Fark Squirrel

That's nuts.

In September 1999, Drew Curtis launched Fark.com. But before it became the news aggregator and Photoshop contest hub that would influence a generation of internet humor, it was something simpler: a single image of a Cape Ground Squirrel with remarkably prominent testicles.

The photograph was taken circa 1993 by Kevin Shafer in Etosha National Park, Namibia, for the Corbis Corporation. It was, by any objective measure, a squirrel with enormous nuts. Drew Curtis found it amusing. The internet agreed.

For years, that squirrel was Fark. Visitors to the site were greeted by this well-endowed rodent before Fark evolved into something larger. The squirrel became a running gag—appearing in Photoshop contests, headlines, and the collective memory of early internet users who remembered when "content" meant "one really funny picture."

Fark pioneered the Photoshop contest format that would later influence countless meme communities. Users would manipulate images for comedic effect, and the squirrel was a frequent subject. It was crude, it was juvenile, and it was exactly what the early internet needed.

Eventually, the squirrel was retired from the main page, relegated to appearing only on Fark's 404 error pages—a fitting retirement for a mascot who represented the beautiful simplicity of early web humor.

The Fark Squirrel wasn't the first meme. But it was there at the beginning, nuts and all, reminding us that sometimes the internet is exactly as mature as you'd expect.

Rest in peace, you magnificently endowed rodent. You were nuts. Literally.