# Everybody Walk The Dinosaur 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. ## 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 name[1]. 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 payoff[2]. 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 song[3]. On 4chan, the format is treated as a standard rug-pull alongside classics like the Bel-Air copypasta[2]. ## 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. film[1], and the track returned the following year on the 1994 Flintstones soundtrack[1]. In 2009, a Queen Latifah cover was included on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, released by 20th Century Fox on July 1st[1]. 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 stories[2]. Usage on 4chan was still visible as of December 8th, 2020, when an anonymous poster dropped the copypasta in the /sp/ sports board[1]. 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 sense[4]. ## How to Use 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 original[3]. The joke lands hardest when the setup is long enough that the reader forgets they are being set up. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Everybody Walk The Dinosaur? It is a bait-and-switch copypasta that ends any suspenseful story with the chorus lyric of the 1987 Was (Not Was) song, denying the reader a real punchline[2]. ### Where did Everybody Walk The Dinosaur come from? The copypasta traces to an August 8th, 2008 post on the DerbyTrail.com forums, where an anonymous user cut off a story about their sister with the song's lyric[3]. ### What does Everybody Walk The Dinosaur mean? Online it means a deliberate anti-climax, a signal that the story you just read was never going anywhere[2]. Urban Dictionary also records slang uses tied to sobriety talk and aging figures out of touch with reality[4]. ### How do you use Everybody Walk The Dinosaur? Write a tense or intimate anecdote, then replace the final beat with "opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur," often tagged with "op" like the original DerbyTrail post[3]. ### Is Everybody Walk The Dinosaur still popular? The copypasta was still being posted on 4chan's /sp/ board as recently as December 8th, 2020, keeping it alive as a classic imageboard rug-pull[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.discogs.com/release/Was-Not-Was-What-Up-Dog]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/everybody-walk-the-dinosaur]() 3. [https://www.derbytrail.com/]() 4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Everybody%20Walk%20The%20Dinosaur]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/everybody-walk-the-dinosaur Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library