“Oh god. A listicle.” If that was you when you saw this title, then too bad. My best performing content so far is a Pokemon listicle so you did this to yourself. Suck it up and read on.
Now, if you’re lucky enough to have witnessed the birth of the internet then you experienced it at its best. You lived through an age when the internet was purely about creation for the sake of it rather than a constant pursuit of monetization. Hell, you were alive before monetization was even in the vernacular.
In these halcyon days of Netscape, Alta Vista, and AskJeeves, masterpieces of animation stalled the internet and were transmitted as viruses from highschool to highschool eventually begetting the word meme. If you remember passing word about the latest hilarious cartoon through AIM or ICQ then congrats on your recent/upcoming 40th birthday. I hope you enjoy watching your list of medical contacts expand as your list of friends contracts and having your favourite songs referred to as ‘classics’. If you don’t, then prepare to gain an understanding of Millennials that you most likely neither want nor need as we drive into the top ten defining animations of the early internet.
In no particular order, here goes!
Jonti Picking’s Badgers
Commonly known as Mr Weebl, Jonti is the creator of numerous highly regarded animations from the dawn of the internet, but Badgers remains iconic. So iconic in fact that it’s been preserved by the British Film Institute. Definitely check out Jonti’s other work and collaborations on the Weebl’s Stuff YouTube channel. I’m partial to Kenya because it annoys both Kenyans (There are no tigers in Kenya!) and Norwegians (We are not crabs!).
David Firth’s Salad Fingers
If I had to rank this list, Salad Fingers would not be on it and I would still burn the list to the ground for having the hint of its stench. That said, Salad Fingers defined the early internet. The art direction and writing are two of the creepiest things I have ever encountered to this day. I hate it. Now go get a spoon and watch episode one.
Neil Cicierega’s The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
Who will win at the end of everything? When the universe comes crashing down, who is left standing? It’s a question that has plagued childhood discussions since the dawn of humanity and the MCU for too many films. Funny thing is, this animation answered that question with precision long ago. A masterclass in rhyme, rhythm, and comedy, and one of the biggest things to ever come out of Newgrounds.
The Brothers Chaps’ Strong Bad Email
Part of Homestar Runner, Strong Bad Emails is easily the most well-known part of that universe. While my personal favourite is New Hands, there’s no denying that Dragon really catapulted SBE into the Zeitgeist. Watch and cackle madly as Trogdor the Burninator burninates the peoples and their thatched roof cottages.
Jason Steele’s Charlie the Unicorn
Probably my number one. Each of the five episodes of Charlie the Unicorn is loaded with quotable dialogue that I still use out of context today. From his search for Candy Mountain to his underwater explorations, Charlie is always bound for a bad time. Absolute class and I still quote it out of context on the regular today. There’s plenty of more quality stuff by Jason as FilmCow on his YouTube channel. Watch Llama’s with Hats to find out why there are at least two things wrong with Carl.
Joel Veitch’s We Like the Moon
Internet brain rot at its finest. Up there with Annoying Orange for dumb stuff we couldn’t seem to get enough of, this was also preserved by the British Film Institute for some reason. I still like it, but not as much as cheese. Check out more of Joel’s stuff on the RatherGood channel.
Zhu Zhiqiang’s Xiao Xiao
All the glory of a Hong Kong action movie distilled into simple and elegant animation. If you ever made flip book animations of stick figures with your school books, then you’ll be amazed at how great that looks when it goes digital. Smooth, clever, violent; Xiao Xiao is everything I aspire to be in the upcoming apocalypse. Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to find these in a good format that is supported by their creator. You can find the originals here (if you can bear it) or watch this compilation on YouTube.
Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected
Don, unlike pretty much everyone else here, was already an experienced and well known animator when this was released. I include Rejected though because how else can you ever know why people are screaming “My anus is bleeding!” before collapsing in fits of giggles.
Alan Becker’s Animator vs. Animation
Enjoy this combination of a touch of Xiao Xiao, a whole lot of hubris, and a painful look at the sort of UI designers had to wrangle with just two decades ago.
Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo & Kenn Navarro’s Happy Tree Friends
Who hasn’t wanted to see adorable little forest creatures butcher each other wholesale!? Apparently very few people as Happy Tree Friends went on to spawn dozens of episodes becoming a full-blown show in its own right. Enjoy episode one and then take it from there. Keep an eye out for Flippy.
And that’s that! You now understand Millennial brain rot. I hope you enjoyed this journey through the past and if you didn’t, why are you still reading? Do you hate yourself?
Kris