NFL player captured mid-celebration executing the dab gesture with perfect form at stadium game.

Dab

2017Dance move / viral videodead

Published March 10, 2026 · Updated March 23, 2026

Also known as: D Se Dab · Nick India Dab · Dabbing

The dab is a hip-hop dance move performed by tucking your head into one bent arm while extending the other arm straight out2. While the gesture peaked in Western mainstream culture around 2015-2016, it gained a second life as ironic meme material in September 2017 when Nickelodeon India posted a video of cartoon characters dabbing to a catchy song, creating the "D Se Dab" viral sensation that spawned a wave of bass-boosted remixes4.

dance memes hip hop memes nickelodeon memes remix culture memes ironic memes

Overview

The dab is a gesture where you drop your face into the crook of one bent elbow while stretching the other arm out to the side, as though sneezing into your arm with dramatic flair1. By 2017, the move had already blown through its mainstream cycle and landed firmly in "your dad does this at barbecues" territory. That timing is exactly what made the Nick India Dab video so appealing to meme creators: a children's network earnestly celebrating an already-stale trend was perfect shitposting material4.

The original video, titled "Teacher's Day: Guru Cool," featured characters from popular Indian animated shows performing the dab while a boy narrator actually stops to define what dabbing is4. The combination of enthusiastic sincerity, catchy audio, and slightly stilted animation made it irresistible to remix artists.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook (Nickelodeon India page)
Creator
Nickelodeon India
Date
2017 (Nick India Dab)

On September 4, 2017, the official Facebook page for Nickelodeon India uploaded a video called "Teacher's Day: Guru Cool"4. The clip showed a boy from the animated show Motu Patlu taking attendance alongside characters from three Nickelodeon India properties: Motu Patlu, Gattu Battu, and Ninja Hattori4.

Motu Patlu is an Indian animated sitcom that premiered on Nickelodeon on October 16, 2012, adapted from the classic Lotpot comic strip3. The show follows two friends, Motu and Patlu, stumbling through misadventures in the fictional town of Furfuri Nagar3. Ninja Hattori-kun is based on a Japanese manga by Fujiko Fujio A that ran from 1964 to 1988, with an Indian-produced animated remake airing from 2013 to 20152.

In the video, the boy character defines the dab for his audience, then all the cartoon characters proceed to dab in unison4. The video hit 2 million views, 53,000 likes, and 17,000 shares on Facebook within two months of posting4.

How It Spread

The remix machine kicked into gear three days after the original upload. On September 7, 2017, YouTuber Pileabones posted "INDIAN SONG ABOUT DABBING," adding ear-rape audio distortion whenever the boy performs the dab4. That video reached 19,000 views and over 500 likes within its first month.

Just one day later on September 8, the channel Cartoon Shitposts uploaded "Nick India Dab Video, but every time the boy says 'dab' it gets bass boosted and sharpened." This became the most popular remix, racking up 121,000 views and 4,600 likes by October 20174. The bass-boosted, progressively distorted format was a signature move of 2017 YouTube shitposting, and the Nick India Dab video was tailor-made for it.

The meme followed the typical lifecycle of late-2010s ironic remix culture: an earnest piece of children's media gets picked up by shitposting communities, run through layers of audio and visual distortion, and shared as commentary on both the original content and the cultural moment it accidentally captures. Nickelodeon India's shows, including Motu Patlu with its eight-language broadcast reach across India3, had enormous local audiences but became unexpected raw material for international meme communities.

Platforms

RedditTwitterTikTokInstagram

Timeline

2015

Dab first appears online

2015

Gains traction on social media

2016

Reaches peak popularity

2017-01-01

Dab reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2018-01-01

Brands and companies started using Dab in marketing

2020-01-01

Dab entered the broader pop culture conversation

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Nick India Dab meme typically shows up in two formats:

1

Remix video: Take the original Nick India clip and apply progressive distortion effects. Bass boosting, ear rape, image sharpening, and deep frying are common choices, usually triggered each time someone dabs or says "dab" in the video.

2

Ironic dab reference: Share the video or dabbing clips as commentary on outdated trends being celebrated with full sincerity by brands or institutions.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Dabbing became one of the most everywhere pop culture moments of the mid-2010s. It appeared in political campaigns, news broadcasts, children's programming, and virtually every school photo from 2015-2017. Its rapid rise and subsequent 'death' became a textbook example of how quickly web culture moves.

Fun Facts

The original video was made to celebrate Teacher's Day in India, turning an educational tribute into accidental meme content4

Motu Patlu, the primary show featured in the video, is adapted from a comic strip called Lotpot and broadcasts in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Odia, and Bengali3

Ninja Hattori-kun, another show in the video, is based on a manga that started in 1964, making the source material over 50 years old when it appeared in the dab video2

The most popular remix was uploaded just one day after the first remix but overtook it in views by a factor of six4

Motu, one of the cartoon characters who dabs in the video, gains temporary super strength from eating samosas in the show's storyline3

Derivatives & Variations

Bass-boosted remix by Cartoon Shitposts:

Progressive bass boosting and image sharpening with each "dab" mention, becoming the most viewed remix at 121,000+ views[4]

Ear-rape remix by Pileabones:

The first known remix, replacing dab moments with distorted audio, reaching 19,000+ views[4]

Frequently Asked Questions

References (5)

  1. 1
    Dabencyclopedia
  2. 2
    Dab - Urban Dictionarydictionary
  3. 3
    Dab - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
  4. 4
    Motu Patluencyclopedia
  5. 5
    Ninja Hattori-kunencyclopedia