Rest in peace, Vine. Sports fandom will never be the same :(

Delightful absurdity resides at the core of sports fandom, and perhaps nowhere is that delightful absurdity better captured than on the social video platform Vine.

Scratch that -- nowhere was the inherent, giggly absurdity of sports better captured than on Vine. Twitter, which bought Vine in 2012, announced Thursday morning that it plans to shutter the app that introduced infinitely looping six-second snippets of sports comedy into our lives.

So goes yet another deflating reminder that sports fans, in the final analysis, are simply passionate waifs amid the forces of big business. Twitter, a struggling former golden child of this decade's social media wars, needed to cut some fat. So it offed Vine.

In just a few short years, Vine — whose clips were essentially extended GIFs with sound, short videos that hypnotically drew you in by looping forever — became a central part of the internet experience for sports fans.

In basketball, Vines became the new posters, immortalizations of deft moves and roasted defenders. In football, they let us cringe over bone-crushing hits over and over again. In soccer, they allowed us to marvel over ethereal displays of skill, studying the looping tricks and sharing them across the web. But mostly, and spanning all sports, we guffawed and pointed at unpredictable moments of minutiae.

We analyzed feats and foibles like the Zapruder film, were treated to big plays from alternate angles and consumed mashups of clips and music that became both low-budget comedic art and metaphors for life in general. (We also dunked on each other a lot.)

Expanding our lens, social media was still a burgeoning frontier when Vine arrived on the scene in 2012 — who knew where this new world of connection and possibility would lead? But over the last couple years, a grimmer reality set in as the business bubble began to contract. What was lighthearted fun for everyday people was, ultimately, dollars and cents for investors and executives. Growing up is hard to do.

On Thursday, after Twitter announced its intention to kill Vine, sports fans took to the social network to mourn the loss and remember their favorite six-second clips from the abbreviated Vine era.

Here are 62 of our favorites — may the awe and laughter they inspired live on forever.

Never forget LeBrawn Jaymes kid

That time Gerald Henderson took out a fan with a terrible pass (they made-up later)

There is no thirst like Dion Waiters calling for the ball

This adorably elated little NHL fan

Slide into the DMs like Lance Stephenson

Lance blows in LeBron's ear, with soundtrack

This exceptional young baseball fan

Shoot your shot, homie

When you leave work on a Friday

This future NBA star

Extreeeeeme, bro!

Cousin Terio will always be in our hearts

Baseball as art

Matt Barnes vs. Kobe Bryant

Boy meets soccer idol

Guys, come on

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When you get drafted into the NFL

Andrew Bogut knows Steph Curry is money, baby

And here's mini-Steph

Sports talk radio, baby

A classic March Madness celebration

A great take on a big Arsenal signing

"You like that! You like that!"

"A" for effort?

When you clothesline yourself

Scottie and Michael, reunited

Pete Rose: Hey, I'm here, too!

That time Blake Griffin dumped water on a Warriors fan

JR Smith introduces hoverboards to the world

This masterpiece

Sometimes life is unfair

Ginobili pranks Duncan

Stephen A. Smith on weed

Thank you, Joe Buck

Um, excuse me?

Riley Curry is way up, feels blessed

More Riley

"Way to go, Paul"

The Oregon duck sprints to meme-dom

It's better late than never

Trent Dilfer with the insight

Villanova's legendary sad piccolo player

DeMar DeRozan almost starts World War 3

The sounds of the game

Right in the nads. Who does that?!

An usher reacts

Russell Westbrook reacts

Westbrook reacts again

"HEISMAN"

Teacher gets broke

When you realize who you're about to fight

Remember when Ron Hunter owned March Madness?

A tale of two handshakes

D'oh!

Look out, LeBron!

And of course, the remix

Poor baby

This is a sport, right?

The god Messi

This guy vacuuming confetti

And now, goodbye