‘Harlem Shake’ jiggle leaves us all shook up

The “Harlem Shake” continues to cause a stir.

What is the “Harlem Shake”? If you don’t know, you probably also think “Gangnam Style” refers to fabric with woven checks (it’s really a song by Korean rapper Psy complete with horse-gallop groove choreography).

Let’s go over a few things the “Harlem Shake” - the latest dance craze (emphasis on “craze,” not on “dance”) - is not.

It’s neither a cocktail nor a smoothie.

And the “Harlem Shake” is not really the “Harlem Shake.” It’s more like the Harlem Fake. Stay with me.

The original “Harlem Shake” - “a much more raw, technical, fluid, frenetic dance” of, yes, shaking - originated in, yes, Harlem in the early 1980s, according to The New York Times. Albert Boyce (nickname A1.B.) would entertain crowds at Rucker Park with his signature moves, which the four-man Crazy Boyz dance crew popularized as the “Harlem Shake.”

Now, 30 years later, DJ and producer Baauer’s buzzy, electronic “Harlem Shake” song (which has topped Billboard’s Hot 100) has spawned an Internet meme and cultural sensation. One person - usually in a ludicrous mask or helmet - dances alone for 15 seconds as the beat builds. Others join at the song’s directive “Do the Harlem Shake,” quaking, humping the air, sometimes stripping and wielding props.

And now the current “Harlem Shake” has spread like hotcakes.

A search on YouTube calls up about 234,000 results. There’s a Harlem Shake Norwegian Army edition, dog and cat editions, Girl Scouts editions, a washing machine edition, weatherman editions and countless compilations. Everyone has been recorded doing the dance from students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and The Simpsons to the Miami Heat and state Rep. Joe Farias, D-Texas, in support of public education (message: stay in school and one day you too can be frolicking like a fool on the Capitol steps!).

But is it time to put the brakes on the “Shake” for everyone’s sake?

The Colorado College Ultimate Frisbee Team recently video-recorded its performance of the “Harlem Shake” prior to a weekend tournament … on a Frontier Airlines flight (reportedly with the airline’s blessing). Not impressed: the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating this incident of “Shakes on a Plane.”

An Australian mining services company reportedly fired 15 workers who performed and then posted an underground version of the “Harlem Shake.” The company, citing the breaching of “safety, integrity and excellence,” didn’t find these miners’ actions so minor.

Speaking of minors, students from all over - Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida - have been suspended for “Harlem Shake” outbreaks.

Meanwhile the phenomenon has become a form of protest in the Middle East. The “Shake” - viewed by conservatives as an obscene Western export - has been used by Tunisians and Egyptians as a means of social protest, leading to clashes.

But we predict the “Harlem Shake” will soon stop being a headache. This dance trend, like all others (the moonwalk, the cabbage patch, the “Achy Breaky Heart” line dance, “Macarena,” “Cupid Shuffle,” etc.), will “Cha Cha Slide” its way out of popular culture.

It will be completely out of “Vogue” … like voguing.

Hustle to e-mail: [email protected] Spin Cycle is a weekly smirk at pop culture and a weekly segment on Little Rock’s KURB-FM, B98.5, at 7 a.m.Thursdays. Listen live and hear podcasts at b98.com.