# Hampster Dance

> A GeoCities hamster page drew over 2.2 million reported hits and spawned copycats.

- Owner: Deidre LaCarte (creator); later Abatis International (rights)
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Culture (no sector)
- Seed date: Aug 1998
- Milestone date: Week of Dec 25, 1999
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 50 (Notable, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Response chain, Maker origin, Platform jump, Press loop, Controversy

## Summary

LaCarte published a GeoCities tribute to her pet hamster. Readers shared it and made copycats. The original page logged over 2.2 million reported hits. Music adaptations and merchandise followed; a UK chart milestone anchors this timeline.

## Timeline

- Aug 1998 — Deidre LaCarte (Open web) — Deidre LaCarte published dancing hamster GIFs and a looping tune on GeoCities.
- 1999-02-09 — Slashdot / CmdrTaco (Open web) — CmdrTaco linked The Cunctator's Hampster Dance submission on Slashdot.
- Apr 1999 — The Cuban Boys (Audio) — The Cuban Boys sampled the site's tune for Cognoscenti vs Intelligentsia.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/hampster-dance

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Hampster Dance.” Case HIS-01484. Spread Score v1.3: 50/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01484