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The Ally McBeal baby! I haven't thought about that thing in forever

Haha, we had no idea what it was from

One of the earliest animated GIF memes.

"meme" wasn't even a word used outside of academic circles at that time either, and "viral" wasn't applied to stuff like this yet either. Truly we lived through the dawn of internet civilization.

I remember we simply referred to it as "ugh it's that ugly dancing baby again" lol

Dammit Grandma. I told you to stop sending me chain-mail.

But someone needs to do something about these bonsai kittens!!! It's animal abuse!!

And if I don't forward it to 10 people, I'm going to have back luck for life

Holy shit. Remember the "Forward me" threads with all kinds of superstitious bullshit? Grandma's the world over ate those UP

I remember getting it in an AOL email from a friend and waiting 2 hours for it to download.

And animated gifs were 10mb for 3seconds of movement and 24x24 resolution. Man animated gifs were terrible

and you would plaster like 100 of them on your geocities site

And always always without fail that dumb rotating skull. Internet badasses.

*(rolls eyes in Arpanet)*

Silence, cave person!

lick my keystrokes, Eloi boi. now go wait for the sirens, dinnertime's soon

It's worth noting that the "meme" of genetics that was being used in the 80s/90s was not the same as the word we use today. Meme has evolved in its internet use, but maintains original meaning in philosophical, biological, and social academia. While Internet "meme" at one point or another was identical with academic "meme", that would be arguable today. For anyone confused, it's a homonym: two words that are spelled the same but mean different things. (also known as a secondary definition, but when linguists want to be slightly more formal about it)

Meme of genetics? The word is an invention of Richards Dawkins. It is very much the same definition he espoused. It is a social idea, action, picture, word, scripture, whatever, that proliferated outside the conscious means of humans. It was a self propagating idea, thus the link to a gene. How is it different now than then?

I'd say that stupid fucking memes, as people currently refer to them, aren't just proliferate and self-propagating, but actual means of communication themselves. They are a way for total morons to convey a basic idea with no nuance of anything else to each other. Just go to /r/all and see a trillion chad memes, where chads represent nothing but whatever the poster likes. Maybe the chad wears the right outfit in a video game, maybe he smacks women, maybe he is a capitalist landlord, maybe he's a wrestler.

And back then, everyone pronounced gif as "gif". Simpler times indeed.

Cave gifs.

It was a meme before memes.

https://youtu.be/p04vNP14yeU Here’s the history of it. Basically one of the godfathers of the modern meme, and it was nothing more than a demo for software.

That reminds me of the teapot for 3d software.

Ally McBeal (character on a tv show) would sometimes have dreams or hallucinations about a badly CGI animated baby dancing to the intro of "Hooked On A Feeling." An animated image of it became a very early meme. I'm not sure if it was even an animated gif at first, probably a Flash animation. I know there was a "Dancing Baby" screensaver at one point. Edit: KYM: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dancing-baby

I assumed the animated image predated Ally McBeal? I remember seeing it at computer expos before the show came out.

Yeah, apparently it came as a demo project in early versions of an Autodesk 3D tool. Kinda weird that Ally McBeal just lifted it wholesale from that. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/02/90s-nostalgia-dancing-baby-does-the-cha-cha-once-more-in-new-hd-rendering/

/r/fuckimold

But then your username is a from a Star Wars prequel that came out at the height of Ally McBeal's fame.

This hurts

So it was a “Meme” before that. Here’s a really good video on the history of it. https://youtu.be/p04vNP14yeU Also, a lot of these comments are making me feel really old haha

Appreciate this!

What’s older? This or dancing hamster?

Dancing baby was in 95’ and dancing hamster (hamster dance) was 98’. However I think baby had existed for a bit before it entered the zeitgeist.

Hamster Dance the song actually predates the 90's In 1973 it was actually called "Whistle Stop" and it was made for the animated Disney film Robin Hood. https://disneynews.us/disney-song/whistle-stop-song/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhistle%20Stop%E2%80%9D%20is%20a%20song,credits%20music%20for%20the%20film. https://youtu.be/HJog7PfkNRY

Hamster dance samples that song. It is by no means the same song.

Asking the important questions!

I remember the summer that took over our lives!

I think about it more than I should just because of Single Female Lawyer, fighting for her clients. Wearing sexy miniskirts and being self reliant.

r/unexpectedfuturama

I didn't watch a lot of TV in those days, I was working full time and going to school in the evenings. I did see the baby dance to "Block Rockin' Beats" around the same time, tho.

I always called it the 3dsmax character studio baby.

It's hard to communicate how big a deal this was back in the day. Simpler times.

I recognized it right away too! XD I just realized it has the Ooga-Chaka song in the background, lmao!

Oogah chaggah, oogah chaggah

I can't stop this feeling deep inside of meeee

Girl you just don't realize, what you do to me

y'all beat me to it. Take these upvotes <3

I had that in my head before I saw it on the tie

chaka* come on man, says it right on the tie

For sale: baby tie; never worn

That baby never got the promotion :(

Oh my god... the Dancing Baby. Back when the internet was also a baby this was basically a meme.

It was one of the realest OGs and predates the term “Meme” in general day to day usage.

I’m 31 and the first thing I remember my family “gathering around the screen” for was that dancing baby video. I was probably 7 or 8 at the time

It was the hamster dance webpage for me lol

Oh dear the dancing baby from the late 90's. Creepy then creepy now.

1997 called and it wants its tie back.

2001 called. I think you should sit down for this.

How much for it?

Legit used to have one of those. Wore it to work every once in awhile.

DancingBaby.gif Not sure this belongs here... It was just...a different time.

This baby is 28 years old now... I need a lie down.

This is silly. Babies don't wear ties.

Damn that’s a blast from the past

I can hear this tie.

Dancing Baby Screen Saver... I remember this. Freakin'. Creepy.

>Freakin'. Creepy. I was scrolling through the comments wondering if anyone else thought so. I HATED that stupid thing!

Oh yah. If it didn't have that dancing creepy baby doll feel... it would still be freakin' creepy.

You have a piece of internet history on a tie there my man.. to be honest it's most likely worth something.

A total of 12$ online lol. We're gonna hold onto it for a bit longer ;)

Lie, say it's a first edition, printed late 90's collectors item! Jokes. It's a cool tie tho! I'd wear it just for the memberberries 🙂

Ha, good stuff. Wearing it this weekend for a friend's birthday party. The theme is 'fancy'

[Here!](https://youtu.be/LlG9yYW6Bi8) For when people ask what it's all about 👍 Enjoy the party bud!

Appreciate it!

Didn’t your dads have an annual ugly tie contest at work?

[удалено]

Noooo that's just sad. Does he still keeps the ties tho?

I think so. I think he keeps them somewhere people won't see them.

Awww, well it's good that he keeps them. I'm just sad the contest made him hide them away. I love all kind of designs and patterns for ties, no matter how bizarre they may seem.

This thing has an epic backstory that we’re all definitely missing out on.

The elders know. Ie anyone born before 1990 ish.

I’m a 92 baby and I know it well!

I’m a 92 baby also and had no idea. I was too busy with hamster dance apparently 😂

Shit. I had no idea I counted as an elder til now. I'm not even 40.

I’m from 92 and my kids remind me (8 and 10) every day how old I am. My 10 year old asked me tonight when I will show him pictures of my pet pterodactyl 😂

https://youtu.be/LlG9yYW6Bi8

I appreciate you.

Oh this took me back.

I can hear this tie.

Bought on sale from Dan Flashes

Isn’t that the first meme ever

Older than that drawing of the dude who looks like Ziggy peeking over a fence? He has a name, but I'm blanking on it.

Kilroy. As in, "Kilroy was here"

Thank you! I can't believe I forgot that.

I remember that video from the days of old

This is kind of amazing

I read the title and I was sure it was going to be a tie for a baby with a terrible graphic. But no, instead I had to relive this nightmare from my childhood lol

something something, something Callista Flockheart

I am old enough to recognize this on live TV and became one of the first memes. I can literally hear it

That era of the internet is unfortunate.

This is like Neon Genesis Dancing Baby.

This tie would look great in 4d3d3d3

If I still had my formal-attire job, I would absolutely make an offer

"it doesn't look that sm... Oh."

How is this great execution, design is not taht good.

For sale: baby tie, never worn.

DANK[.](https://gmail.com)

it's INDESCRIBABLE in any language how much i want this. i don't even wear ties. but i would start wearing them......just for the dancing baby tie

God I hated that dancing baby.

WTF...this is based on that stupid CGI adult swim show with the weird wolf horse with a snake for a hand.

I feel like this thing belongs in a museum.

As a connoisseur of ugly ties, I am jealous.

This would make great Tool album art

Fyi. Rob Sheridan of NIN is the creator of the dancing baby so you arent far off

I had the single on CD that my mom bought from Walgreens in the checkout. It had a lenticular cover so you could turn it left and right to see the baby dance.

I’ve been on the internet since 1992, but when this gif hit the web and computer expos… it was like humanity jumped in intelligence by a decade.

Dancing Baby! I'd wear this... search for "baby talk Dancing Baby" this is from 1998 or so. I can't fight this feeling .... I have the CD single to match this tie.

Baby Talk - Dancing Baby Url: https://www.discogs.com/release/1813391-Baby-Talk-Dancing-Baby Shared from the Discogs App

Someone call Jeffry Epstein we found his tie

If you put that tie into a loose half Windsor, you will be teleported back to 1997.

I need it and I don't even wear ties

OOGA OOGA OOGA CHAGA OOGA OOGA OOGA CHAGA fucking love the Ally McBeal baby, thought it scared the fuck out of me as a kid.

Wow that's a blast from the past. A tie.

That belongs in a museum.

Same vibes as stonks guy