Internet Nostalgia

Let’s Revisit the Harlem Shake

It was insane, and still kind of is

In part four of our new series on the Internet’s olden times, we look at the world of online “comedy.” This is the next installment of our weekly Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at stories that captured the imagination and attention of the internet for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. The world of the internet moves so quickly that things that happened five years ago might as well be black-and-white newsreel footage at this point. This series looks back at those phenomena and what they told us about the internet, and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week, we looked at Will Ferrell’s “The Landlord.” Today: The Harlem Shake.

Date: February 2013

The Story: It is impossible to pinpoint what is so compelling about the Harlem Shake meme. Its original posting, by some YouTube personality who doesn’t matter anymore, is silly, weird and even a little unnerving. It’s the simplest thing, almost like the quiet-loud-quiet of an old Nirvana song, or the waiting-for-the-beat-to-drop of electronica. The dancers are calm, and then, suddenly, there is chaos. There is madness.