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Library/Meme & format/Dancing Baby
Grade B22 sourcesHIS-01474

Dancing Baby

Meme & format · 1996 · Notable

50Editable slideCertificate

An emailed baby animation reached TV, then US T-shirt sales topped $2.8 million wholesale.

Dancing Baby
Wikipedia (non-free, fair use)
Hollywood Flashback: 'Ally McBeal' Made Meme History With Dancing Baby 1998
The Hollywood Reporter
The internet’s famous dancing baby from 1996 is getting a new look | CNN
CNN
‘Dancing Baby’ Creator Michael Girard Discusses Designing The ‘First Internet Meme’ 26 Years After It Swept The Web Via Email Chains
Know Your Meme

Spread Score

How it works
ReachNo data yetContagionNo data yetBreadth50VelocityNo data yetLongevityNo data yet50

Numbers

Peak proxy date
Jan 1998
Oct 1996 to Jan 1998
Platforms
8
Started on Group chats
Origin
Seeded
Entertainment

Mechanics

  • Response chain
  • Maker origin
  • Platform jumpPrimary
  • Press loop

How it spread

Trace the origin

A Character Studio sample became an emailed animation and a web GIF. Fan sites collected remixes. Ally McBeal adopted it as a biological-clock apparition. Licensed ads, records and toys followed; later HD restorations revived it.

Proxy date; not a directly measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.

Aug ’95Oct ’96Aug ’97Apr ’98OctMay ’01Sep ’06Jan ’12Jul ’16Jun ’19Jul ’21Oct ’22Open webGroup chatsPressTVAudioRetailYouTubeX
Open webGroup chatsPressTVAudioRetailYouTubeX

13 more events on this chart

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Timeline (16)

  1. August 1996

    Kinetix / Unreal Pictures precursor · Aug 1996

    Kinetix released Character Studio with model and motion samples.[1][2]

  2. October 1996

    Ron Lussier seed · Oct 1996

    Lussier shared his enhanced baby rendering with LucasArts colleagues by email.[2][3]

  3. By end of 1996

    John Woodell platform jump · By end of 1996

    Woodell converted the movie into a compressed GIF for a movie-to-GIF demonstration.[4]

  1. press · Jul 24 ’97

  2. platform jump · Jan 5 ’98

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Why it worked

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Origin
Seeded
Sector
Entertainment
Region
US
Reported figure
—
Evidence
Grade B

Spread the same way

Meme & format · Instagram · 201555

Duck Army

Kevin Synnes

A shopping prank reached more than 74 million loops on a Vine repost.

Peaked at #2

1 / 8

  • Duck Army
  • Hampster Dance
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  • Balenciaga Pope
  • Nobody Wants This
  • Peaches
  • Golden by HUNTR/X
  • Kung Fury

New cases, every week

How the next thing spread, the week it does.