Hampster Dance

The Hampster Dance [sic] or Hampsterdance is an Internet humor fad, originally a simple Geocities page featuring rows of animated hamsters dancing in various ways to a sped up sample from the song "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller. Hamsterdance.com includes Hampton, Fuzzy, Hado, and Dixie as the singing Hamsters.

Overview

Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte, who was competing with her best friend and sister to see who could generate the most traffic, designed Hampsterdance in August 1998 as an homage to her pet hamster, named Hampton Hampster. Using four simple animated GIFs of hamsters, repeated dozens of times each, and a loop of background music embedded in the HTML, then a fairly new browser feature, she named the site Hampton's Hampster House and had Hampton declare his intent to become a "web star". The clip, "Whistle Stop", was taken from the opening credits to Walt Disney's 1973 animated version of Robin Hood and later the famous original HampsterDance 9-second loop WAV (dedodedo.wav) file was removed due to Disney copyright infringement. Until March 1999, only 800 visits were recorded (about 4 per day), but without warning, that jumped to 15,000 per day. The website spread by e-mail, early blogs, and bumper stickers, eventually even featured in a television commercial for Internet Service Provider Earthlink.

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.

History

LaCarte failed to register the Hampsterdance name, and for some time the hampsterdance.com domain was owned by humor business Nutty Sites. LaCarte registered hampsterdance2.com and by 2002 had sold the rights to Abatis, Inc. which acquired control of the first domain.

Initially, the website consisted of a simple page with four hamsters -- later dubbed Hampton, Dixie, Hado, and Fuzzy. Over the next few years LaCarte added alternate versions of the Hampsterdance, such as for birthdays (the hamsters are slightly modified to hold presents). The continued popularity of the site led her to a professional redesign, and the addition of an online store for t-shirts and CDs of "Hampster" music.

In 2004 Abatis partnered with Unreal Productions of Keyport, NJ to redesign the original Hampsters 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.

In 2005, CNET named the Hampsterdance the #1 web fad.

Pop culture

The original Hampsterdance inspired the song "Irritating Hamster" by the artist DJ Mavica, and later "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" by the Cuban Boys, the latter gaining much notoriety in the United Kingdom in 1999 (reaching #4 on the UK Singles Chart).

In Canada it was also released as a single and was declared worst or cheesiest video of the year by MuchMusic in the one-hour special Fromage 2001.

In Australia "The Hampsterdance Song" was also released in 2001, credited to Hampton The Hampster. The song reached #5 on the ARIAnet 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). It was also released in New Zealand at the same time, with similar results.

The Hampster dance Song was featured in the 2005 movie Are We There Yet?.

"The Hampster dance Song", as of late 2006, is still being aired on Radio Disney in the United States.

See also

• Internet phenomenon

External links

Site

• Hampsterdance2.com - official site
• original Geocities version - archived November 1999
• Original Hamster Dance
• Hamster Dance - Hamster dance song & video

Articles

• Hamsterdance Fever - interview with LaCarte
• Hostile takeover of Hampsterdance site
• Hampster dancing into other venues
• Top 10 Web fads - from CNET

Similar "dance" fads

• Fishydance
• Cowdance
• Boogie Blocks
• "Pooh" Dance
• Pig Dance
• Hamster Dunce
• Mohammed Dance

Related

• Cuban Boys information
• The Satanic Hampster Dance -"Sacrifice the night away!"
• Hamster Dance Video (A related video that used the song, requires Adobe Flash)