Harlem Shake. Your Kidding me Right?

Post Reply New Topic

I don't get this? People just start laughing at it, acting like they've just had some laughing gas! But I don't get it? Is it just me?

No, it's not just you. I think it's annoying and kind of sucks. It's pretty much just filling the "annoyingly gigantic meme phenomenon" role that was vacated by "Gangnam Style" when people started getting tired of that annoying national obsession.

I find Harlem Shake to be hilarious, and as a fan of dance music, I have always liked Gangnam Style.

It's probably lots of fun. They got into it right here in Seattle, too. To wit:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmefanDztMo[/youtube]

It got me pretty good the first time I saw it. Something about the instant change to lots of people dancing is really funny to me. It's like a zombie outbreak or something. It makes me imagine a news report in a horror movie: "Patient X was witnessed by a security camera, acting really goofy. In less than a minute, the entire city had to be quarantined. There are no known survivors of this phenomenon."

But like all memes, it is no longer funny once you have started to think of it as a "meme". Then it just seems cringeworthy every time you see it. But you have to remember that a lot of people have only just seen it for the first time, so it's still funny to them.

Ha, yeah, I didn't mean to say that either of them are objectively bad. I suppose they're just not really my kind of thing. I like some dancy stuff, and I did find myself slowly, insidiously growing more and more almost fond of Gangnam Style the more I heard it. I think it's like Declension said, memes start to get old when they start getting reiterated for the sake of being a meme rather than for the sake of bringing something creative to it, if that makes any sense.

I actually continue to enjoy memes for their campy memishness long after they should have expired. I think maybe they are some kind of weird, long-standing special interest with me or something. They are just fascinating as well as funny. I like experiencing people's creativity with memes and with recombining them into other memes.

I also like to go back and revisit old memes; they usually get even funnier once some time has passed and they're fresh and ready for rediscovery again. They help me remember and keep a timeline of cultural events in my mind; I use memes to "carbon-date" everything that's happened during the internet age, e.g. I remember that such-and-such happened during the "this is SPARTA!!" era.

I guess the earliest memes can be somewhat annoying now, because they were less developed and not as funny as the ones we tend to get now, but I will probably continue to like Harlem Shake etc. for some time to come.

I didn't even know what the Harlem shake WAS until I saw that video...

It just looks ridiculous to me. I mean... Really?

I've actually done it once. It was fun, but it's also very muddled. I wouldn't really call it a "dance"... More like a panic. Lol.

I've done it too. I don't like the song very much, but I do think it's fun to randomly flail for ~30 seconds while dressed strangely. My American history once showed the class a YouTube video where people in Harlem react to a "Harlem Shake" video, and most of them thought it was pretty stupid xD.

it's ridiculous.
my only thoughts on it, when people ask me to be in one, are "No way. I do not need a screencap of that "following" me around for the rest of my life".

I dont understand it at all. Although there was one video at an army camp and this one guy was inside a zipped sleeping bag during the crazy bit and he looked like a caterpilla so that made me laugh but apart from that i dont understand the humour.

The videos are pointless, but participating in a Harlem Shake video looks fun.

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE USE.

I believe Ned sums up how I feel about Harlem Shake.. Sorry if this is a bit inappropriate to post here.
Also, turn your sound down a bit, gets extremely loud!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2vRKuxgQdM[/youtube]

I hate it, it's predecessor Gangnam Style and it's successor What does a Fox Say!

I might be a little different that I like trends and fads a little.

Gangman style was pure horrible garbage, let's not even talk about it. 0/10

But harlem shake was okay. The song and the dance was kind of cool, but it got old very, very quickly. I liked it for about a week, 2 max. 2/10. What does the fox say is awesome, the song is funny, creative, silly, just like it. But kind of old as well now. 4/10.

Anyone else like fads and trends a little bit but get over it quickly like everyone else?