Late Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel revealed that the infamous "girl on fire" twerking video was in fact a hoax and with that, twerking has officially entered the realm of awkward jokes by parents on Facebook. Twerking is now as ubiquitous in the Macarena in the '90s.
Of course, that was primarily Kimmel's hoaxy aim. After revealing the truth on Monday's show, Kimmel said, "Well, thank you for helping us deceive the world and hopefully put an end to twerking forever." Thanks, Jimmy, but your stunt was likely just the nail in the coffin after Miley Cyrus's Video Music Awards performance sparked a rash of twerking tutorials, displays, and explanations that have left welts on most our foreheads from all the involuntary face-to-palm embarrassment.
Since that fateful evening on August 25, we've seen twerking added to the Oxford English Dictionary, explained in full by Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman, and taught by the New York Post now "In 4 Easy Steps."
The dancing style that originated in New Orleans is being driven into the ground — even One Direction is getting tired of it. After twerking, himself, at the Teen Choice Awards, Harry Styles has since decided the dance move is "promoting promiscuity." Of course, that doesn't stop notoriously stiff TV hosts like Gretchen Carlson from Fox and Friends from attempting the gyration on national television (video below). We are just three clicks away from Al Roker tossing it to Matt Lauer via twerk on the Today Show.
This mainstream onslaught (hold your "hipster" groans please — we're talking about twerking, not some band I'm hoping you haven't heard of) isn't entirely unlike the way in which the Macarena made its way to newscasts, middle school vice principal speeches, and eventually kids' cartoons like Animaniacs. At the time, its hip-shaking movements and accompanying lyrics like "They all want me, they can't have me/ So they all come and dance beside me" and the general concept of the singer wanting to cheat on her boyfriend with all the guys who "all want" her weren't exactly appropriate for general consumption, but the trend was too enormous.
Twerking has blown up beyond the Macarena's wildest dreams, thanks to its accidental benefactor Cyrus. And while she just released a music video that includes scenes of her gyrating on the titular "Wrecking Ball," resist all urges to call it twerking. We're reaching the point where "twerking" is synonymous with "sexual dancing" and it appears on morning shows every few days. If there's ever been a clear time to just let a trend die, it's this exact moment.
Twerk if you must (it is a pretty good workout, after all), but please, in the name of all that is fun, don't post it to YouTube, Instagram it to all your friends, or acknowledge it in any place other than the dance floor.
