About

1700 Sea Shanties refers to a series of memes which imagine 1700s sea shanties being a very enjoyable, danceable form of music. The memes sometimes include an animated GIF of a 3D pirate dancing next to a boombox.

Origin

On November 5th, 2006, an animated GIF of a 3D pirate dancing next to a boombox was added to the GIF archive Animoteca^[1] (shown below).

On June 4th, 2018, Tumblr^[2] user hustlerose posted the GIF, writing, "me listening to modern pop music: arrr……. no good…. me listening to 1700s sea shanties," with the post gaining over 35,700 likes and reblogs in two years (post shown below).

Spread

In the following month, the screenshot of the post was widely circulated online. On June 6th, Redditor^[3] j_c_h88 posted the image to /r/me_irl, where it gained over 1,200 upvotes. On June 23rd, iFunny^[4] user Nytris reposted it, gaining over 57,700 smiles in two years.

On August 4th, 2018, YouTube^[5] user Dew posted a video in which the GIF was set to an accordion cover of the sea shanty "Drunken Sailor" (shown below, left); the cover version^[8] was composed by Okko Bekker for SpongeBob SquarePants and first appears in the 1999 episode "Squeaky Boots."^[9] The video received over 2.2 million views in two years. On April 5th, 2019, YouTube^[6] user KeyZ posted a 1-hour version of the meme (shown below, right) that received over 1.3 million views, with a 10-hour version, posted^[7] on May 6th, 2019, gaining over 1 million views.

In the following years, the joke maintained notable popularity online, often being referenced in jokes in a similar vein to Mongolian Throat Singing.

Related Memes

Mongolian Throat Singing

Mongolian Throat Singing refers to a series of memes that imagine Mongolian throat singing to be the ultimate, most enjoyable form of music. Mongolian throat singing has been often referenced in memes, with clips and images of throat singer Batzorig Vaanchig also being used for meme purposes.

Bowling Alley Screen When You Get a Strike

Bowling Alley Screen When You Get a Strike refers to a series of memes referencing celebration animations typically shown on TV screens at bowling centers when a player manages to score a strike. The trend received significant spread on Reddit in mid-May 2019 following a viral comment made by YouTube user Kraken Gaming under the "1700s Sea Shanties 1Hour" video.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References