Everybody loves animals. Even if you don’t have a pet, you can’t help but ooh and aw over a dancing squirrel, a skateboarding dog or a cute cat.

Is our collective fascination over animals a genuine interest in them, or part of a larger desire to see our own human qualities in the world around us?

Cartoons draw on our fascination with seeing human attributes into everyday objects or animalsDisney built his entertainment company on this desire to see human qualities in mice, dogs and ducks. But equally we’re just as attracted to singing teapots, desk lamps or even a candelabra.

Cuteness is irresistible. Shows like ours depend on stories of animals doing extraordinary things, acting like people or even learning to speak their own names.

But there is a another edgier, wilder category of animal based culture, and that is online viral phenomena.
Like Disney cartoons, these videos, moving graphics or pictures pull us in with animals doing human activitiy, but unlike Disney, they also tap into our darker psyche. Like a tune that gets into your head, these online nuggets haunt your dreams until you spread them to someone else.

Who can forget The Hamster Dance, Tyson the Skateboarding dog, Badger Badger Badger, the dramatic hamster, Crazy Frog (a.k.a. Annoying Thing) or the whole LOLcat phenomenon?

Their repetitive, insane quality both unnerve and entertain us in exciting new ways. It gives you that feeling that the internet is like no other medium that’s come before it. And you, your boss and your mom can both enjoy and talk about it.

We owe a great deal to these artistic creations, some of them anonymous, who helped extend the functionality of the internet from just a information sharing network into a fully fledged entertainment medium.

Amanda Steinstein gets a little whipped upOn today’s show Amanda Steinstein looking like a fierce panther herself, joins us to talk about viral animals, freaky over the top sexual fetishes, the Phoenix Mars Lander’s first-ever touchdown near Mars’ north pole, Steven Speilberg’s new social networking website is out of this world, virtual Ouija boards and a follow up on the high school student who asked us if watching Desperate Housewives means you’re gay.

Does it? Listen and find out.
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