Dramatic Chipmunk

It was never a chipmunk. Let the record state, for posterity, that the animal in question was a prairie dog—a fact that bothered precisely no one and changed absolutely nothing about the meme's power.

On June 6th, 2007, YouTube user magnets99 uploaded five seconds of footage from a Japanese variety show called Hello Morning! The clip featured a prairie dog executing the most theatrical head-turn in rodent history, accompanied by a sting from Young Frankenstein's score. That was it. Five seconds. A single glance. Internet immortality.

Within weeks, Dramatic Chipmunk had conquered the web's tastemakers: CollegeHumor, BoingBoing, Comedy Central. It was the perfect viral specimen—short enough to loop, dramatic enough to meme, and absurd enough to transcend language barriers. The prairie dog stared into the camera, and the camera stared back.

People recreated it with their cats. With their babies. With themselves. The template was infinitely adaptable: any moment of sudden realization, any plot twist, any awkward silence could be punctuated by that iconic turn. For a glorious summer, no dramatic revelation was complete without it.

But five seconds can only carry you so far. By 2008, the prairie dog had been relegated to "classic meme" status—respected but retired, a pioneer who'd paved the way for the reaction GIFs to come.

It saw what the internet would become. And it was dramatic.