What Is Mannequin Challenge? Everything To Know About The Internet’s Newest Craze

By now, your Twitter timeline or Facebook feed may have been filled with videos of people in various positions, frozen in time set to the soundtrack of hip-hop songs. It’s called the Mannequin Challenge and it’s in the same vein as planking or the Ice Bucket Challenge.

The video fad is relatively new with the earliest known viral clip being uploaded on Oct. 26 by Twitter user @pvrity_. The Twitter user’s video featured a group of students from Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida, standing lifeless like mannequins in their classroom.

In the following days, the tweet racked up over 4,000 retweets and 4,000 likes, making its way onto other social media platforms. By Nov. 2, the fad had taken off and became a full-blown hashtag challenge. High school students and college students all over the nation were creating their own videos, now set to hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd’s hit song, “Black Beatles.”

With their song as the soundtrack for the fad, Rae Sremmurd made their own Mannequin Challenge video, getting more than 55,000 retweets after it was uploaded to member Swae Lee’s Twitter account. Meanwhile other participants have begun to create more intricate videos featuring baseball teams, cheerleading squads and entire pep rallies at school.

Over the weekend, the fad got even more attention when college and professional sports teams such as the Clemson Tigers, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants celebrated victories with their own renditions.

While many internet challenges and video fads tend to die out shortly after they begin, the Mannequin Challenge has a lot of celebrities jumping on the bandwagon, which may increase its longevity. And if the number of retweets and likes are indication, the challenge may be here for long time.