What is HARLEM SHAKE?

Harlem Shake videos. 

A.K.A: The dancing craze sweeping the interwebz.

ORIGINS: 1981, Harlem. New and different version resurfaced in 2013.

VIRAL FORMULA: Crazy dancing + crazy costumes = crazy popular

Our attention spans are shorter than ever, and whilst I have no scientific research or experiments to prove my point (hell - I only just passed High School science) my evidence is The Harlem Shake, and the fact that people have already taken to the comment section to complain how bored they are or (in Shane Dawson's version) 'stupid viral ever'.

Yes, we can't even type in full (...) ever.

So with people already getting bored of these viral videos, it looks like the trend might just last longer than the actual clips themselves, which just about average at half a minute. For example this SourceFed version is just 0.36 seconds long:

(*half a minute + the times you clicked replay to watch Lee Newton and that couch)

This original video was uploaded only on the 2nd of Feburary,  and yet a whole host of the most popular channels on the site have already made their own versions giving you a good idea about how fast the trend has spread.

It's no surprise really though. When everyone was doing Gangnam Style parodies they had to come up with a new twist, learn a dance routine, find a man able to pelvic thrust with such conviction and rhythm.

Whereas the Harlem Shake is a two-take, instant hit! Most Youtubers seem to have closets of dressing up equipment already. And man, that beat is so catchy, I'll bet a couple of them don't even realise they're shooting a video and are just happy to have a dance around!

I'll leave you with this, my favourite Shake so far with the secondary game of "Damn, what's that kid from Kid's React doing?!?"

What's your favourite Harlem Shake? Comment below!