Stephen Wilhite, who created GIFs, dies at 74

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Steve Wilhite, the developer who created GIFs in the late '80s and transformed the way we communicate on the internet, died this week at 74

For these and millions more GIFs, we have Stephen Wilhite to thank. GIFs, those looping animated images, are a universal language -- when words fail, a clip of a cool cat spinning beats on a turntable or Homer Simpson slowly backing into a hedge should do the trick. Wilhite may not have known it when he created the first GIF in 1987, but his memes in motion would go on to rule the internet from the days of Web 1.0 to the present, and likely for years to come.

When GIFs ruled the internetEarly GIFs weren't pretty, but that was part of their charm. Websites would use flashing"under construction" signs to heed visitors that their work was incomplete, Vox reported upon the GIF's 30th anniversary in 2017. The aforementioned dancing baby, clad in only a diaper but groovin' anyway, was one of the very first pieces of internet ephemera to go viral.

 

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A: Actually, it's pronounced Whilhite. B: It's Wilhite. A: Whilhite. B: No. Say it with me. Wilhite. A: Whilhite. B: Wilhite. A: Whilhite. B: YOU'RE EATING HUMAN HAIR!

*A dictator does what a dictator does!!!

I owe this man a lot

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