The Hampster Dance or Hampsterdance is one of the earliest examples of an Internet meme. Created by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte for a Geocities page, the dance features rows of animated hamsters and other rodents dancing in various ways to a sped-up sample from the song "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller.
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Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte, who was competing with her best friend and sister to see who could generate the most traffic, designed the Hampster Dance in August 1998 as homage to her pet hamster, named "Hampton Hamster."[1] Using four simple animated GIFs of hamsters and other rodents, repeated dozens of times each, and a loop of background music embedded in the HTML, at the time a fairly new browser feature, she named the site Hampton's Hamster House and had Hampton declare his intent to become a "web star". Initially, the website consisted of a single page website with four hamsters and other rodents, later redesigned and dubbed Hampton, Dixie, Hado, and Fuzzy. Over the next few years, alternate versions of the Hampsterdance appeared, such as for birthdays, where the hamsters are slightly modified to hold presents.
The clip, a 9-second looped WAV file, was taken from a sped-up recording of Roger Miller's "Whistle Stop", a song written for the 1973 Walt Disney cartoon Robin Hood.[1]
Until January 1999, only 800 visits were recorded (about 4 per day), but without warning, the number jumped to 15,000 per day. The web site spread by e-mail, early blogs, and bumper stickers, and was eventually even featured in a television commercial for Internet service provider EarthLink. It became a common office prank to set a co-worker's browser homepage to the website, which led to televised news reports furthering popularity to an international level. The continued popularity of the site led LaCarte to a professional redesign, and the addition of an online store for T-shirts and CDs of "Hamster" music.
LaCarte failed to register the Hampsterdance name, and for some time the hampsterdance.com domain was owned by humor business Nutty Sites. Initially, hampsterdance.com was used, and later hampsterdance2.com. The site webhampster.com is a copy of the original site complete with the 9-second loop WAV.
Fans of the site created variations on the original dance, using politicians such as Dan Quayle and Cynthia McKinney as well as household objects such as Pez dispensers and lung X-rays.
In 2004 Abatis partnered with Unreal Productions of Keyport, NJ to redesign the original Hamsters into a full 3-D CGI contemporary "look and feel". The website was also redesigned using the new characters and a DVD is in production with the first of a new series of adventures with the Furry Foursome and their roadie, Frank the Ferret.
The Hampster Dance, in its true original form, is no longer found at www.hampsterdance.com. The true original has been recreated at www.webhamster.com (the "P" taken out of the word Hampster).
In Canada, the "official" Hampster Dance song was released as a single, featuring a trance music backing. The video was declared worst or cheesiest video of the year by MuchMusic in the one-hour special Fromage 2001. It stayed for two weeks in the Canadian Top 40, peaking at #38.[2] In Australia, "The Hampster Dance Song" was also released in 2001, credited to Hampton the Hampster. The song reached #5 on the ARIA singles chart and spun off follow-up releases and videos, such as "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (a cover of the John Denver song, reaching #12) and "Hampster Party" (reaching #44).[3] It also reached #70 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs charts.[1]
The track was used in the 2001 film, See Spot Run.
Another track that featured the same sped-up sample was "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" by The Cuban Boys. The single peaked at #4 on the Christmas chart.[4]
In 2005, CNET named the Hampster Dance the #1 web fad.[5]
In 2010, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked the "official" Hampster Dance song at #79 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, stating that "This annoying-on-purpose, chipmunks-on-speed bit of nonsense was the grandfather of today's 'Rickroll.'"[6]
(in order of release)
(in order of release)
| U.S. CD 1: | Non-U.S. CD 1: | Non-U.S. CD 2 (Maxi single): |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The Hampster Dance Song (radio mix) | 1. The Hampster Dance Song (radio edit) | 1. The Hampster Dance Song (radio edit) |
| 2. The Hampster Dance Song (extended mix) | 2. The Hampster Dance Song (extended mix) | 2. The Hampster Dance Song (extended mix) |
| 3. The Hampster Dance Song (club mix) | 3. The Hampster Dance Song (club mix) | |
| 4. The Hampster Dance Song (Snapshot Remix) | ||
| 5. The Hampster Dance Song (Tom Stevens Remix) |