01
Rickroll
The link was never what it promised to be.
Archive score99
Internet archive / 2008
Internet moments from 2008
Backdrop
The Internet in 2008
Year reference
Google Chrome launch comicThe browser became an application platform.
Source: Google Chrome comic- The App Store opened, making software, games, cameras, and social services part of the phone in your pocket.
- Barack Obama’s campaign demonstrated how social networks, online video, and small digital donations could shape mainstream politics.
Follow the thread
Trails from 2008
Archive order
Archive picks
02
Trollface
A Microsoft Paint grin became the internet’s quickest way to say: this annoyance was on purpose.
Archive score95
03
Between Two Ferns
Two potted ferns and one deadpan host turned celebrity publicity into a hostile little public-access show.
Archive score94
04
Keep Calm and Carry On
A wartime poster, rediscovered decades later, became a nearly universal visual template for calm, irony, and endless rewrites.
Archive score94
05
asdfmovie
‘I like trains’ became one of the series’ best-known recurring lines.
Archive score93
06
Fred Goes Swimming
A shrill, hyperactive six-year-old character tried a tiny pool and helped make a one-person channel into an early YouTube institution.
Archive score93
07
TumblrGarfield Minus Garfield
Delete one orange cat and Jon Arbuckle becomes the loneliest man in newspaper comics.
Archive score93
08
Jizz In My Pants
A dead-serious electro-pop video gave every tiny moment of excitement an absurdly oversized consequence.
Archive score92
09
The Website Is Down
A sales representative called for web support, setting off a chaotic desktop-screen parody.
Archive score91
010
4chanRage Guy / FFFFFFUUUUU
A crude face made ordinary annoyances look like operatic disasters.
Archive score91
011
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
A nervous supervillain, a loudly heroic rival, and a three-act musical released straight to the web.
Archive score89
012
Baman Piderman: Find Da Sandwich
Two hand-drawn best fwends treat a missing sandwich like a major emergency.
Archive score89
013
Gap Yah
A gap-year traveller narrated his holiday like a life-changing ethnographic expedition, and every unnecessary “yah” made it worse.
Archive score89
014
Frozen Grand Central
More than 200 people stopped at once in Grand Central Terminal and made ordinary commuters do a double take.
Archive score84