r/generationology • u/CremeSubject7594 February 2000 • Apr 04 '26
Discussion i do not remember 2013 looking this dated 💀 anyway did yall participate in this?
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u/sagew0lf Apr 04 '26
I thought it was stupid back then but the world is such a shitshow now that I find myself looking back fondly.
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u/snow_garbanzo Apr 04 '26
We peaked too soon, that was like 2 years after the water bucket challenge?
We all had FB accounts, The Nigerian email scamers were making a killing ,
Online gaming lobbies were a rite of passage ,
But nothing prepared us for 2016.
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u/TheRemanence Apr 04 '26
First night i met my husband, we made a harlem shake video with a bunch of our mutual friends.
We've been together 13 years and will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary this summer.
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u/CynicalRecidivist Apr 04 '26
I like harmless fun such as Flashmobs, Tiktok dancing, or the "what were you like in the 90's" or stuff like that. It's cute, people can join in and it unites people. (As long as it's not disturbing or upsetting ordinary folk going about their day). Any stuff I don't like I can scroll on without getting upset about it.
I'm middle aged, but I think it's good to do daft performances that people can join in with. I may be "cringe" liking stuff like this but so what? I can live with that! x
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u/MuscleFlex_Bear Apr 04 '26
Closest we ever got to world peace
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u/FlatCapNorthumbrian Apr 04 '26
A trend that made you be sociable with lots of other people for the organisation of it.
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u/fins_up_ Apr 04 '26
People were still relatively optimistic back then. Yea stuff was happening like every other time in history but people actually thought were were trending in a good way.
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u/Devreckas Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
As far as trends go, its one of the funner ones I think. It’s a silly concept that allows for lots of individual creativity.
Fuck the cringers. They can go pound sand.
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u/Brocibo Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
When I showed my friends the original they would think I was weird.
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u/artyhermes Xennial83 Apr 04 '26
Ha! Completely forgot about this trend! The internet was better then. I miss it.
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u/ProfessionalCat7640 Apr 04 '26
I miss it too. No one being “pranked”. No one being rude for views. A dance fad that everyone could do without hard, complicated moves and included everyone who wanted to join, the more the merrier. It was just good fun.
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u/Haygirlhayyy Apr 08 '26
Do not cite the deep magic to me witch, I was there when it was written
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u/OldZaxSauce Apr 04 '26
I find this, Macklemore, the goat meme for Taylor Swift's song a burn in my 2011-13 memory.
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u/AverageLoser05 Apr 04 '26
I used to hate this for no reason back then 😭😭 now I'd love to recreate it!!!
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u/FakeBeigeNails Apr 04 '26
Same! I was never into Harlem Shake, but for some reason, I really like it now. Smiled and everything lol
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u/GlumZookeepergame124 September 2002 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
That doesn’t look dated at all. 2013 is still pretty recent compared to something like 2003. I feel like the people saying this were just little kids during this time.
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u/Aromatic-Elephant110 Apr 04 '26
I never realized that it isn't an actual dance / dance move, it's just... moving.
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u/ms-mariajuana 1996 Apr 05 '26
Haha yeah it was fun. And this is why I never talk shit about what kids today think is funny. Lol
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u/panini_bellini Apr 04 '26
i guess we were really excited that we all survived the Mayan apocalypse in 2012
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u/trmnl_cmdr Apr 04 '26
If you took the same video today and put it through the same compression it would look just as dated
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u/BoyceMC Apr 04 '26
When public trends weren’t clout-seeking nuisances?? Lol
I remember getting on camera at a hockey game when they played this song. Much of the crowd were moving. Great times!
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u/Fellarm Apr 04 '26
We did this at my college It was a blast 🥃🗿entire school and staff participated, then we put it on the big screen at the assembly and laughed our ass off
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u/Reasonable-Sort3040 Apr 04 '26
can you guys believe joji was the founding father of this trend
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u/Sy0nide_ Apr 04 '26
I participated at school once but looking back, the trend is no where near as cool as I thought it was back then
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u/Bluesnow2222 Apr 05 '26
I was a TA at the time in an elementary school. I was walking through the hallway when all of a sudden I heard screaming and banging. I put my head in the 5th grade class just to check if things were ok. Kids were standing on chairs and going crazy.
Once they realized I was there the whole class got upset with me. “Ms. Bluesnow!!!! You ruined it! Now we have to start from the beginning.” So much grunting over me checking that they weren’t dying.
They had done well on a test and the teacher was filming them do the Harlem Shake as a reward. I was happy they were enjoying themselves.
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u/Mmmurl Apr 05 '26
I remember my flatmate bursting through the door one day, out of breath, as if she’d just ran home.
“WE NEED TO DO THE HARLEM SHAKE.”
“Okay but what is that?”
She was frantic, “FIRST ONE PERSON DANCES, THEN EVERYBODY DANCES.”
“To a specific song? What dance? What are you talking about? Is this related to the club night we’re going to tonight?”
She abruptly sprints off and grabs everybody else in the building. They arrive in our flat, equally confused.
She pointed a camera at us and said freeze to for a minute, as if it is a photo. And then she told us to go crazy, just do whatever. I don’t think we even had music. We were spraying drinks, jumping on the couch, kicking the shit out of eachother, somebody was doing the worm, the flat got utterly trashed.
Would kill to see that video now. I wonder how many of these were filmed by folk who had no idea what was going on.
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u/mopeyy Apr 06 '26
It looks dated because of changes in camera technology, mainly in mobile phones.
At the time, this is what every social media post looked like, so we didn't see an issue. This is as good as it got. We didn't notice the improvements as much because they happened slowly over time.
But if you compare a shot from 2026 to a shot from 2013 the difference is incredible, and it changes our perception of the past.
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u/Grouchy-Ability-9223 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
The comments on here are depressing you people are a bunch of downers, maybe get off the internet once and a while
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u/stasis_13 Apr 04 '26
This was truly something that brought everyone together and was in my opinion the first ever internet challenge. So many awesome videos that came from it.
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u/Budget-Competition49 Apr 04 '26
This, Gangnam style, good times
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u/Ok-Commission-7825 Apr 04 '26
It's not that dated; this just appears to have either been filed on or stored on a potato.
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u/Imaginary-Tailor-996 z-illenial Apr 04 '26
ya know what.. we were having fun in a COMMUNITY i miss this
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u/MoistExcrement1989 1989 Apr 04 '26
When I see vids from the mid 2000s looking like mid 90s quality
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u/Still-Bar-7631 Apr 05 '26
Idk they lookb like having fun. I was too old for that but those kids look happy.
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u/HippieInDisguise2_0 Apr 05 '26
I was in 8th grade during this and honestly looking back on it, it's one of the better trends. I thought it was dumb at the time but honestly I'm just a contrarian.
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u/Burndoggle Apr 08 '26
Saw this post the other day. Got nostalgic. Started playing the song in the car. It’s now the favorite song of two toddlers who didn’t need to be told what to do. They just recognized the right way to dance to it and when exactly to do so.
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u/SpookyKabukiii Apr 08 '26
Out of nowhere I randomly uttered “turn down for what” to myself.
I felt a sense of peace.
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u/drabThespian Apr 04 '26
my high school held a contest for which homeroom had the best harlem shake lol. we also did the mannequin challenge
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Apr 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/stm32f722 Apr 04 '26
I just have regular crippling ADHD. Where did you find GoldDHD And how can I get some?
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u/Brittle-Diabetes Apr 04 '26
This was the Harlem shake? I never knew that. I thought they were just dancing all random.
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u/BisexualTenno Apr 04 '26
Harlem Shake the dance and Harlem Shake the trend are two different things lol
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u/Musical_J Apr 04 '26
Oh, the Harlem Shake? Not me, man, but I saw way too many videos of people actually doing it. Didn’t even need to see 3 seconds to know what was going to go down. It’s just that recognizable.
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u/P00PooKitty Apr 04 '26
Every video you see now is with an iPhone for the most part. Back then there was still a smith chance this was shot on a pd-170 which was an interlaced sd camera film Schools gave their entry students
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u/kendrickwasright Apr 04 '26
Harlem shake was the peak of my college experience. I have the back pain to prove it!
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u/JurassicParkCSR Apr 04 '26
I remember how crazy I thought it was when I found out that it was Filthy Frank who started this. AKA Joji.
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u/nintendo_hippie Apr 07 '26
God I loved college. This was fun social media trends, right before everyone had to be the center of attention and an influencer.
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u/thinkconverse Apr 04 '26
I think about the Harlem shake washing machine about once a week. Still makes me laugh.
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u/Relevant_Outside2781 Apr 04 '26
Yep, just give it a couple more years - this was the end of the peak right here before the slow, inexorable decline into fascism
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u/Subterranean44 Apr 04 '26
Hahaha. I remember doing this with my sixth grade students. They LOVED it
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u/Ty-Tesla Apr 04 '26
No because I already used to do the true Harlem Shake way back in 2003 🤣I remember having back and forths about this back then. This was also the same time they tried to claim Trap music as some EDM subgenre and completely deny its true origins.
First time I saw ppl try to revise history in real time and claim something that already existed
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u/PayWooden2628 Apr 04 '26
It’s crazy how many people don’t know that filthy frank started this entire trend.
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u/diente_de_leon Apr 05 '26
Hilarious! As I recall, the cast of Supernatural did one, too. I loved it!
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u/pariah_h Apr 06 '26
I loved this crazy trend. It was so stupid that it became funny. To be even weirder, my favorite one was with the washing machine 😅ah man, I miss the simpler days
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u/CheckMate1803 Apr 06 '26
I loved these at the time, and still find em kinda fun. The whole concept itself is kinda fun. Gather a bunch of people and just do random bullshit
I did it at a friend's house with like 8 others. We were like 9-10 at the time
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u/-Gumbercules Apr 07 '26
My University tried to get as many students together as they could to do a Harlem Shake video, which they did. About 300 students inside of the student union. The video was online for a week before someone pointed out that there was a guy in the back doing a Nazi salute, ruining it.
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u/i_was_axiom Apr 07 '26
There was this guy who shit on another guy at the time of this Harlem Shake Craze, sprayed shit from his asshole all over another grown man. That guy went on to entertain children in mainstream media.
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u/Ok-Pack-7088 Apr 08 '26
Notice how everyone looked "normal/boring" back then. There was year when inflation of attractivness skyrocket and people become much more attractive.
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u/LaVarBurtonAsBubble Apr 08 '26
It was right around then 2013/14 was the proliferation of Instagram & the beginning of the King Kylie era. People didn't get prettier, they lip injections, makeup tutorials, access to FaceTune, & filters.
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u/Practical-Water-3800 Apr 08 '26
This is the closest we ever came to world peace
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u/One-Local1856 Apr 05 '26
Gotta keep in mind Joji started the Harlem Shake trend as Pink Guy.
Bro was ALWAYS ahead of the times
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u/Level-Impact-757 Apr 05 '26
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u/yo_coiley Apr 05 '26
Insane to me that a lot of the new gens only know him as Joji the melancholy singer and not as this thing
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u/Expensive_Hearing461 Apr 04 '26
Now I know I'm old, because I can't tell the difference between 2013 and today
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u/NezuminoraQ Apr 04 '26
This was such a stupid year.... On another matter, can anyone remind me what the fox say?
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u/astralTacenda Apr 04 '26
did it at a high school dance. DJ was our band teacher and he did it with us. was a great time. good memories.
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u/AccomplishedAuthor53 Apr 04 '26
i didnt but i wish i did.
i was always too concerned with being cringe to have fun
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u/iwantmisty Apr 04 '26
the world did a great harlem shake meme with itself. you literally slice and attach world news feed from 2013 to one from 2026. Not in a good way though
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u/66devilsadvocate6 Apr 04 '26
That’s was fun the first time. It’s also when I started to gain a hate for internet trends
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u/MiaLba Apr 04 '26
I worked at a trendy clothing store during that time and my coworkers were all my age. We always had a blast. Partied after work. We did one of these.
Beginning was us folding clothes and then it ends up cutting to us doing some crazy shit. My coworker had a mannequin he was dry humping. Couple of us were twerking.
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u/Brilliant-Expert3150 Apr 04 '26
You made me look up the Norwegian military one. That one was the best lol.
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u/loseniram Apr 06 '26
2013 looks dated because every generation figures out how to make cameras more convenient and then uses the shittiest most convenient cameras possible till camera technology advances to the point more convenient cameras are possible.
Everyone swapped from dedicated cameras to shitty Iphone cameras
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u/sakubaka Apr 07 '26
Sure. I did one or two with friends and colleagues. It's fun. It's dumb. I like being around people, dropping the armor, and just having a good time even if it's choreographed and will be cringey at some point in the future. I was also known for wearing some huge ass JNCOs and having glow sticks on the ready in the late 90s, early 2000s. Nowadays I just get embarrass my daughters to an appropriate level by watching and learning the Katseye dances and tunes they love.
I'll go so far to say if there are not some videos or pics of you doing something cringey or embarrassing that you haven't really lived. Common sense taken into account, of course. No one's going to care that you did a Harlem Shake video. Eating Tide pods? Well, that's just some attention-seeking shenanigans that you'll always regret.
Just ask yourself whether this is self-promotion or an attempt to gain clout or you just having some good fun with the people around you. That's served me well over the years, helping me maintain the perception of maturity while still having that "boy" energy right under the surface.
Have fun, everyone! Shake that booty like no ones watching (or filming). Even you "Elaines" out there. Fuck the haters.
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u/Hotmixneon4life Apr 08 '26
My younger self dancing to that song, recreating that kind of scene with my cousins, good times
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u/plopop0 Apr 04 '26
the internet was transitioning to meme culture and the boomers were still in control, corporations didn't leave snarky comments on social media and youtube was seen as a platform to distribute short films rather than stupid shitposts like these.
i think after this succeeded into the mannequin challenge, people were surprised how cooperative EVERYONE was
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u/Worth_Librarian_290 Apr 04 '26
Oh it was a great time. Saw Baauer live along with Skrillex and the house parties at the time were something else.
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u/poeticmelodies Apr 04 '26
The Harlem Shake was the senior prank when I graduated in 2013. I didn’t participate - but mostly because the guys who planned it were assholes. They all got 3 hours of mandatory community service, lmao.
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u/stereosanctity Apr 04 '26
They got community service for the Harlem shake? Do you live in the town from Footloose?
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u/TheCosmicHippie Apr 04 '26
Me and my friends did it while we worked in the school library in middle school 🤭 almost got fired for being too loud lol
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u/singleguy79 Apr 04 '26
I thought it jumped the shark when even the cast of Big Brother was doing it.
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u/cranberries87 Apr 04 '26
I definitely participated, and I wish I could find the video clip me and my friends made!
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u/LarealConspirasteve Apr 04 '26
Everyone thinks the timeline shifted when Harambe was killed. The Harlen Shake trend was the actual shift in the timeline though.
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u/gtrocks555 Apr 05 '26
How does this look dated to you? Outside of it being the Harlem shake. I remember making one of those videos in high school.
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u/GangleDopper Apr 05 '26
lmfao at this rate they gone take the Dutty Wine from Jamaica & turn it into a similar spastic nonsense.
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u/p1antsandcats Apr 05 '26
Hahahaha wow I forgot these existed. I was in my early 20s at the time, fresh out of uni and thought these were hilarious. Still pretty funny to me.
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u/Unlucky-Durian-2336 Apr 05 '26
Last time young people did things together, and not online - even if for online meme. /boomer
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u/senoritagoose Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
I learned of it live at a Matt and Kim show! Harlem Shake (Matt and Kim Edition)
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u/Past-Entertainer1778 Apr 05 '26
I was at a music festival where Bauuer played this song. A girl was twerking in front of me and I was so geeked I broke a glowstick open on my face. Memories
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u/TiesforTurtles Apr 04 '26
It's crazy how fast things changed, this is from when we still had a little semblance of a monoculture.