this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics (NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out)
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

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[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 133 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Rick roll is hardly early internet.

Source, im old

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yeah, but goatse isn't very wholesome. Let the kid believe :P

[–] Donjuanme@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

You're the man now dog?

Dancing baby?

Hell there were viral things before Google existed.

[–] Xtallll@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 year ago

Goatse is the definition of some hole, tub girl on the other hand...

[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

No, but it is hole-some.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Star wars kid, daft punk hands, daft punk girls, ninja kid there are tons of earlier internet memes.

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Actually it was found that Rick roll was originally inspired by an old Internet video dated back to the late 70s. They did a research on that if you're interested.

[–] PithyPolynym@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Knew what "a research" was linking to, but I clicked it anyway.

[–] monsterpiece42@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

Ope, link preview coming in clutch.

[–] blindjezebel@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I got an ad before the video, ffs. My day is ruined.

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Why, when I saw my first decapitation video I was merely a boy!

[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 78 points 1 year ago (9 children)

2007 wasn’t early internet lol.

Early internet’s most famous meme was probably either hamster dance or dancing baby. All Your Base wasn’t long after.

[–] FarFarAway@startrek.website 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That toaster cat shitting rainbows!

Edit or the beep beep frog with the schlong

Edit edit: guess that last one was a whole video...not a meme

[–] UndefinedIsNotAFunction@programming.dev 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Re: peanut butter jelly time - my 8 year old picked it up somewhere along the way and is one of his favorite songs now.

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[–] folkrav@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nyan Cat

That's quite recent still tho

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[–] bhmnscmm@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean there were even fax machine "memes". Checkout Faxlore if you weren't around at the time.

[–] Regna@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Thank you, I had forgotten some of the memes and jokes from that era.

[–] kiwifoxtrot@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 2 points 1 year ago

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[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I miss the days of looping flash videos. The Badger Song, The Llama Song, Magical Trevor, etc. Those defined my childhood.

[–] TimoBRL@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers mushroom mushroom

[–] Enkrod@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Here's a llama, there's a llama and another little llama

[–] keefshape@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

Nuhuh.

True early internet meme was pics from Madonna's coffee table book. Iykyk.

For sure dancing baby. Was shared as an attachment on emails even before YouTube was a thing

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ron Livingston playing piano as a cat.

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[–] mister_monster@monero.town 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Youtube isn't the early internet friend.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I still remember the first time someone told me about YouTube. I thought they were saying U2, the bad, and was really confused.

Fuck I'm old.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago

Going off the comments, did we all just get trolled hard?

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Like many other commenters, I wouldn't consider rickrolling to be "early internet." First of all it's a mutation of the duckroll meme, and dates as late as 2007. Trogdor predates rickrolling by 5 years.

But, I do have to say, I appreciate the rickroll as the internet's official prank. Tricking someone into watching a slightly cheesy but inoffensive music video to an actually pretty good song about being a faithful lover is pretty okay.

[–] coaxil@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Consummate V's!!!!!

[–] Drgon@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's better than when a link could bring you to meatspin, lemon party, or Goatse

[–] key@lemmy.keychat.org 2 points 1 year ago

Don't forget tubgirl!

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[–] Mishmash2000@lemmy.nz 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Just for a bit of context I was "surfing the internet" in 1994 via Gopher, an early alternative to the web as we know it now and I used it primarily to find and download apps stored on computers connected to the internet.

In 1995 I was using the Mosaic browser and later Netscape to surf the World Wide Web mostly via webrings that were individual webpages that had links to other wepages of similar content linked to them.

I don't recall and am not aware of anything that would resemble a meme from that time? This is a year or so before Dancing Baby which is usually considered the first viral video and even then that was originally shared via email forwards.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Memes back then were under construction gifs.

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Geocities circa 94-96. The first place anyone could have a little webpage.

We didn't even have CSS then! We had to build our pages in a cave with a box of HTML tags for scraps. You could do some sick shit with some fancy nested TABLE tags tho.

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[–] vashti@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

Usenet was absolutely swarming with memes. They were text-based rather than image-based but they were definitely memes.

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[–] Pacers31Colts18@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dancing baby is the early internet meme.

[–] Today@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I hate that baby!

[–] ChlorineAddict@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

My spoon is too big

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

That was not early internet.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 year ago

Lol dude what the fuck? That is not early Internet. That's a good decade and a half past early Internet.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Memes are as old as humanity, so Internet memes are as old as the Internet, starting ca. 1993.

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[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Hah. "early internet." Just like how Video Games' first foray into existence was in 2003 with Knights of the Old Republic. Before then, nothing existed.

[–] Touching_Grass@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I remember a different internet. I thought the most viral stuff was a guy shoving a glass jar into his ass which then broke. And we all nervously laughed as he pulled glass out of his now pissing bloody sphincter. Or two girls puking and shitting into a cup which they drink. Or cake farts. Lemon parties. Goatse. Or just ddos random sites something something fire some space lazer ion cannon thing occupy!

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