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Have you heard of the #runningmanchallenge? Like the dab and nae nae before it, the craze has spread across America in the way that only fun social media dances can. A lot of that also has to do with the fact that the running man challenge only utilizes one song, "My Boo," the 1996 hit by the Ghost Town DJs. Hell, the song—which features oddly contemporary drums for a 20-year-old track—is as much fun as the dancing itself.
The trend began with a few high school kids in New Jersey, though it didn't really catch fire until members of the University of Maryland's basketball team started posting different versions almost daily.
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In the weeks that followed, thousands of people attempted the challenge, including tons of other college and pro sports teams around.As you can see, the move isn't that hard to pull off, which is why it's so much fun to do. (See, even you can dance!) Plus, considering the inherent irony of a mid '90s dance track, no one really expects you to be much good at doing the running man either. (In fact, myself, GQ editorial assistant Andrew Goble and photo editor Alex Reside even got on the trend last week, and let me tell you, not a one of us has Fred Astaire skills.)
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And yet, you never really know how strong a dance craze is until it's attempted by a couple of daytime local news anchors. Yesterday, Monica and Wes of WPAA in Dallas became the unfortunate pair to do just that. First, after falsely attributing the dance to the U of M players, Monica then went on to explain how her fiancé challenged her and her co-anchor, and then, like pure dumpster-fire poetry in motion, they launched into it.
Cause of death: an astounding dearth of rhythm. But then, with a swift dagger of white dorkiness as if to ensure the running man challenge's death, Wes comes in and dabs.
However, there might actually be something nice about the running man challenge dying before it ever really lived. After all, if this went on for a few more weeks, we'd probably have to watch Hillary Clinton do it on Ellen.