Why this dancing baby was a phenomenon
And we danced.
Patreon reaction video is LIVE now!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/77245316/
More info and sources at bottom.
Find me elsewhere:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philedwardsinc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/philedwardsinc
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philedwardsinc
Where I get my music (Free trial affiliate link):
https://share.epidemicsound.com/olkrqv
My camera, as of February 2022 (affiliate link):
https://amzn.to/3HDcWVz
My main lens: https://amzn.to/3IteXEK
My main light: https://amzn.to/3pjO0M8
My main light accessory: https://amzn.to/3M6eL0j
Sources are a little scattershot here, since there was no book or anything.
Rob Sheridan’s Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-have-to-make-16584611
The news videos featuring Rob were uploaded on his channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@RobSheridanProductions/videos
Original dancing baby webpage!
https://web.archive.org/web/19970805224220/http://www.nwlink.com/~xott/baby.htm
Sample newsgroup search, kinda fun to nerd out on.
https://groups.google.com/search/conversations?q=babycha2.avi&sortBy=RELEVANCE
Great article that gave me the history of Hooked On a Feeling.
https://americansongwriter.com/the-story-behind-the-one-hit-wonder-hooked-on-a-feeling-by-blue-swede/
Kirby’s channel: https://youtube.com/@UCu-3YlvaBS4bsya-1eFi62w
Blog post about Chuck Poynter (Gifmaker): https://blog.geocities.institute/archives/2466
Fun thesis that had some nuggets I wouldn’t have otherwise found:
https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-6rte-j311
Old NYTimes Digital Article about the baby:
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/mirapaul/072497mirapaul.html#100
Character Studio!
https://archive.org/details/kinetixcharacterstudio1.0
The baby on Ally McBeal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvrXvi_xefU
Demo with the dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfe8jicU4Y0
Ron Lussier’s site:
http://dancing-baby.net/Babygif.htm
Dancing baby NFT:
https://dancingbaby.io/
There are more! Ping me in the comments if I’m missing a source you need!
@PhilEdwardsInc
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Trying out a commentary vid over on Patreon; https://www.patreon.com/posts/77245316
Lemme know if you like this, would prefer different stuff, etc. oogachaka!
@kyhxx
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
, 00:58 9.16 sw rndm gif min ago, typ in find vid, cnt blv th °°k chnt, bt visual is tweakn r/ambience- usfl int xcp vid,
@KarolynSmith-q8k
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Ally McBeal is where it started in Australia 🇦🇺
@oldandroidgamerinc
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
4:04 Can you send me a link to this site called Premier models?
@stefaniedominguez364
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Ok but I remember a family member having an actual dancing baby doll character that played this song and danced when you pressed a button
@josereycampued5262
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
This baby was showed in the center of the mall in 1997.it was like a computer show.i was stuned and people were so amazed people where like gather in one monitor watching this baby dance.
@musewolfman
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
And now im here, because The Hives have released yet another cover of this song (at probably almost double the tempo, it's hilariously bad on purpose,) and it unlocked this memory from my childhood.
@codemiesterbeats
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
2:44 not sure if intentional but definitely had Salvador Dali vibes 😂
@SweetDayzBakery
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
I always saw this baby as an ad for scams as kid 😂😂
@fANYA_KOPlan
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
I didn't have access to the Internet or computers back then but I still saw that baby. The local TV station of our northern Russian city was showing a commercial with this baby (I remember him looking metallic) dancing on some sort of hi-tech background. Music had no lyrics, there was no context, he did that dance, got to the point where he bows and disappeared. And then it turn out to be an a commercial for a computer store. I was rather confused and asked my mom what was the connection between that and computers and she said that it was probably the fact that the baby was computer-animated.
@AB-Prince
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
I remember the late oughts to the early 10s, it was dwindling to be sure, but it was still common to see a gif of that dancing baby randomly on a handful of websites
@halfcrown626
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Loved this video. Found it by accident while looking for the Ally McBeal clip. Was going to show it to a friend. I watched that show all the way through with my mother not long ago while we were watching older TV from every decade (starting with the 1950s and going up to the modern day!). My mother had mentioned the dancing baby clip before and I didn't get it until I got to watch it. It's one of my favourite clips in TV next to the insanely comical character death of Monica Mancuso in the show Las Vegas (2003 – 2008 but this character was in the show in 2005 I think…?). Loved finally knowing where this dancing baby came from! So nicely made! Well done!
@noisepuppet
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
I remember when this happened. "Dancing baby" quickly became shorthand for "waste of computing resources." 😂
@timothyjuarez5306
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
So memes must have a certain amount universality of understanding, a certain amount of remixability and a certain amount of portability. I can not tell you how much but can tell you part of the ingredients to the recipe. It's like having a bowl of soup and being able to identify some of the seasoning. Good luck!
@alyssao.9577
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
This reminds me of the bottled water company, Evian's commercial with the roller skating babies
@Dartagnan65
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Did you re-edit?
Maybe a better version?
Still… – But, okay, cheers.
@hannahbrown2728
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Ya know what I love about your style is youll do all this obvious build-up just for a segue of a let-down and I usually guffaw everytime. Your videos here demonstrate passion, humility, and awareness; and I seriously fucks with it. Stop playing, we all know you could climb on the stage that way, the performative embarassment is something I do in my day to day life just to try to sow happiness, and also plenty of chaos and confusion.
Edit: Im a handful of videos shynof finish your backlog but seeing where this lands its interesting to watch and see how you developed. Theres plenty of youtubers Id love to contribute to on Patreon, but Im confident in saying when I finally get my shit together and have disposable income youll be one of if not the first.
@serious.lybobby
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
That was the best outro ever. Luv u Phil ❤
@amorphousblob
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Pretty big leap from Tin Toy's baby to this.
@haskeymorrison
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
This video led me to running bear, which led me to the big bopper, which led me to American pie
@banksuvladimir
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
2:40 then use a pc as god intended, you heathen
@JokerFace090
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
People that thought the dancing baby was culturally relevant back then probably have houses full of "live,laugh,love" junk from target.
@rev.davemoorman3883
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Here is the smallest Dancing Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9j8Yl-1CnA
@comatose3788
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
I'm out at, I own a Mac.
@DwAboutItManFr
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
Who is Ally MacBeal?
@DwAboutItManFr
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
>Imagine having a fucking MAC.
@gh0stykins
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
first INTERNET meme. memes have been around forever.
@gh0stykins
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
dont use a mac.
@mr.doctor4335
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
I just can’t get enough of this content! Super fun, informative, and funny! Really brings you back in every time, both in curiosity and information.
@resourceress7
October 5, 2024 at 11:11 am
First, thank you for having human-crafted captions instead of auto-generated ones (aka, inaccurate word salad).
Would you mind putting fewer words per line in the captions? I watch your channel on my phone, and this video has several instances of the captions taking up the entire width of the screen, spilling over onto four lines, which stack up pretty high to obscure your content.