Today the entire internet was riveted by a live llama chase in Arizona. All work ground to a halt while the world watched the furry creatures' daring escape. This is hardly the first time the internet has had a collective breakdown. What's the weirdest clusterfuck that got everyone talking? We need your help to remember.
The great majority of things that go viral probably fall under the category of "weird." Weird stuff is inherently shareable — I must've texted five friends with the llama link, like, "Are you WATCHING THIS???? OMG" — which I didn't do for the net neutrality hearings, even though one of those events is fundamentally important for the future of telecommunications and my job.
The first event that occurred to us was the infamous case of Balloon Boy — wherein everyone had a hysterical meltdown in realtime over a drifting helium balloon purported to be carrying a six-year-old boy inside. Later revealed to be a hoax, Balloon Boy launched a million memes and was all that anyone talked about that day. The internet en masse quickly forgets — but we have the best collective brain trust here in the form of Gizmodo's commenters.
What crazy internet event did people lose their shit over, that you'd totally text your friends with "OMG REMEMBER THAT???"