An Adult Swim parody--mostly seen by college males--was the catalyst for my fascination with the dolly zoom. The well-executed parody of prescription drug commercials used this cinematography technique. Moving away or towards the subject while zooming in or out is visually unsettling. I had seen the effect in countless movies like Hitchcock's Vertigo, but never realized how simple the effect was. Here's my quick test:

Around the same time, I was messing around with zooming during long exposures.