Lalalalalalalalalala

2005Looping video / Flash animationclassic

Also known as: LALALALALALALALALA · La La La La La La

Lalalalalalalalalala is a 2005 looping Flash animation of dancing animal-costumed figures from DJ Format's "We Know Something You Don't Know" video overlaid with Smile.dk's "la la la" from "Petit Love," becoming a mid-2000s internet staple.

LALALALALALALALALALA is a looping internet video that pairs footage of people dancing in animal costumes from DJ Format's 2003 music video "We Know Something You Don't Know" with the catchy "la la la" chorus from Smile.dk's 2001 song "Petit Love." The mashup first spread as a Flash animation on 4chan before getting its own dedicated website in 2005, and it became a staple of mid-2000s internet absurdity, racking up millions of views across YouTube uploads through the early 2010s.

mashup video memeslooping memesflash animation memessingle serving site memes

Overview

The LALALALALALALALALALA meme is a mashup video that takes dancing footage from DJ Format's "We Know Something You Don't Know" music video and sets it to the infectious "la la la la la la" chorus from "Petit Love" by Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk3. The original music video, directed by Ruben Fleischer, features five performers in cartoonish animal costumes (a tiger, alligator, shark, bear, and turtle) breakdancing and cavorting around downtown Los Angeles3. Stripped of its original hip-hop soundtrack and paired with bubbly Eurodance pop, the footage takes on a surreal, hypnotic quality that made it perfect for infinite looping.

The appeal is pure early-internet absurdism: costumed animals doing surprisingly good breakdancing moves while an aggressively cheerful melody plays on repeat. A built-in timer on the dedicated website tracked how long visitors had been watching, turning the experience into a test of endurance2.

The two source materials came together from very different corners of music. In 2001, Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk, best known for their Dance Dance Revolution hit "Butterfly," released music that included the track "Petit Love" with its repeating "la la la" chorus1. Two years later, in 2003, British DJ Format released the single "We Know Something You Don't Know" featuring Jurassic 5 from his album *Music for the Mature B-Boy*3. The song peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart, but the music video got a second life online thanks to its breakdancing animal costumes3.

The dancing animals became an early internet fixation, spreading mostly through animated GIFs. The bear's breakdancing sequence was especially popular and got redrawn with different characters many times3. At some point, an anonymous user on 4chan's /f/ (Flash) board created a looped Flash animation combining the animal dancing footage with Smile.dk's "Petit Love" chorus3. On September 24, 2005, the dedicated website lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.com launched, hosting the video loop alongside a counter showing how long each visitor had been watching2.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /f/ board (Flash loop), lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.com (dedicated site)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2005

The two source materials came together from very different corners of music. In 2001, Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk, best known for their Dance Dance Revolution hit "Butterfly," released music that included the track "Petit Love" with its repeating "la la la" chorus. Two years later, in 2003, British DJ Format released the single "We Know Something You Don't Know" featuring Jurassic 5 from his album *Music for the Mature B-Boy*. The song peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart, but the music video got a second life online thanks to its breakdancing animal costumes.

The dancing animals became an early internet fixation, spreading mostly through animated GIFs. The bear's breakdancing sequence was especially popular and got redrawn with different characters many times. At some point, an anonymous user on 4chan's /f/ (Flash) board created a looped Flash animation combining the animal dancing footage with Smile.dk's "Petit Love" chorus. On September 24, 2005, the dedicated website lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.com launched, hosting the video loop alongside a counter showing how long each visitor had been watching.

How It Spread

The meme lived primarily on its dedicated website for several years before migrating to YouTube. On November 22, 2008, YouTuber Walbert Araújo uploaded "LALALALALALALALALA video original," which pulled in more than 882,000 views over the following decade.

The video kicked off a wave of recreation and reaction content. On April 25, 2009, YouTuber Andre Araujo posted "lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala da Kaxaça," a video of people imitating the animal dances in real life. The meme picked up mainstream attention in Brazil when, on December 11, 2009, a pair of MTV hosts featured the website on their show, playing the video and dancing along while promoting the site to viewers.

The format got the inevitable endurance treatment on November 23, 2011, when YouTuber TheTibursio uploaded "10 Hours of La La La La La La La La La La La La La La," which passed 1.5 million views in under a decade. The 10-hour version cemented the meme's place in the tradition of hypnotic loop videos designed to be left running in browser tabs.

How to Use This Meme

LALALALALALALALALALA isn't a template meme with customizable parts. The standard use is simply sharing the video or website link, often without context, as a way to confuse, delight, or annoy someone. Common scenarios include:

- Dropping the link in a group chat with no explanation - Sending it to someone who asks "what's a weird website?" - Playing it on loop at maximum volume as an office prank - Using it as a response to someone who won't stop talking (the "la la la I can't hear you" energy)

People also recreated the dances in real life, filming themselves mimicking the animal costume choreography to the Smile.dk track.

Cultural Impact

The breakdancing animals from DJ Format's video had already been circulating as GIFs before the LALALALALALALALALALA mashup gave them a definitive audio pairing. The meme is part of the broader wave of single-serving websites from the mid-2000s, sites that did exactly one thing and did it forever. Its Brazilian popularity, driven by YouTube uploads and MTV coverage in 2009, gave it a second life outside English-speaking internet spaces.

The original music video's director, Ruben Fleischer, went on to direct *Zombieland* and *Venom*, making the dancing animal footage one of the more unexpected items on a major Hollywood director's early résumé.

Fun Facts

The bear's breakdancing sequence from the original DJ Format video was redrawn and parodied so many times that most people who recognized the bear had no idea what song it originally came from.

Smile.dk's best-known song "Butterfly" was featured in the original Dance Dance Revolution, making the group a staple of rhythm game culture long before their music got mashed up with breakdancing animals.

The dedicated website's URL contains 34 letters "a" and "l" alternating, making it one of the longest single-word domain names in meme history.

DJ Format's single reached number 73 on the UK Singles Chart, but the music video's internet afterlife far outlasted its chart performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Lalalalalalalalalala

2005Looping video / Flash animationclassic

Also known as: LALALALALALALALALA · La La La La La La

Lalalalalalalalalala is a 2005 looping Flash animation of dancing animal-costumed figures from DJ Format's "We Know Something You Don't Know" video overlaid with Smile.dk's "la la la" from "Petit Love," becoming a mid-2000s internet staple.

LALALALALALALALALALA is a looping internet video that pairs footage of people dancing in animal costumes from DJ Format's 2003 music video "We Know Something You Don't Know" with the catchy "la la la" chorus from Smile.dk's 2001 song "Petit Love." The mashup first spread as a Flash animation on 4chan before getting its own dedicated website in 2005, and it became a staple of mid-2000s internet absurdity, racking up millions of views across YouTube uploads through the early 2010s.

mashup video memes looping memes flash animation memes single serving site memes

Overview

The LALALALALALALALALALA meme is a mashup video that takes dancing footage from DJ Format's "We Know Something You Don't Know" music video and sets it to the infectious "la la la la la la" chorus from "Petit Love" by Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk. The original music video, directed by Ruben Fleischer, features five performers in cartoonish animal costumes (a tiger, alligator, shark, bear, and turtle) breakdancing and cavorting around downtown Los Angeles. Stripped of its original hip-hop soundtrack and paired with bubbly Eurodance pop, the footage takes on a surreal, hypnotic quality that made it perfect for infinite looping.

The appeal is pure early-internet absurdism: costumed animals doing surprisingly good breakdancing moves while an aggressively cheerful melody plays on repeat. A built-in timer on the dedicated website tracked how long visitors had been watching, turning the experience into a test of endurance.

The two source materials came together from very different corners of music. In 2001, Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk, best known for their Dance Dance Revolution hit "Butterfly," released music that included the track "Petit Love" with its repeating "la la la" chorus. Two years later, in 2003, British DJ Format released the single "We Know Something You Don't Know" featuring Jurassic 5 from his album *Music for the Mature B-Boy*. The song peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart, but the music video got a second life online thanks to its breakdancing animal costumes.

The dancing animals became an early internet fixation, spreading mostly through animated GIFs. The bear's breakdancing sequence was especially popular and got redrawn with different characters many times. At some point, an anonymous user on 4chan's /f/ (Flash) board created a looped Flash animation combining the animal dancing footage with Smile.dk's "Petit Love" chorus. On September 24, 2005, the dedicated website lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.com launched, hosting the video loop alongside a counter showing how long each visitor had been watching.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /f/ board (Flash loop), lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.com (dedicated site)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2005

The two source materials came together from very different corners of music. In 2001, Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk, best known for their Dance Dance Revolution hit "Butterfly," released music that included the track "Petit Love" with its repeating "la la la" chorus. Two years later, in 2003, British DJ Format released the single "We Know Something You Don't Know" featuring Jurassic 5 from his album *Music for the Mature B-Boy*. The song peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart, but the music video got a second life online thanks to its breakdancing animal costumes.

The dancing animals became an early internet fixation, spreading mostly through animated GIFs. The bear's breakdancing sequence was especially popular and got redrawn with different characters many times. At some point, an anonymous user on 4chan's /f/ (Flash) board created a looped Flash animation combining the animal dancing footage with Smile.dk's "Petit Love" chorus. On September 24, 2005, the dedicated website lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.com launched, hosting the video loop alongside a counter showing how long each visitor had been watching.

How It Spread

The meme lived primarily on its dedicated website for several years before migrating to YouTube. On November 22, 2008, YouTuber Walbert Araújo uploaded "LALALALALALALALALA video original," which pulled in more than 882,000 views over the following decade.

The video kicked off a wave of recreation and reaction content. On April 25, 2009, YouTuber Andre Araujo posted "lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala da Kaxaça," a video of people imitating the animal dances in real life. The meme picked up mainstream attention in Brazil when, on December 11, 2009, a pair of MTV hosts featured the website on their show, playing the video and dancing along while promoting the site to viewers.

The format got the inevitable endurance treatment on November 23, 2011, when YouTuber TheTibursio uploaded "10 Hours of La La La La La La La La La La La La La La," which passed 1.5 million views in under a decade. The 10-hour version cemented the meme's place in the tradition of hypnotic loop videos designed to be left running in browser tabs.

How to Use This Meme

LALALALALALALALALALA isn't a template meme with customizable parts. The standard use is simply sharing the video or website link, often without context, as a way to confuse, delight, or annoy someone. Common scenarios include:

- Dropping the link in a group chat with no explanation - Sending it to someone who asks "what's a weird website?" - Playing it on loop at maximum volume as an office prank - Using it as a response to someone who won't stop talking (the "la la la I can't hear you" energy)

People also recreated the dances in real life, filming themselves mimicking the animal costume choreography to the Smile.dk track.

Cultural Impact

The breakdancing animals from DJ Format's video had already been circulating as GIFs before the LALALALALALALALALALA mashup gave them a definitive audio pairing. The meme is part of the broader wave of single-serving websites from the mid-2000s, sites that did exactly one thing and did it forever. Its Brazilian popularity, driven by YouTube uploads and MTV coverage in 2009, gave it a second life outside English-speaking internet spaces.

The original music video's director, Ruben Fleischer, went on to direct *Zombieland* and *Venom*, making the dancing animal footage one of the more unexpected items on a major Hollywood director's early résumé.

Fun Facts

The bear's breakdancing sequence from the original DJ Format video was redrawn and parodied so many times that most people who recognized the bear had no idea what song it originally came from.

Smile.dk's best-known song "Butterfly" was featured in the original Dance Dance Revolution, making the group a staple of rhythm game culture long before their music got mashed up with breakdancing animals.

The dedicated website's URL contains 34 letters "a" and "l" alternating, making it one of the longest single-word domain names in meme history.

DJ Format's single reached number 73 on the UK Singles Chart, but the music video's internet afterlife far outlasted its chart performance.

Frequently Asked Questions