Alright, internet we get it: If it's about the '90s, you're in. So, a few of us got to thinking. Considering that we've been inundated with the decade's best and brightest via everything from essays to listicles to YouTube rabbit holes, we figured it would be a cinch to name 30 things that shaped the 10 years we can't stop talking about.
Nearly 20 years later, and we still can't look at frogs the same way.
On the precipice of the new millennium, a paranoia broke out over the future of our society/planet/existence. Why? Because according to experts, the world's computers weren't programmed for the turn of the century, since years were being documented only by the last two digits. This meant that computers would assume — upon hitting 2000 — that the year was 00. And because computers and technology didn't exist in the year 00, everything would implode and we were all going to die.
So, everybody bought a lot of bottled water.
Before YouTube, there were "found footage" movies. The first? The Blair Witch Project, a movie about a bunch of young people who get lost in the woods, get "so scared right now," and finally meet their maker in the form of a witch we never actually see. I still don't really understand this movie — but I know it's one of many reasons I avoid camping.
One dance, one legacy, one way to ruin a wedding.
Maybe you were drinking beer at this point, maybe you weren't. But regardless of your then-stance on mediocre alcoholic beverages, you and your friends spent at least a few months answering (and then getting in trouble for answering) the landline like this.
Half of us spent the greater portion of middle school repeating this slogan, coined by the decade's spokeswomen for digestible Girl Power. Not that we knew what it meant. (Even the Spice Girls themselves said it could mean anything.) Meanwhile, the other half of us were afraid it meant something bad, so we just avoided saying it altogether.
Come for the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet dynamic for all time, stay for the song that spent two weeks at No. 1 and defined every school dance imaginable.
Watching Clueless then, did any of us really think Amber's off-the-cuff "whatever" would define the teenage masses for years? Probably not — but only because we were so focused on Cher's valid point that there really is no RSVP on the Statue of Liberty.
Sadly, if said in 2015, this would sound more like a threat.
13. Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
The "But...why?" heard across America.
In 1993, this woman was in charge of your (beverage) destiny. Please raise your hands in the Mockingjay salute.
You know what was cooler than one butterfly clip? A million butterfly clips — preferably worn without any rhyme or reason.
For anyone whose parents wouldn't allow a pet, but would allow the equivalent of an extra from the movie Gremlins.
Behold! The "fetch" of the mid-1990s: It was never going to happen.
Passive as we may be acting about the company's recent struggles, our tween and teen years were defined by the glory of the dELiA*s catalog, as well as the hope that with the purchase of an ankle-length skirt or platform flip-flop, we too might be as cool as the models wearing them.
Photo: Couresy of La Demoiselle.
With the recent popularity of glitter eye makeup on such runways as Rodarte and Carolina Herrera, some of us are holding out for a body glitter comeback — if only because this time we promise not to get it on the furniture, Mom.
Last we heard, he'd made a cameo on Last Man Standing (former TV dad Tim Allen's show). But before that? He was reportedly last seen in...our hearts.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may not have realised that he was setting in motion the greatest comeback of the last several decades, but his swift reply in Terminator 3 set the stage for the next-greatest comeback of recent years: block and report for spam.
Image: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
Because it wouldn't be a '90s list without Bart Simpson, the animated little brother our lives would be empty without.
Like Furbies, but digital and less likely to stage a coup in your home.
And with only a few guitar chords, flashbacks of debating the cuteness of Dylan versus the cuteness of Brandon come flooding back.
The comedian finished her off-key performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a 1990 San Diego Padres game by grabbing her crotch and spitting.
Not only were they still married, they proved it with a kiss.
The pants that were too legit to quit.