Hampster Dance

Created in 1998 by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte as a GeoCities page, the dance features rows of animated GIFs of hamsters and other rodents dancing in various ways to a sped-up sample from the song "Whistle-Stop", written and performed by Roger Miller for the 1973 Walt Disney Productions film Robin Hood.

[5] The Hampster Dance site originally consisted of a single page with just four unique animated GIFs of cartoon hamsters.

The clip, a nine-second looped WAV file, was a sped-up sample of Roger Miller's "Whistle Stop", a song written for the opening credits of the 1973 Disney animated feature film Robin Hood.

[4] From its creation in August 1998 to March 1999, the Hampster Dance site only recorded about 800 total visits (roughly four per day).

Fans of the site created variations on the original theme, using images of other animals and of politicians such as Dan Quayle.

In late 2001, LaCarte sold the "Hampster Dance" rights to Abatis International, who managed to acquire the original domain.

[2] The site later expanded, revealing the names of all four characters (Hampton, Dixie, Hado, and Fuzzy) and offering themed versions for birthdays, graduation, holidays, etc.

[10][11] In April 1999, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the website, English electronic group the Cuban Boys promotionally released "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia".

[18] LaCarte's online store was expanded and began offering T-shirts and CDs of the fictional group's music.

[25] On April 2, 2009, the website began selling a DVD of the direct-to-video animated film How the Hampsters Saved Winter.