# Goats Goats is the wave of viral goat videos that took off on YouTube in 2006 with fainting-goat clips and grew through 2014 with baby goats, Nathan Fielder hoaxes, and dedicated Tumblr blogs. Jezebel called that June 'the summer of goats,' when the animals briefly rivaled cats as the internet's favorite pets. ## Overview Goats became an unlikely category of viral internet star through the late 2000s and early 2010s, with YouTube clips of the domesticated animals racking up tens of millions of views apiece[1]. The appeal covered a wide range of goat behavior: the freeze-response of myotonic (fainting) goats, baby goats prancing around enclosures, and older goats getting into strange situations with fences, motorcycles, and bicycles[1]. By mid-2014, the trend had its own dedicated online homes. The Tumblr Baby Goats and Friends was devoted entirely to goat content[4], with related blogs like Daily Goat and Fuck Yeah Goats gathering under the same #goats tag[3]. Jezebel declared that June 'the summer of goats'[2]. ## How It Spread The format kept expanding through the early 2010s. On December 6th, 2010, the channel Giggle with the Goats uploaded a clip of baby goats prancing around an enclosure that cleared 8.7 million views, and in July 2012, Kathryn Harnish posted a video of a baby goat named Buttermilk knocking over other baby goats that hit 12.5 million within two years. That September, comedian Nathan Fielder staged 'Pig rescues baby goat,' in which a pig appeared to push a drowning goat to safety, later revealing on his Comedy Central show Nathan For You that the whole thing was a hoax[3]. By 2014, Nerve was cataloguing an entire menagerie of viral goats: Curly panicking inside his own pen, Frostie learning to walk with a wheelcart, goats riding motorcycles and bicycles, and a depressed goat reunited with his donkey best friend[1]. On June 20th of that year, Jezebel published its 'summer of goats' piece, arguing the animals had taken the crown that cats had worn online for years[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Goats? Goats is a wave of viral internet videos featuring domesticated goats that took hold on YouTube in 2006 and peaked around 2014, when Nerve declared it 'the age of the viral internet goat video'[1]. ### Where did Goats come from? An early widely-shared clip was YouTuber jimmywan87's 'Fainting Goats,' posted on January 25th, 2006, showing myotonic goats freezing mid-panic[5]. ### What does Goats mean? The term covers the broader category of viral goat content online: fainting goats, baby goats prancing, goats getting shocked by fences, and goats riding motorcycles or bicycles[1]. ### How do you use Goats? The typical Goats format is short amateur footage of a goat doing something that reads as funny to non-farmers; fans share those clips on YouTube and follow dedicated Tumblr accounts like Baby Goats and Friends[4]. ### Is Goats still popular? The trend peaked in summer 2014 with feature write-ups in Jezebel[2] and Nerve covering the wave of viral goat clips[1]. ## References 1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170607170247/http://www.nerve.com/culture/internet-goat-trend-viral-video]() 2. [https://jezebel.com/calling-it-2014-is-the-summer-of-goats-1592356030]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/goats]() 4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190703133838/https://www.babygoatsandfriends.com/]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/goats Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library