Short answers, pulled from the story.
A beached whale carcass in Oregon was destroyed with dynamite in November 1970, creating a horrific aftermath that became an urban legend and the earliest known precursor to viral video culture. The explosion sent chunks of blubber and mist into the exclusion zone, a disaster captured on film and later circulated through word-of-mouth, film festivals, and bulletin board systems.
The Dancing Baby, a 3D-rendered animation created in 1996 by the creators of Character Studio for 3D Studio MAX, became a cultural icon after animator Ron Lussier passed the video around his workplace at LucasArts. The video gained exposure through worldwide commercials, editorials, and the popular television series Ally McBeal, which featured the dancing baby as a recurring motif.
The creation of YouTube in 2005 and its subsequent acquisition by Google in 2006 marked a turning point in the history of viral videos, transforming them from niche internet curiosities into global phenomena. The platform's ability to host and share videos easily allowed for the rapid spread of content such as Numa Numa, which received two million hits on Newgrounds in its first three months, a staggering number for the time.
The Spirit of Christmas, a 1995 animated short, spread through bootleg VHS copies and an AVI file on the PlayStation game disc for Tiger Woods 99, eventually leading to the creation of the television series South Park. These videos demonstrated that the internet could amplify content beyond traditional media channels, creating a new form of cultural currency that was shared through peer networks rather than broadcast schedules.