01
Dancing Baby
A looping 3D baby became one of the web’s first globally shared viral animations.
Archive score97
Internet archive / 1996
Internet moments from 1996
Backdrop
The Internet in 1996
Year reference
NetDay: wiring the schoolsThe web became public infrastructure.
Source: White House photograph via Wikimedia Commons- Dial-up access and web portals were turning the web from a specialist hobby into a household destination.
- Macromedia Flash arrived, giving personal sites and tiny animations a new visual language.
Archive order
Archive picks
02
The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest
Before Flash cartoons and Strong Bad emails, an armless athlete entered a children’s-book strongman contest.
Archive score94
03
Space Jam’s Original Website
The official Space Jam site still preserves a dense, brightly colored studio-web promotion from 1996.
Archive score93
04
Amish Paradise
Weird Al turns solemn rap-video style into a straight-faced portrait of barn raising and butter churning.
Archive score93
05
“Weird Al” Yankovic — “Gump”
Weird Al retells Forrest Gump as a deadpan “Lump” parody, complete with a bench, a box of chocolates, and an impossible run through American history.
Archive score87
06
Mr. T Ate My Balls
A crude Mr. T homepage turned one dumb sentence into a template that early web builders could endlessly swap.
Archive score80
07
Red Meat Online
Max Cannon’s surreal comic strip found a durable web audience.
Archive score79
08
The Onion Goes Online
America’s Finest News Source gave its straight-faced absurdity a permanent web address.
Archive score79
09
Sabrina Online
Eric W. Schwartz’s colorful character comic made a long-running home on the early web.
Archive score78