

Me and strange are only a year (and change) apart in age and I only learned that recently, I've been watching her for _years_ and I always assumed she was at least a few years older than me, it's always crazy seeing folks around my age doing cool stuff online haha. But it's weirder seeing people around *your* age online, I see 14-17yos on KZbin and other sm apps and I always think "oh my God, these kids are *babies*" even though they aren't that much younger than me 😄 I just remember myself back at that age and am eternally grateful that I never put my face/name online and attached it to my terrible hot takes because teenage me was so cringy and such a moron. I just hope that the younger kids that are super chronically online now don't have a ton of regret when they become an old, jaded 20-something like me haha 🧓

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

everyone under 25 is a baby and should not be on the internet

[@PlatypusGuitar]

In those early days, hunting for viral videos was actually a thing too. Not everyone was on social media yet and so when you found a good funny website, you'd tell all your friends... BY EMAIL. People would email funny videos and images to each other because they didnt have facebook and other social media to share stuff on yet. People slowly and quietly stopped doing that, at about the same time everyone got cell phones and stopped using public pay phones. I feel so old talking about the past like that LOL

[@becauseimafan]

This!!! The first of these I saw was the Badger, and it was *emailed* to me in an attachment! I remember it taking ages to download 😂 and I completely forgot to plug in the computer speakers so I had no idea there was any sound to it until I replayed it for my family 🤣

[@finchbaby]

To the point of Shoes laying the foundation for "early-KZbin" / "early-internet" comedy: I think it's important to note that Shoes was a product of an already-robust style of videos and flash animations from sites like albinoblacksheep, ebaumsworld, 4chan, newgrounds, etc. Yes, Shoes and all other videos mentioned were incredibly influential in the KZbin sphere, specifically, but their global popularity had more to do with the timing of KZbin's 2006-2007 rebrand and efforts to streamline video-sharing as a form of social media. The quirky, gritty, absurdist, nouveau-dada comedy style on KZbin that eventually lead to platforms like Vine and TikTok was born in other facets of the internet well before Shoes was ever created, KZbin was just the most accessible platform at the right time.

[@AmyMarieJackson]

there was a 2005 british tv show called 'nathan barley' that centred around a website pretty similar to the ones that came before the quintessential viral videos. the show was making fun of the whole "guy who makes money off being stupid online" stereotype and tbh it isn't the absolute best, but it's a rlly cool time capsule into this specific era of the internet before youtube

[@BlueGeen]

Fucking loved albinoblacksheep.

[@tahlialysse]

I do think it's really easy for folks who weren't internet aware at that point to miss how robust internet culture already was by the time KZbin rolled out. And I don't just mean robust in like, yeah there were lots of memes, but rather that there were art movements and developed communities interlinked with each other. The numbers of forums existing to facilitate online existence would probably baffle some folks, I think. Sometimes it kinda feels like there's a whole chunk of early internet history that's been completely eroded out of the general consciousness.

[@jennam.1563]

Realizing that Charlie the unicorn is as old as I am makes me feel both extremely old and extremely young at the same time. I don't know how to feel

[@Rood0808]

silence, youth!

[@jalapeno1119]

Hearing someone was born after the conception of KZbin makes ME feel old. Like there's no way you're older than 2.

[@PhoenixRoseYT]

@@jalapeno1119 exactly lmao in my brain no one was born after 9/11

[@kaibagarcon]

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series is actually a very good source for seeing how internet memes / humor has involved since the first episode in 2006, and it's still being made. It was also influential in the creation of other abridged / parody series, and has spawned many memes of its own. (Some of the humor hasn't aged well, and the creator has apology notes before the older episodes.)

[@Blizwolf]

Truly, it's like a little time capsule for that era!

[@animeloveer97]

any of the abridged series were great also those cursed af oneyg cartoons lol leo and satan was great

[@ShoulderMonster]

I had just rewatched the entire series last year, just had a blast!

[@cg6176]

Comedy changes as does the context. Context and comedy go hand in hand. Otherwise people will just get butthurt

[@freddogrosso9835]

Little Kuribo! I only know him from a Drawfee episode.

[@cosmichal9548]

My friends and I tried to make a stage play of Charlie the Unicorn when we were in elementary school, and as much as I cringe at it in retrospect it's a memory I'm honestly fond of.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Me in middle school: What in the world is this "snape, snape" song everyone keeps singing? It's annoying. Me, in college years later: Man this Neil Cicierega guy is great, why's that old snape song in my recommended- WAIT WHO MADE IT???

[@spoonyPrincess]

i remember that my mom showed me "what does the fox say" about six months before it went viral. when it did i felt sort of like a meme hipster. the same thing actually happened with the "narwhals" video, only that one i actually saw approximately 4-5 years before it went viral, because a friend from summer camp told me about it. in fact, before i found the video when looking, i found a national geographic video about narwhals that was actually very informative

[@joshuagriffith746]

I had the same thing with What does the Fox Say and Gangnam Style. My friend Eric is WAY early with things that become viral. He sent both of them to me months before they went crazy online. 😆

[@iain9757]

You’ve really been on a roll with amazing ideas for videos and they have all been super entertaining

[@tarynrila-smith392]

You could say that she's been on a... rickroll! 👉😎👉 I'll see myself out.

[@HipHopAnotomus]

I had the candy mountain perfume in high school. It smelled like sweet tarts but a little bit sweeter. Whenever I would be complimented on my scent or told I smelled like candy, I'd say, "It's candy mountain, chaaaarlie." Ah, the days when cringe was cool.

[@Ill-think-of-something-later]

As a young child I once, no joke, performed (in a group with others) a acapella version of The duck song with my homeschool group at our end of the year presentation... I just..... I think the worst part is one of the adults picked the song, the kids didn't even have any say in it. Forgive me father, I knew not what I had done. Also, my mother was was in charge of making the programs for the whole presentation night, so i Drew the scene with the duck in the lemonade stand on the front and had it scanned and copied... So the entire audience had to keep this horrid piece of art with them forever if they wanted to look back and remember which numbers their child performed in. You can't make this crap up.

[@graciespaceycakes3714]

When I was 10 the popular kids invited me to perform the entirety of Charlie the Unicorn in the end of the year talent show and I got to play the liopleurodon and the singing letter Y from candy mountain. I try to look back on it fondly

[@omnichrome9784]

There was another version of the duck song, where someone cut in some distorted animation of guns shooting (done in a similar style), with added in blood and swearing. The problem was my youngest loved *that* version, which they would play on repeat and then led them to get in trouble for swearing at school at 7 (the f word). It was a parents worst nightmare (both that version and the original, really).

[@clairification7206]

I remember hearing some parts of the duck song as a joke in the 90s, where the duck would keep asking for grapes, to which the guy replies, "If you ask for grapes one more time, I'll nail your feet to the wall." So the next time, the duck asks, "Got a hammer? Got any nails? Got any grapes?"

[@kelzinopolis1904]

I was 22 when "Leave Britney Alone" was everywhere. The previous few years were getting worse and worse in how Britney was treated. I remember being afraid of there being headlines saying that she died. It really was terrible what she has been put through, and Cara was one of the few brave enough to speak out about it.

[@yomilemondragon1721]

I think "Charlie Bit Me" found fame because of Richard & Judy, a UK daytime TV show that was an unmissable staple of your day if you were over the age of 50 (it was afterschool time for me, right when my mum made dinner so I had to sit through it too). They held a 'competition' of sorts to find the funniest clip on the internet and send it in and Charlie Bit Me was inexplicably the winner. The hosts were absolutely howling at how hilarious it was and played it again and again. I've never been so baffled. I can only conclude that it's boomer-funny somehow.

[@hatemteirelbar9510]

But what you don't know is that his real name is Strange Aeons....

[@peskypigeonx]

Let’s keep it alive

[@GUESSCOMMENT]

Omg yessss don't let it die @strange eon should pin this comment

[@blueestarr16]

Though it is relatively easy to find out who is dating Strange Aeons...

[@crunglemcbungley]

I never listened to Chocolate Rain directly until Neil Cic included it in one of his meme albums, and hearing the lyrics I understood pretty quickly that wow, this is a LOT darker than a funny 2000s meme song would normally be

[@123engis]

i have mixed feelings about that song being remixed on mouth sounds, but i do appreciate that its not like. a joke mash-up like the other songs on that album, its just a genuinely pretty rendition

[@MagicalGirlFia]

When I heard the start of The Mysterious Ticking Noise I genuinely just stopped doing what I was doing and paused the video because I haven’t thought about it in YEARS. Performing it with my best friend and her friends in the car on the way to get pizza for her birthday as we failed and laughed is a core memory of mine that I’ve just uncovered I DID NOT KNOW IT WAS MADE BY NEIL CICIEREGA AKA LEMON DEMON.

[@bigbro6446]

I always find the Duck Song extra funny because Forrestfire101 is arguably the most legendary Lego animator on KZbin, like he had two large animation successes one in the mainstream and the other in a niche community.

[@raelogan]

"Shoes" will always have a place in my heart, rent free in my brain and will haunt me on my deathbed.

[@starfirebird3099]

I was very offline as a kid, so I mostly remember being confused about whatever viral video my classmates were singing. I did watch the duck songs and ASDF movies with friends at Thanksgiving

[@merrittanimation7721]

That was my introduction to the internet as well. Though Minecraft as well as as asdf and the duck song

[@awolfe7482]

I was a couple years younger then you when the Brittney things happened. It's sad that her arguments were so logical and largely ignored in favor of making fun of her emotions. Good for her for using the money to finance her grandma and her transition 💅💅