While I doubt it will be taught about in our history books 50 years from now, the Mannequin Challenge, at the moment, is the big internet craze on par fads of years past such as planking, the ice bucket challenge, and the Harlem Shake. In case the name doesn’t shed enough light on the basics of the phenomenon, the Mannequin Challenge involves getting a group of participants to freeze on the spot and hold the pose, appearing as though they were…you guessed it.
Akin to every other trend on the internet, there are very, very bad attempts at completing this challenge and a handful of really good ones. And, on rare occasions, the efforts are so bad that they become good.
Let’s start off with perhaps the most high-profile undertaking of the Mannequin Challenge. Further sparking rumors of a reunion, the members of Destiny’s Child got together on Instagram to give it a shake:
We’ve seen a lot of athletes and teams get involved in the fun, but none have been quite so impressive as this cheerleading squad that uses brute upper body strength to really sell the visual:
Mannequins on Ice? The St. Louis Blues took a wandering path through the madness of a hockey match in what may be the most cinematic of all the challenges we’ve seen!
The Blues’ mannequin challenge though…The New York Giants accepted the challenge and passed with flying (yet very, very still) colors:
Famed funnyman Kevin Hart had no problem finding some willing participants in his gym, with the camera catching them mid-routine:
Naturally, because this is the internet we’re talking about, we’ve got one featuring a very obedient, very steady cat, too:
If you think gymnasts would be very well-suited to this type of uncomfortable, unnatural stillness…you’d be right. Here’s West Point’s gymnastics team taking it to another level entirely using their equipment:
Air travel might already make you feel like you’re being involuntarily subjected to the Mannequin challenge, but the Cowboys still managed to impress with a few goofy embellishments on their attempt:
No friends? No problem! Well, it’s actually a pretty significant problem for the Mannequin Challenge because you have to use dolls like this guy did, which ends up sorta creeping everyone out:
Finally, if you can think of a better place to pull off the Mannequin Challenge than a pole dancing class, go out and film it, because this is a truly inspired effort:
There have probably been about 10,000 new additions to the collection of Mannequin Challenge videos online since this piece went live, but considering we’re only a week into the viral craze, I would say these efforts got pretty good pretty quick. Who knows what next week, or even tomorrow, will bring?
