Amanda Childs was taking a break from her English teaching studies to check emails and eat her lunch in the Wilkinson Student Center when she was surrounded by a mob of dancers dressed in crazy costumes including a bunny outfit, a unicorn mask and a striped blue onesie. She was caught in the middle of the BYU Harlem Shake, which has recently become a viral YouTube sensation.
“In a matter of seconds I had like four guys dancing around me on the table but I don’t know what it was all about,” Childs said. “Surprised, I had to put my lunch away because they were going to knock it to the ground … stuff like this happens all the time, I guess.”
The dance mob was filmed, edited and posted on YouTube with several other Harlem Shake videos that have recently gone viral.
Kevin Jacobson, a mechanical engineering major, danced with a rabbit puppet for the Harlem Shake video. His roommate invited him to come be a part of this viral trend.
“It’s this YouTube thing that’s trending right now,” Jackobson said. “One person is dancing, then it cuts and shows a bunch of people going crazy.”
Reihia Todd, an exercise science major, came to watch the dancing mob and decided to join them when they rushed the WSC.
“My friend got a text and told me about it two hours ago,” Todd said right after the event. “Watching all the videos made me pumped about it. … It’s amazing how viral it has gone. The videos we watched were only a week old. … (I had) to be part of it.”
Alex Christman, a comparative literature major, organized the BYU Harlem Shake dance mob. He said he thinks the YouTube videos are awesome and was excited that so many people came to dance.
“One thing BYU likes is doing stupid things in mass,” Christman said. “I needed a good stress relief mid-semester and we had a good turnout.”
