History OlderThanTheyThink / WebOriginal

** The Internet culture... well, [[http://www.cracked.com/article/202_8-online-fads-you-didnt-know-were-invented-decades-ago/ 8 Online Fads You Didn't Know Were Invented Decades Ago]] summed things up better than we do.

* Many people that hear the Microsoft Sam voice being used for anything instantly associate it with Master Chief of the Arby n' the Chief series.
** This voice, along with Mike and various other text-to-speech voices, were used mostly in Flash movies made by the Clock Crew of Newgrounds.

* The Hamsterdance music was originally from Disney's ''Robin Hood'', laugh and all.

* The "at" symbol (@) has existed since at least the 1300s. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/@]]

* Many people like to believe that Epic Rap Battles of History invented fictional characters or celebrities rapping as a novelty. Not quite... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCDXeJGCiWg MC Hawking predated the battles by several years AND actually sounded like Hawking.]] And a rapping Hitler? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0PDJor8-YY Whitest Kids U Know did it several years before they did]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpYQJkBQp0 Mel Brooks did it back in the 80s!]]

* There are many people who think the memetic "[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Who's that Pokémon]]?" "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's Pikachu!]]" originated on a [[WebOriginal/{{Vine}} Vine]] video, but [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks a different video with the same purpose]] was originally uploaded in 2007 by [=YouTube=] user gameboy659.

* Many younger internet users tend to think that the surreal, "post-ironic" style of internet humor emerged in the mid-to-late 2010s, when in fact a lot of early 2000s internet content could be argued as even ''more'' weird in its singularity instead of relying on repeated memes. The comment section of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0pEBE_eYdU this video]] (created in 2004) is full of people surprised at its age.

* Many younger internet users tend to think that the surreal, "post-ironic" style of meme humor emerged in the mid-to-late 2010s, when in fact a lot of early 2000s internet content could be argued as even ''more'' weird in its singularity. The comment section of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0pEBE_eYdU this video]] (created in 2004) is full of people surprised at its age.

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8TrohViKpyLf-yeDdWmjEssR7mA8i2za Old Gays]]'' is a Youtube series about four older gay men discussing their lives and reacting to modern gay culture. In one video, they each discuss a past love from their younger days: how they met, how long they were together, etc. When it was Jesse's turn, he showed a picture of himself and his ex from 23 years ago. When the (much younger) producer asked how they met, he was shocked when Jesse said they met online. The older men laughed at the producer for being so naive. After all, it was 1996, right when the Internet was starting to grow, and the LGBT community ([[AllGaysArePromiscuous especially gay men]]) took to online dating ''much'' faster than straights.

* The Virtual Youtuber craze lasted long before characters like WebVideo/KizunaAi and Kaguya Luna became well known for it. Website/NicoNicoDouga users used to (and still do) use VisualNovel-style 2D avatars when they wanted to do a LetsPlay or make informative videos,[[note]]making them also older than the 2D [=VTuber=] platform Nijianji[[/note]] though they would often use text-to-speech software in place of their own voice.

* If you say the word "trope" outside of TV Tropes, you may get attacked by TV Tropes' HateDumb or just assumed to be a troper.

* Many people think that Jonathan Paula and Jory Caron invented the microwave show genre with "Is It A Good Idea To Microwave This?" in July of 2007, but there are older microwaves shows on YouTube such as microwavecam (who began in April 2006), dOvetastic (March 2006), and quite a few others, including those that predate YouTube. Brainiac was doing "Cooking with Microwaves" on British television in 2003! Two years before YouTube was even created! And Mythbusters also has been doing experiments with microwaves for a long time.
** dOvetastic began posting his videos to YouTube in March of 2006, but he has been hosting his show on the internet for much longer than that, beginning in 1991, which would also make it the first web series, two years before the average person would even have the internet in their homes. The origins of his show also go back to 1979.
** Captain Microwave (MicrowaveMeShow) began doing microwave science experiments back in 1992 but only discovered that there was an audience for it in summer of 2012, leading him to creating his own YouTube microwave series. [[MorePopularSpinoff Originally just to draw people to his music channel]].

* Funny cat videos didn't originate with YouTube, but with UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6faUd2fV4U boxing cats film reel]].

* There are many people who think the memetic "[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Who's that Pokémon]]?" "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's Pikachu!]]" originated on a [[WebOriginal/{{Vine}} Vine]] video, but [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks a different video with the same purpose]] was originally uploaded in 2007 by YouTube user gameboy659.

* Retro gaming video review show is nothing new when ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' debuted back in 2004. ''WebVideo/ClassicGameRoom'' has been doing so for 5 years! Yes, from 1999, back in the 20th century!

* Many people think that Jonathan Paula and Jory Caron invented the microwave show genre with "Is It A Good Idea To Microwave This?" in July of 2007, but there are older microwaves shows on YouTube such as microwavecam (who began in April 2006), dOvetastic (March 2006), and quite a few others, including those that predate YouTube. Brainiac was doing "Cooking with Microwaves" on British Television in 2003! Two years before YouTube was even created! And Mythbusters also has been doing experiments with microwaves for a long time.

** Jon and Jory also freely admit that they did not pioneer the microwave show concept, they got the idea from other shows (specifically dOvetastic's and microwavecam). [[BerserkButton Jon also hates when his fans harass the creators of other microwave shows, even apologizing for his "dumbass fans" in one notable instance.]]

* There are many people that think the memetic "[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Who's that Pokémon]]?" "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's Pikachu!]]" originated on a [[WebOriginal/{{Vine}} Vine]] video, but [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks a different video with the same purpose]] was originally uploaded in 2007 by YouTube user gameboy659.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* There are many people that think the memetic "[[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Who's that Pokémon]]?" "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's Pikachu!]]" originated on a [[WebOriginal/{{Vine}} Vine]] video, but [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks a different video with the same purpose]] was originally uploaded in 2007 by user gameboy659.

* There are many people that think the memetic "Who's that [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]?" "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's Pikachu!]]" originated on a [[WebOriginal/{{Vine}} Vine]] video, but [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks a different video with the same purpose]] was originally uploaded in 2007 by user gameboy659.

* Funny cat videos didn't originate with YouTube, but with ThomasEdison's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6faUd2fV4U boxing cats film reel]].

* Possibly the example with the shortest amount of time, [[YuYuHakushoAbridged Lanipator]] had to put up a disclaimer that he did not steal the "Neighborhood Watch" joke from ''WebVideo/NarutoTheAbridgedSeries''. In fact, he used it first, and Naruto Abridged used it as a homage to him. Which should be obvious, considering the neighborhood watch van is clearly from Yu Yu Hakusho (given its art and color style)

** Possible actual example: during his ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' tribute, the Critic appears to attribute TheSmurfettePrinciple to WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick. TVTropes had an article on the topic ''long'' before she touched it, and we didn't invent it out of whole cloth either.

* Shit Pickle and Super Ultra Mecha Death Christ 2000 first appeared in an animated short film by JamesRolfe called ''TheWizardOfOz 3: Dorothy Goes to Hell''. However, they're usually thought of as characters from ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'', where they made cameo appearances.

* Possibly the example with the shortest amount of time, [[YuYuHakushoAbridged Lanipator]] had to put up a disclaimer that he did not steal the "Neighborhood Watch" joke from NarutoTheAbridgedSeries. In fact, he used it first, and Naruto Abridged used it as a homage to him. Which should be obvious, considering the neighborhood watch van is clearly from Yu Yu Hakusho (given its art and color style)

* Aarrgh!! Those amateurs all over the Internet who make LeaveTheCameraRunning video's about their private life that nobody is interested in. Sure this phenomenon never existed before the Internet was invented, right? Well... already in the 1960s Creator/AndyWarhol was making movies in which a shot of the Empire State Building was shown for 24 hours straight or a man was just eating for minutes on end. Also take in account many of Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno's albums, which often feature a lot of audio footage of them fooling around by making weird and often annoying sounds or them expressing their love for one another.

* The {{Creator/BBC}} published a [=YouTube=] video of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW94hSE3eqM the journey from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Cockfosters]] on the UsefulNotes/LondonUnderground, greatly speeded up (taking five minutes instead of about an hour),and one of the comments asked if they got the idea from another [=YouTube=] channel the commentor was aware of. They didn't; back in the [[TheFiFties 1950s]], when what is now BBC 1 used to show intermission films between programmes, one of them was London to Brighton in 5 minutes. The idea is probably older than that.

* Sadly [[http://boards.4chan.org/b/res/411047287 this 4chan board]] or {{omegle}} did not create the line, "hi, welcome to stealth," that right goes to BadReligion with their song "Stealth" off of their album ''Recipe for Hate'' made in 1993.

* While the trollface meme as we know it did indeed begin with the famous comic, the facial expression itself of the squinted eyes and the smile turned up at a corner is a trademark of ErnestPWorrell. It took off in the context of {{troll}}s from the movie ''ErnestScaredStupid'', in which Ernest makes the face while teasing an actual troll, but it isn't always used when he's trying to annoy someone, and it predates the comic.

** Interestingly, an UrExample of Youtube Poop can be found in ''WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck in Hollywood'', a [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1938]] short in which Daffy edits a film reel to produce [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWEpbYffbF8 this]].