Flash Animation

Adobe Flash is a well known animation program created in the late 1990's. It's a digital software that is often used for web series, animated commercials, and cartoons. The first major use for the program was  in 1997 for The Goddamn George Liquor Program, by the same man (John K.) who created Ren and Stimpy, and it shortly after became a huge craze all over because of it's cost effectiveness and easy to use tools. It is often given a bad rep due to some of its less than stellar uses, leading it to be viewed as a bad software, but it's actually pretty good when used correctly. A famous example of a long running cartoon that used flash for animation is Cartoon Network's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which is well known for it's unique and well executed animation style.

 
Another example of well-used Flash animation would be El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. It was the first time that Nickelodeon had created a show animated entirely in Flash, and it is certainly among the shows that use that to their advantage. Other fully Flash animated shows often look stiff, jerky and lifeless, but these two examples use their medium to their advantages and end up looking great (shows such as Fish Hooks are responsible for Flash's bad name because of it's overuse of shopped in photographs and such). Another famous show that uses Flash for its animation would be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which rose quickly to popularity among weird, creepy 25 year old men and you know the rest if you are acquainted well enough with the internet, and I think it's high time we never speak of it again.
 
Of the many famous web series made with flash is Mike and Matt Chapman's creation Homestar Runner. It's style was much stiffer and closer to what people have become accustomed to with Flash shows, as were many internet videos. The rigid animation was actually used purposefully in a lot of internet videos as part of the humor. Plus stiff animation is more forgivable on low-budget web series made for the internet than with high budget shows made for major studios.

Another famous video made with the software is The End of  the World, posted online in 2003. Essentially this is a short released on YouTube that poked fun at the state of the world and the concept of a nuclear war. It is famous mostly for it's use of stereotypes of people from certain countries. Flash's popularity became quite intertwined with memes, as it was so easy to produce simple cartoons with to post online.
 It is still used today for major studio cartoons, advertisements, and memes alike, and looks to not be leaving anytime soon, for better or for worse. In my opinion it's a good program, especially for beginners in animation who want to learn.