Everybody Walk The Dinosaur — Four women in cavewoman costumes dancing on a prehistoric-themed stage from the Walk the Dinosaur music video

Everybody Walk The Dinosaur

2008copypastaclassic

Published August 20, 2026

Everybody Walk The Dinosaur is a 1987 Was (Not Was) pop song whose closing lyrics became a 4chan bait-and-switch copypasta. Posters swap the ending of a suspenseful story for the line "opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur," killing the payoff on purpose.

copypasta memes bait and switch memes 4chan memes music memes pre digital memes

Overview

Everybody Walk The Dinosaur is a bait-and-switch copypasta built around the closing lyric of the 1987 Was (Not Was) single of the same name1. Posters set up a suspenseful or dramatic anecdote, then cut the ending off with the line "opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur," leaving readers with no real payoff2.

The joke works because the lyric contains the phrase "opened the door," which slides naturally into a first-person narrative before the reader realizes the story has been hijacked by a 40-year-old novelty pop song3. On 4chan, the format is treated as a standard rug-pull alongside classics like the Bel-Air copypasta2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Was (Not Was) song (1987) / DerbyTrail forums (2008 copypasta origin) / 4chan (viral spread)
Key People
Unknown
Date
2008

The song itself was released by Detroit band Was (Not Was) on their 1988 album What Up, Dog?, and peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 1001. The chorus, "open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur," is the hook the copypasta later reuses.

The earliest known copypasta usage appeared on August 8th, 2008, when an anonymous poster on the horse-racing forum DerbyTrail.com wrote a tense anecdote about their sister and her boyfriend, ending the story mid-scene with "opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur! op"3.

How It Spread

The song had a long soundtrack life that primed audiences to recognize the lyric. A version performed by The Goombas featuring George Clinton appeared on the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film1, and the track returned the following year on the 1994 Flintstones soundtrack1. In 2009, a Queen Latifah cover was included on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, released by 20th Century Fox on July 1st1.

From the 2008 DerbyTrail post, the bait-and-switch format migrated to imageboards, where users kept posting the lyric as the final line of unrelated stories2. Usage on 4chan was still visible as of December 8th, 2020, when an anonymous poster dropped the copypasta in the /sp/ sports board1.

The format also picked up looser meanings offline. Urban Dictionary entries define "everybody walk the dinosaur" as 12-step recovery slang for a newly sober person out of touch with reality, and as an insult for an aging figure who can no longer make sense4.

How to Use This Meme

The common convention is to write a normal-sounding personal story, often building tension or intimacy, and then break off the final action with the lyric "opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur." Posters typically append "op" or a similar sign-off to mimic the DerbyTrail original3. The joke lands hardest when the setup is long enough that the reader forgets they are being set up.

Frequently Asked Questions