Harlem Shake - Mom Blogger Style

A few days ago, my sixteen-year-old daughter asked me, "Have you heard of the Harlem Shake?" 

I gave her my best Whatcha talkin' 'bout, Willis? look. 

 She went on, "Well you will hear about it." Then she handed me her iPod and hit play on the video she had queued." 

I watched the 30 second video and laughed. "That's pretty funny," I admitted. "Are those friends of yours?" I asked about the people in the video. 

 "No, but there are a ton of these videos out there. Everyone has made one." 

 Today I decided it would be fun to make my own. "Hey kids! Will you dance around in a video for me?"

Savannah rolled her eyes. “Mom, that’s out.”

“But you just told me about it a few days ago,” I protested.

“Yeah, I know. But now it’s old.”

My son added, “It’s actually been around for years, but people found it on Youtube and it took off from there.”

“So what do you guys do, just search Youtube for fun stuff? How do these things spread so quickly?”

“Yeah, we mostly use Youtube. We hear stuff from friends and we see stuff on other sites like Funnyjunk, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.”

I asked Savannah, “So what makes a video go viral?”

She gave me the Whatcha talking’ ’bout, Willis? look. “I don’t know. People tell me about something, I watch it, then I tell other people.”

“So there’s no secret formula?” I asked.

At this point, she gave me her I’m bored with your general lameness and uncoolness, but I’ll humor you because you hold the money and the car keys attitude.

So there you have it. Who knows what the next Nyan Cat, Llamas with Hats, Charlie Bit Me, Marcel the Shell, Gangnam Style, Harlem Shake will be.  But you can bet that teenagers will be the ones to determine if it’s share-worthy and thus viral material.


Now, without further ado, is my Harlem Shake – Mom blogger style!