Dancing Pallbearers

Last updated
Dancing Pallbearers
Dancing Pallbearers.jpg
Screenshot of the video clip showing pallbearers dancing with the casket, which is originally taken from BBC News
Background information
Origin Prampram, Ghana
Years active2003–present
Members
  • Benjamin Aidoo with 4 others

Dancing Pallbearers, also known by a variety of names, including Dancing Coffin, Coffin Dancers, Coffin Dance Meme, or simply Coffin Dance, is the informal name given to a group of pallbearers from Nana Otafrija Pallbearing and Waiting Service who are based in the coastal town of Prampram in the Greater Accra Region of southern Ghana, although they perform across the country as well as outside Ghana. [1] The founder and leader of the group is Benjamin Aidoo. [2] Locally, they are referred to as Dada awu (meaning "Daddy's dead"). [3]

Contents

The group initially gained worldwide attention through a BBC News feature story in 2017. In March 2020, the group became an internet meme when the videos were paired with EDM song "Astronomia" by Tony Igy, [4] and gained popularity in video edits. [5]

Origin

The Dancing Pallbearers are led by Benjamin Aidoo, who started the group as a regular pallbearer service in 2003. [2] [6] He later had the idea of adding choreography to their pallbearing work. Extra fees are charged for dancing with the coffin during a funeral. [7]

The oldest of the reused clips is from YouTube by Travelin Sister from January 22, 2015, [8] though the Dancing Pallbearers first rose to wider prominence in 2017 when they were featured in a BBC News report. [3] The third video, which depicted pallbearers accidentally dropping a coffin during their dance, was first posted by Facebook user "Bigscout Nana Prempeh" on May 2, 2019, and gained over 2,900 reactions, 4,600 shares and 350,000 views in one year. [9]

Rise

The video and with similar material gained significant popularity on TikTok as a punchline for fail clips in a manner similar to To Be Continued and We'll Be Right Back memes, implying that the person in the fail video has died. For example, on March 6, 2020, TikTok account Trickshots posted a version of the meme that received over 2.9 million views and 237,000 likes. [5]

On March 30, 2020, a YouTuber named DigiNeko "Matthew Ordrick" uploaded a video to YouTube elevating the trend on the Internet, through mainly being associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which was ongoing when the meme became popular, receiving over 400 million views. [10] [11] Since the trend, it has been popular on social media, widely uploaded to platforms such as Reddit, YouTube and TikTok. [12] [13] furthering its use for darkly comedic internet memes, videos of people suffering various mishaps, followed by clips of the pallbearers dancing with coffins (implicitly the victims of the preceding clips). The clips are generally paired up at least since February 26, 2020 with the song "Astronomia" by Russian musical artist Tony Igy and remixed by Dutch duo Vicetone, [8] although others use either "You Know I'll Go Get" by Indonesian DJ Haning and Rizky Ayuba (a remixed version of Enrique Iglesias's song "Finally Found You") or Lenka's "Trouble Is a Friend" as an alternate song. [4]

In May 2020, the BBC revisited the pallbearers interviewing them about their rise to fame. [8]

Other appearances in media

Pallbearers in Nigeria displaying different dancing skills with a casket on their way to a burial site Undertakers 01.jpg
Pallbearers in Nigeria displaying different dancing skills with a casket on their way to a burial site

The Dancing Pallbearers made appearance in internet memes. For example, an easter egg in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War references the meme. [14] In addition, the meme experienced a revival on social media following the White House COVID-19 outbreak in early October 2020, in which then-president Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19. [15]

The Pallbearers was also used for campaigning for COVID-19 prevention. For instance, in Brazil, in May 2020, the city government of Caldas Novas, in the state of Goiás, installed two billboards showing the coffin dancers and the caption "stay at home or dance with us", to encourage social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. [16] [17] Soon after, the group released a video where they capitalized on the phrase, encouraging viewers to 'stay home or dance with us'. [18] In Colombia and Peru, policemen imitated the group's dance carrying a coffin on their shoulders, encouraging the community to stay home to stem the spread of the Coronavirus. [19] [20] The group also have seen use in politics, when the leaders of New Political Center — Girchi, a political party in Georgia, dressed up in chokhas and made their own version of the video. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

Prampram is a coastal town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The town is located in the Ningo Prampram District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vicetone</span> Dutch electronic music DJ and production duo

Vicetone is a Dutch electronic music production DJ duo formed by Ruben den Boer and Victor Pool from Groningen. The duo began as a DJ act, and in 2013, they were voted into the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list for the first time at 60th as a new entry. Later in 2014, they went up 24 places on the list, coming 36th. In 2015, they fell 14 places to 50th. They made a return to the Top 100, coming in at 83rd in 2019 but dropped out the subsequent year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ByteDance</span> Chinese internet technology company

ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Haidian, Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TikTok</span> Video-focused social media platform

TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smart phone app.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NPC (meme)</span> An insult that implies a person lacks critical thinking

The NPC, derived from non-player character, is an Internet meme that represents people who do not think for themselves or do not make their own decisions; those who lack introspection or intrapersonal communication. The meme gained further viral status on TikTok, with the surge of "NPC Streamers". In terms of politics, it's often been used by those with anti-establishment views to describe those who fail to question authority, "groupthink", or a stance that would display conformity and obedience. The NPC meme, which graphically is based on the Wojak meme, was created in July 2016 by an anonymous author and first published on the imageboard 4chan, where the idea and inspiration behind the meme were introduced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mia Khalifa (song)</span> 2018 single by iLoveFriday

"Mia Khalifa" (originally titled "Mia Khalifa (Diss)", also known as "Hit or Miss", and sometimes stylized as "MiA KHALiFA") is a song by American hip hop group iLoveFriday (stylized as iLOVEFRiDAY). The duo of Atlanta-based rappers Aqsa Malik (also known as Smoke Hijabi) and Xeno Carr self-released the song on February 12, 2018, which was later re-released by Records Co and Columbia Records on December 14, 2018. It was included on their second EP, Mood (2019). The song was produced by Carr. The song is a diss track targeting Mia Khalifa, a Lebanese-American Internet celebrity and former pornographic actress. The decision to write a song dissing Khalifa arose over a misunderstanding. A faked screenshot, intended as a joke, seemed to show Khalifa, who once appeared in a pornographic film wearing a hijab, criticizing Malik for smoking while wearing a hijab in a music video. iLoveFriday thought the screenshot was legitimate.

"OK boomer" or "okay boomer" is a catchphrase and internet meme that has been used by members of the Millennial generation and Generation Z to dismiss or mock attitudes typically associated with baby boomers – people born in the two decades following World War II. The phrase first drew widespread attention due to a November 2019 TikTok video in response to an older man, though the phrase had been coined years before that. Considered by some to be ageist, the phrase has developed into a retort for resistance to technological change, climate change denial, marginalization of members of minority groups, or opposition to younger generations' values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charli D'Amelio</span> American social media personality (born 2004)

Charli Grace D'Amelio is an American social media personality. She was a competitive dancer for over a decade before starting her social media career in 2019, when she began posting dance videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok. She quickly amassed a large following and subsequently became the most-followed creator on the platform in March 2020 until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame in June 2022. With over 151 million followers, she is the second most-followed person on TikTok, as of 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghen Cô Vy</span> 2020 song about the COVID-19 pandemic

"Ghen Cô Vy" is a song by Vietnamese singers Min and Erik, released on February 23, 2020. Written and composed by Khắc Hưng, the song supported a health communication campaign initiated by the Vietnamese National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health (NIOEH), part of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam. The campaign, which also included an animated music video and a dance challenge choreographed by Quang Dang on YouTube, was created and managed by Hoang Diem Huyen from NIOEH.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media</span>

Social media became an active place to interact during the COVID-19 pandemic, following the onset of social distancing. Overall messaging rates had risen by above 50%, according to a study by Facebook's analytics department. Individuals at home used social media to maintain their relationships and access entertainment to pass time faster.

Nicole Sanchez, better known as Neekolul, is an American internet personality, Twitch streamer, and YouTuber. In March 2020, her popularity online rose when she uploaded a TikTok featuring her lip syncing to the song "Oki Doki Boomer" while wearing a Bernie 2020 crop top; this TikTok was a direct reference to the "OK boomer" Internet meme that was popularized in late 2019. In July 2020, she was signed as a content creator for the gaming organization 100 Thieves. In 2023, she left 100 Thieves.

Anton Aleksandrovich Igumnov, professionally known as Tony Igy, is a Russian electronic dance music artist. He is best known for his hit "Astronomia", which was originally released in 2010. A 2019 Stephan F remix of "Astronomia" became a global phenomenon in April 2020 as part of the Coffin dance meme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triller (app)</span> American social networking service

Triller is an American video-sharing social networking service. The service allows users to create and share short-form videos, including videos set to, or automatically synchronized to music using artificial intelligence technology. Triller was released for iOS and Android in 2015, and initially operated as a video editing app before adding social networking features.

Bardcore or tavernwave is a musical microgenre that became popular in 2020, consisting of medieval-inspired remakes of popular songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronomia (Vicetone remix)</span> 2014 single by Vicetone and Tony Igy

"Astronomia" is a house song by Dutch electronic music duo Vicetone and Russian DJ and record producer Tony Igy, created as a remix of Igy's 2010 song with the same name. It was released on July 9, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 pandemic in popular culture</span> References to the COVID-19 pandemic in popular culture

The COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in the early months of 2020, causing massive economic and social disruption. In addition to the disease itself, populations have often dealt with lockdowns, shortages and pandemic fatigue, political and cultural turmoil. This has made the pandemic era a time of exceptional stress. The pandemic has driven some people to seek peaceful escapism in media, but others towards fictional pandemics as an alternate form of escapism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noah Beck</span> American influencer (born 2001)

Noah Timothy Beck is an American influencer most known for his content on TikTok. In 2019, Beck was a midfielder for the Portland Pilots men's soccer team. In 2023, he created the underwear brand IPHIS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2 Phút Hơn</span> 2020 single by Pháo

"2 Phút Hơn" or "Hai Phút Hơn" is a 2020 Vinahouse house song by Pháo. Several remixes of the song were made. One by DJ/producer Kaiz was released on November 28, 2020, and gained global popularity, one of a number of Vietnamese songs to become popular on TikTok through its dance covers.

Ronnie McNutt was a 33-year-old American man and US Army Reserve veteran from New Albany, Mississippi, who committed suicide by shooting himself under his chin on a Facebook livestream, which went viral on various social media platforms due to its inherent shock value.

References

  1. "How Prampram pallbearers became an international sensation – and a meme". The Ghana Report. April 17, 2020.
  2. 1 2 Binsky, Drew (January 17, 2021). "The Viral COFFIN DANCERS of Ghana (Happy Funerals)" via YouTube.
  3. 1 2 Lansah, Sulley (July 25, 2017). "Ghana's dancing pallbearers bring funeral joy". BBC News. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Amter, Charlie (April 30, 2020). "Tracing the 'Coffin Dance' Meme Music's Path From Russia to Ghana to the World". Variety . Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Pandey, Saransh (April 12, 2020). "Ghana Pallbearers Funny Coffin Song Is Still in a Trend for a Meme". XdigitalNews.
  6. "A Peep Into Ghana Dancing Pallbearers". Gistvic. April 2, 2020. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  7. Nagesh, Ashitha (July 27, 2017). "Ghanaians really know how to celebrate when someone dies". Metro. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 "Coffin Dance / Dancing Pallbearers". Know Your Meme . March 30, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  9. Villan, Tyne (April 13, 2020). "Here's the story behind the 'coffin dance crew' we see on the internet every day". InqPOP!.
  10. Paquette, Danielle (April 25, 2020). "The sudden rise of the coronavirus grim reaper: Ghana's dancing pallbearers". The Washington Post . Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  11. "Ghana's dancing pallbearers are being used to send a message around the world: 'Stay home or dance with us'". Business Insider. Public Radio Exchange. April 30, 2020.
  12. Kaur, Loveleen (April 4, 2020). "Ghana's Dancing Pallbearers Inspire Memes & Jokes Online". Storypick. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  13. Lorenz, Taylor (May 7, 2020). "Memers are Taking Over TikTok". The New York Times .
  14. "How to Complete Zombies Coffin Dance Easter Egg in COD: Black Ops Cold War". ScreenRant. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  15. Jackson, Gita (October 2, 2020). "The Ghanaian Pallbearers Have Come For Trump". Vice. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  16. Túlio, Sílvio; Ferreira, Emerson (13 May 2020). "Prefeitura instala outdoors com dançarinos do meme do caixão para alertar sobre Covid-19: 'Fique em casa ou dance com a gente'" [City Hall installs billboards with coffin meme dancers to warn about Covid-19: 'Stay at home or dance with us']. G1. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  17. Nunoo, Favour (17 April 2020). "'Stay home or dance plus us' – How dancing Ghana pallbearers turn Covid-19 sensation". BBC News Pidgin.
  18. Scribner, Herb (7 May 2020). "In new video, viral Ghana coffin dancers warn everyone to 'stay home or dance with us'". Deseret News.
  19. "Viral Video: TN police imitate Ghana dancing pallbearers to urge people to stay indoors". The Indian Express. May 4, 2020.
  20. McCracken, Niall (April 8, 2020). "Coronavirus: 'I'm stranded in Peru and can't leave my hostel'". BBC News.
  21. ""გირჩის ცეკვა კუბოთი" (ვიდეო)" ["Dance of Girchi with a coffin" (video)]. plus.kvira.ge (in Georgian). August 5, 2020.