Harlem Shake: Freedom Dance Goes Viral Threatening Crusty Establishments Worldwide

Viral Global Youth Hit Crusty Old 20th Century Leaderships with Massive Uncontrolled Freedom Strikes

by Johnny Punish

The Harlem Shake has gone worldwide and viral going from a stupid fun dance to a major protest effort by the young against the crusties who seek to oppress them and their future.

For example, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to get videos removed from YouTube because the kids were protesting their actions. After this action, the kids went crazy uploading even more videos and even doing the Harlem Shake in front of their headquarters.

The same thing is happening in other oppressive hot spots around the world like in Tunisia where the old crusty government officials are freaking out and trying to stop the kids from expressing themselves and it’s’ getting bigger.

It’s another sign that the world is getting smaller, closer, and more homogenous while the 20th Century old and molded leaderships fail to understand that freedom and liberty have gone viral. It’s a culture and political war being waged against the old 20th Century paradigms that have expired.

What is the Harlem Shake?

The Harlem Shake is an Internet meme in the form of a video of various groups of people performing a comedy sketch accompanied by a short excerpt from the song “Harlem Shake”. As a meme, the video was replicated by many people, using the same concept, and this rapidly led to it becoming viral in early February 2013, with thousands of “Harlem Shake” videos being made and uploaded to YouTube every day. To date, its’ over 240,000 videos.

The form of the meme was established in a video uploaded on February 2 by five teenagers from Queensland, Australia known on YouTube as The Sunny Coast Skate. The video started a viral trend of people uploading their own “Harlem Shake” videos to YouTube. The teenagers’ video was, in its turn, a follow-up to a video by a YouTube comedy vlogger named Filthy Frank which featured a section where several costumed people danced to the song “Harlem Shake” by Baauer.

Check out Harlem Shake in Egypt against Islamists

Concept

The videos last between 30 and 32 seconds and feature part of the song “Harlem Shake” by electronic musician Baauer. Usually, a video begins with one person (often helmeted or masked) dancing to the song alone for 15 seconds, surrounded by other people not paying attention or unaware of the dancing individual. When the bass drops, the video cuts to the entire crowd doing a crazy convulsive dance for the next 15 seconds.

Additionally, in the second half of the video, people often wear a minimum of clothes or crazy outfits or costumes while wielding strange props.

The song starts with a 15 seconds intro, then 15 seconds with the bass, then a lion roar at the end of the first 30 seconds, making video songs easy to create.

Reason for Success

The success of the videos was in part attributed to the anticipation of the breakout moment and short length, making them very accessible to watch. The Washington Post explained the meme’s instant virality by referring to the jump cuts, hypnotic beat, quick setups and half-minute routines.

The Harlem Shake is technically very easy for fans to reproduce, as it consists of a single locked camera shot and one jump cut. Nonetheless, the simplicity of the concept allows fans considerable scope in creating their own distinctive variant and making their mark, while retaining the basic elements. In its simplest form, it could be made with two people; a more sophisticated version might even involve a crowded stadium. Moreover, there is a level playing field for celebrities and fans alike, with no guarantee of success for either group. There is a strong vein of humor running through each video that is not dependent on language, further increasing its potential to spread virally.

In places like Australia, it’s been a fun event. However, in places like Egypt and Tunisia, it’s been used as a form of protest. When the governments there try to clamp down, the young people go nutzo and make even more viral videos embarrassing the old crusties globally forcing them to react to the young people who they previously discounted.

And thank goodness….cheers to freedom of expression, cheers to liberty, and cheers to the Harlem Shake!

Johnny Punish

Johnny Punish founded VT in 2004.  After 20 years at the helm, he “retired” from the daily operations in late 2023 passing the ball over to the new owner of VT, Chief Justin Time.   He now writes for VT as “Writer Emeritus”.  He is also a global citizen eco-activist, visionary, musician, artist, entertainer, businessman, investor, life coach, podcast host, and syndicated columnist.  

Punish is an ethnically cleansed Palestinian-American whose maternal family was evicted from their home in Haifa, Palestine in 1948 by Irgun; a Euro-Zionist Settler Terrorist Group.  The family became part of the over 1,000,000 Palestinians who are Al-Nakba refugees (The Catastrophe).  The family fled to Beirut Lebanon for 13 years eventually emigrating to the USA in 1961 via a Brasilian passport obtained by his Palestinian Brasilian-born grandmother (In the early 1900s, the family was sent to Sao Paolo Brasil as guest workers in the mining industry.  Punish’s father is Italian-American from New York City.  Punish’s paternal great-grandparents emigrated to the USA from Naples Italy and Marineo in Sicily in the 1890s.  Punish was born in the Bronx, New York in 1963.

Punish was educated at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (1980-81) and California State University Fullerton (1981-1984) with studies in accounting and business. Before the “internets” had been invented, he owned and ran (5) national newspapers in the United States of America from 1987-1998.  From 2004 to 2023, he owned and managed VT Foreign Policy retiring at the end of 2023.

Punish is also a recording artist.  He has over 100 original songs written. He records and produces music. A member of ASCAP, Punish has several songs placed in feature films. His music is promoted worldwide and played on all digital networks and net radio.

He is also the founder and owner of  Global Thinkers, a freedom media that helps free thinkers create real wealth.

Resources: Facebook –  YouTube – Apple Music – SoundCloud – Spotify –  X (Twitter)

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