Dance Crazes the Internet Refused to Let Die

Every few years, humanity collectively loses its mind over a specific set of dance moves. It spreads through weddings, school dances, and grainy phone videos until everyone — your boss, your grandmother, a politician trying to seem relatable — is attempting it badly. And then, mercifully, it dies. Until the next one.

Let's salute the crazes that refused to stay buried.

The Grand Tour

Some performers don't pick one craze — they catalog all of them. A whirlwind tour through decades of dance fads in one routine is a beautiful reminder of just how many times we've done this to ourselves. Each move felt cool at the time. None of them aged well. All of them are glorious.

The Speed Run

Then there's the comedy of compression — cramming an entire genre into a handful of seconds. A whole musical style boiled down to thirty seconds works because the clichés are so universal you can recognize the whole thing from a few exaggerated beats. It's affectionate mockery, and the best kind.

Why We Can't Help It

Dance crazes spread for the same reason yawns do: we're social copycats wired to mirror each other. The move doesn't have to be good — it has to be simple enough that a drunk uncle can attempt it at a reception. That low barrier to entry is the entire secret. Difficulty kills a craze; foolproof silliness spreads it.

So the next craze is coming, whether we like it or not. It'll be dumb, it'll be everywhere, and in five years we'll cringe at having done it. Start practicing now.