Why We Love the Web, Part 1

Try to imagine a time before the internet. Stop looking horrified and just try. You can't, can you? The interwebs was a game changer.

Sure, we could technically live in a world that didn't contain the following amuse-bouches. But it would be a sad, grim world indeed.

Babies with moves. Forget that scary digitized dancing baby of the Ally McBeal years. Earlier this year, this little nugget showed us that if you want it, then you shoulda put a teething ring on it. Then this diaper diva redefined the stanky leg. And of course there is the boy in the red shirt. That kid's fresh.

Babies that crack each other up. We admit this is what we do with our friends on a Saturday night, but it's just so much cuter when babies are doing it! If two are adorable, then four deserve to be the Cute Thing of the Year.

Mashups. Take one video or audio file, mix it with another, bake at 350 degrees, and you have hilarity pie for 300,000. Our favorite mashup of 2009 blends two of the year's best clips (warning: crude language. Christian Bale can no longer kiss his mother with that mouth).

Feuds. Feuds are the bread and butter of the internet. Our favorite recent one has Stephen Colbert opening a jar of creamy whoop-bottom on the advertising team at Miracle Whip, and their transparent courting of the 18-34, black-Chucks-and-skinny jeans-wearing, Where the Wild Things Are-watching, vegan panini-eating hipster market. Miracle Whip took the bait, and we're loving it.

Which viral vids would you rather not do without?

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