For the past two weeks or so, I have been living under a rock. When I pushed the rock away, and found the nearest iPad, I learned about the new dance craze meme called the Harlem Shake. Then I spent the next hour LMAO watching one video after another.
With anything popular, there’s controversy, as to who invented the meme. Filthy Frank or TSCS. Filthy Frank seems to have pioneered the use of the song, use of costumes and the dance moves, but TSCS made it funnier by first, having one person dance, and then everyone dances.
Filthy Frank:
TSCS:
It’s like this. You were born. Then your grandfather comes along and says “that kid was my idea — if it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t be alive”. But then you father is like “sure, if wasn’t for you neither of us would be alive, but if it weren’t for me, the kid definitely would not be alive”. You are the meme. Your grandfather is Filthy Frank, and your dad is TSCS. And you’re all wonderful.
It looks a little like the Pee Wee dance.
Not to be confused with the Harlem Shuffle, of course…
Looks like the animation was done by John K, the guy who did Ren n’ Stimpy. Do you remember when Fred Norris recorded his own version of the Harlem Shuffle, and released it prior to The Rolling Stones’ version?
I was totally thinking about that! It was a really big deal that the Rolling Stones were releasing this new song, to be debuted on the radio stations at a very specific time and not one second earlier. The discs themselves had been delivered to radio stations a day or so ahead of time, and, as was the custom, they knew there were the severest of penalties if they played the song early. So Howard kept saying he didn’t care, he was giong to play the song, to heck with the consequences. He plays the song, and people (especially those in “the biz”) are up in arms.
It turns out that it was a fake. He got Fred (was it Fred or someone else?) to do a kick-ass Mick Jagger impression and just record a song that sounded like your basic mid-eighties Rolling Stones song, making sure to include the words “harlem shuffle”.
Ah, those were the days…