Eight years ago, no one knew who Tay Zonday was. Star Wars Kid was a nobody. Tron Guy was probably living in the glow of his own ...glow, with nary an LOLing fan to his name.

In 2000, YouTube wasn't yet America's official online library of crazybirds. But that, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that these folks were waiting in the wings. No, someone like viral legend Jan Terri wasn't about to wait on two nerds to dream up an Internet phenomenon to start churning out her music.

In fact, the limo driver from Chicago recorded two albums, and shot accompanying music videos on a shoddy camcorder. And when The Daily Show was made aware of the petite phenomenon, Stacey Grenrock-Woods introduced the Internutty sensation to the public long before the age of buffering.

• link:// The Daily Show
• related:// Jan Terri via Internet Archive
• via:// Shot Then