Their surprising appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2006, playing for the first time in the now-iconic glowing pyramid, heralded by Close Encounters of the Third Kind chimes.
Also, their surprise appearance at the 2008 Grammys during Kanye West's performance of "Stronger". The album version of the song uses samples of Daft Punk's song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"; in the Grammy show, Daft Punk themselves appeared and performed that part of the song live.
To clarify what makes this a true Crowning Moment, instead of just Awesome: This was the first time ever Daft Punk had appeared live on television (they'd been on TV before, but always pre-recorded).
Ear Worm: Given that their main genres are house and techno, and that their lyrics are very simple and repetitive, a lot of their songs fall under this.
The Alive 2007 album. Beginning it with Two Robot voices Going back and forth between "Robot" and "Human" And ending it with a Huge Buildup to "Human after all".
Having "One More Time" sampled in the Encore.
Also the Encore, Combining "Music Sounds Better with You" and "Together".
The video for "Around the World" seems like a random Halloween-themed number until you realize that each costume is a different musical instrument. The track stars (with the false heads) are the bass, the skeletons are the guitar, the mummies are the drums, the swimsuited women are the keyboards, and the robots are the vocals. And they're dancing around a vinyl record. The stairs are the high and low notes, which go with the track stars.
The huge HBFS sample-solo while performing with Kanye at the 2008 Grammys.
Gateway Series: For many people into house and electronic music as a whole.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Every new studio album since Homework has been met with criticism initially because it sounded different from the previous album. In Discovery's case, this opinion quickly faded.
True Art Is Incomprehensible: The music video to "Around the World". Just... What is going on? It turns out that each individual group of dancers represents each instrumental part. The large men in tracksuits represent the bass, the skeletons represent the guitar, the mummies represent the drum machine, the "disco girls" represent the keyboard, and the robots represent the vocal track.
Vindicated by History: Discovery divided critics upon release, but now has been gaining considerable praise over the years, some considering it one of the finest albums of the last decade.