Syracuse students take on the Harlem Shake

Hula skirts, a sombrero, and fuzzy blue and orange batons added to the bizarre atmosphere that infiltrated Watson Theatre Thursday morning during Professor Anthony Rotolo’s Social Media in the Enterprise class (affectionately known as #RotoloClass). A strange, blue-haired stuffed giant lounged up front and Otto the Orange hopped excitedly on top of a chair. A girl with a tutu and a masked gentleman sitting in a wheelchair, shirtless under his lab coat, waited eagerly in front of the professor, who was donning a wizard’s hat and robes. And then: the beat dropped.

The music got fast, the room got loud, and the dance moves got weird. People were Harlem Shaking it at full force.

Since the viral trend started picking up two weeks ago, the students of Syracuse University have produced a slew of videos showing off their penchant for awesomely awkward dancing and creative prop usage. Although The Atlantic declared the meme dead last Wednesday after it took over the set of the Today Show, ‘Cuse videos continued to trickle onto YouTube (the students of Lawrinson Hall apparently spent Saturday afternoon breaking it down). Here are a few of the best SU vids:

As you can see, Lawrinson residents know how to move, especially when pool noodles are included as dance partners:

Watch the Architecture kids take a break from their 20-hour workdays to climb up on the rafters and desks in studio:

The heretofore most popular Syracuse Harlem Shake, produced by the College of Visual and Performing Arts:

These young men get major points for the Cool Runnings reference:

#RotoloClass class takes interactive learning to the next level:

After the dance party had subsided, the room still hummed with a giddy energy. “Well,” Rotolo said with a smile, “It’s hard to follow that with class.”

What will be even harder to follow, however, is the Harlem Shake phenomenon. What random idea will take the Internet by storm next?