Internet Nostalgia

Let’s Revisit Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Way back, way back, there you go, there you go

Welcome to part six of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the imagination and attention of the internet for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times, and what they told us about the internet, and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week, we looked at The Dancing Baby. This week: Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

Date: 2000–02.

The story: This is going to sound insane to you, but when I first came across Peanut Butter Jelly Time, I thought it was an art project. I really did. I was living and working on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, part of the next would-be vanguard of internet weirdos, a bunch of losers desperately trying to parlay our middling knowledge of the World Wide Web into something resembling a career. It really did feel like you were on the edge of a new frontier, a digital explorer unearthing and colonizing new ground every day, a whole new world out there, just waiting for you to take it. What worked on the internet? What didn’t? Who knew? You just threw everything against the wall to see what stuck.