A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Miley Cyrus emerged among exploding geometries and shooting stars. (Somewhere, Hayley Williams and B.o.B. are still wishing on airplanes in the night sky.) Her companion, a large, immobile cat, appeared behind her. With wide eyes, the singer's feline looked out at us, knowing it was our kryptonite. And, as the opening chords to Cyrus' ode to failed romance began, the cat opened its mouth. The downfall of the Internet was nigh.
But, wait! Was it all a dream? Did Miley Cyrus' American Music Awards performance take us so far into the depths of the interwebs that we've somehow manged to emerge unscathed and free of Windows 95-generated imaging? Yes, dear pop-cultural explorers, it seems we have. With co-pilot Cyrus, we've gone back to the future, where swimsuits sometimes function as outerwear and cats literally triumph over us humans. We've seen the big bang theory come to life to the tune of "Wrecking Ball" and now live to tell the Tumblr-ific tale. This was a monumental Internet experience that will go down in the history of all things meme. The freedom of the galaxy has been restored until our next Cyrus sighting — a new hope, indeed.