Hampster Dance — A 1990s Internet Classic

The Hampster Dance was one of the first viral phenomena of the early internet. Created in 1998 by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte as a fan page for her pet hamster Hampton, the page featured a row of animated dancing hamster GIFs set to a sped-up sample of "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller. At its peak in 1999, the site was receiving millions of hits per day — extraordinary traffic for the era. It became a defining moment in early internet culture, a time when a single silly webpage could capture the attention of the entire online world. The Hampster Dance is preserved in the Wayback Machine and accessible via the Favorites menu in 'Murica Web inside Doors 98.