Unless you’ve been living in a dungeon for the past week, you’ve borne witness to the Internet craze known as the Harlem Shake. CSU even has a few of its own versions of the shake, one by none other than our men’s basketball team; the other featuring a crowd of about 3,500 students at Moby Arena last Wednesday.
This 30 seconds of pure joy in video form is the newest viral phenomenon to hit YouTube – just one of many that has circulated on the web in the past few years. From Call Me Maybe parodies to countless variations of Gangnam Style, viral videos are unifying people all over the world in ways unseen until our current era of digital sensations.
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So why are we so obsessed with these snippets filmed by anyone from the Norwegian military, to your next door neighbor’s grandma, to the U.S. Olympic swim team? Because they are carefree, fun, and above all, completely ridiculous. You can make your video as original as you want — yet you are still part of something bigger.
Based on the lifespans of previous Internet fads, the Harlem Shake is reaching the end of its existence. Say goodbye to that helmet, thrusting motion, quick cut to people going nuts, and slow-mo ending; it’s time to get ready for the next Harlem-Gangnam-Call Me-Friday.
The Harlem Shake won’t be the last Internet sensation to rock Moby Arena, it won’t be the last time CU-Boulder tries to emulate CSU and it definitely won’t be the last time their hollow attempts fall flat.
