Dabbing. A dance move that can’t really be considered a dance, somehow became popular enough to reach memetic levels last year. This year, however, most people agree that the craze surrounding that move is now dead (and been replaced by totally radical fidget spinners), thanks in no small part to Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres having ruined it for all the cool kids. Despite that, dabbing has been drawing some controversy lately in the most unlikely of places: the world of video games.
On August 30th, Some Donkus (that’s really their name) asked the ESRB on Twitter to “please ban dabbing from video games.” The ESRB replied, saying that though they don’t ban things, they were “in the process of providing disclosure materials for #dabbing. We are hip.”
Little did the ESRB know that this comment would ignite a resurgence of dabbing among some of video gaming’s biggest mascots. First, Nintendo of America tweeted this picture of Mario in defense of dabbing, saying “Dabbing is E for Everyone!”
Not one to be left out, Sega’s mascot and meme generator Sonic the Hedgehog soon joined in, posting this picture in response.
At this point the ESRB noticed things were getting out of hand, replying “You’re not helping!,” making them resemble more than a little like the stiff bad guys from Footloose and Dirty Dancing. That’s when Bethesda’s Doom Slayer stepped in, responding:
And then, finally, the Blue Bomber himself Mega Man showed up with his Meme Buster.
The best part about these totally sick dabs is that they all come from the official pages for these video games. Of course, Twitter being the hot mess that it is, plenty of amateur attempts were posted, ranging from Overwatch characters to Club Penguin.
Could this be the second coming of the Dabbening? Or is it just a bunch of old characters jumping onto a long dead meme train?
Its probably the latter. Just saying.