Hello internet enthusiasts! Trym Stene here, the creator of the Dancing Banana Gif that you might have seen bouncing around the web for years. It’s quite surreal to think it all started way back in 1999. I was tinkering around on my AMD K6-2 350MHz computer – not exactly a supercomputer, but it was my gateway to the digital world as a young guy growing up in Norway.
Alt Text: Animated dancing banana gif, a popular internet meme, performing a lively jig.
Creating fun, lighthearted content has always been a passion. I loved making these quirky GIF animations and sharing them online. Back then, I had a small but cool community on IRC where I’d get feedback and encouragement. Growing up in rural Norway, not many people around me were into the same things, which just pushed me to be even more creative and explore what was possible online, inspired by other digital artists of the time.
Alt Text: Portrait of Trym Stene, the Norwegian creator of the Dancing Banana GIF, smiling warmly.
To make my GIFs, including the dancing banana gif, I used a simple animation program called Animation Shop. It came with Paint Shop Pro and was pretty user-friendly. This software was key to bringing my animated ideas to life.
So, why a banana? Well, I was really into online forums and using emojis to express myself. The dancing banana gif was kind of like taking those emojis to the next level – a fun, animated emoji to celebrate those moments when I created something new and exciting. It was a joyful little character!
I actually made a bunch of other GIFs too, like an angry toaster and a melting ice cream cone, each with its own personality. But, surprisingly, it was the dancing banana gif that really took off and captured the hearts of internet users. It just seemed to resonate with people.
Before Flash became the animation standard, I even found a way to make a bit of money from my GIF skills. Through IRC, I got the chance to create GIF ad banners for a business. I remember selling a chalkboard ad for 250 Norwegian Krone, about 25 USD at the time. It felt like a big win back then!
Then came Flash animations, and the Buckwheat Boyz created a Flash version of the dancing banana gif with the song “Peanut Butter Jelly Time.” That’s when things really exploded. The dancing banana gif started popping up everywhere, even making a cameo on Family Guy! It’s still mind-blowing to think that this little GIF I made for fun became such a widespread internet phenomenon, boosted by the awesome internet culture of the early 2000s.
And that’s the story of the dancing banana gif! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into its history. It’s been an amazing and unexpected journey to see something I created for fun become such a lasting part of internet culture.
