# Mannequin Challenge > Mannequin Challenge is a 2016 viral video trend where people freeze like mannequins while a camera pans through the scene, typically set to Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles. The Mannequin Challenge was a viral video trend from late 2016 where groups of people froze in place like mannequins while a camera panned through the scene, typically set to Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles." Started by high school students in Jacksonville, Florida, it spread within days to professional sports teams, celebrities, and even a presidential campaign before becoming training data for Google's AI depth perception research in 2019. ## Origin On October 26, 2016, Twitter user @pvrity__ posted the earliest known viral instance of the challenge[3]. The video showed students at Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida standing stock-still in various poses while a camera panned past them. Within a week, the tweet pulled in over 4,400 retweets and 4,100 likes, and the video started circulating on news sites, racking up hundreds of thousands of views[3]. The concept was simple: freeze mid-action, hold perfectly still, and let the camera do the work[5]. - **Platform:** YouTube/Social Media - **Creator:** Students at Edward H. White High School, Jacksonville, FL (originators), @pvrity__ (earliest viral post) - **Date:** 2016 ## Overview The Mannequin Challenge is a group video format where everyone in frame holds completely still in a mid-action pose while one person weaves through the scene with a camera. The effect looks like a frozen moment in time being explored from multiple angles. News outlets compared the visual style to bullet time sequences from *The Matrix* and similar sci-fi films[4]. Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" became the unofficial soundtrack, with most videos using the track as background music[1]. The challenge required the coordination of a flash mob but was, as Deadspin put it, "far less obnoxious"[6]. ## How It Spread By November 2, the hashtag #MannequinChallenge had blown up among high school and college students, with dozens of "living portrait" videos set to "Black Beatles"[3]. The trend spread fast to sports. On November 4, the Pittsburgh Steelers filmed one in their locker room[4]. That same weekend, the Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and Milwaukee Bucks all posted versions from team planes[4]. Deadspin, SBNation, and USA Today covered the sports angle heavily[6]. Rae Sremmurd leaned into their accidental association with the trend. On November 3, they froze mid-concert in Denver, posting the video to Twitter the next day, where it pulled 47,000 retweets and 61,000 likes in 24 hours[3]. The song "Black Beatles" shot up the charts partly thanks to the challenge[4]. Celebrity participation snowballed through November. On November 7, Beyoncé, Michelle Williams, and Kelly Rowland (the former Destiny's Child members) posted their version[4]. Adele went with a Western theme the same day[4]. Paul McCartney stood frozen by a piano on November 10, earning over 86,000 retweets[3]. The Late Late Show with James Corden produced an elaborate two-and-a-half-minute video involving the entire crew, backstage area, and studio audience[4]. The night before the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton performed the challenge with her campaign staff on an airplane[3]. The trend had crossed from teen viral moment to mainstream cultural event in under two weeks. ## How to Use The Mannequin Challenge format is straightforward: 1. Gather a group, the bigger the better 2. Everyone strikes a pose mid-action and freezes completely still 3. One person walks through the scene filming with a moving camera, capturing the frozen tableau from different angles 4. Set the video to "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd (or any suitable track) 5. Post with #MannequinChallenge ## Cultural Impact The Mannequin Challenge crossed from teen social media trend to mainstream cultural event faster than most viral challenges. Hillary Clinton's campaign used it the night before the 2016 election[3]. Paul McCartney's participation gave the trend a multigenerational stamp of approval while boosting "Black Beatles" on the charts[4]. The challenge drew comparisons to *Westworld*, the HBO series that debuted around the same time, where robotic hosts could be stopped mid-motion[4]. News coverage was massive, with Mashable, Deadspin, Select All, USA Today, and dozens of other outlets running features within the first two weeks[6]. In 2019, the videos found a second life as training data for Google's AI depth perception research[10]. The research team's paper demonstrated that participatory internet trends could produce valuable datasets for machine learning, though it raised questions about consent and data scraping norms[8]. ## Fun Facts - Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2016, with the Mannequin Challenge widely credited for the boost[4]. - Disney World discontinued the "Andy's Coming" game with Toy Story characters because guests were yelling it up to 50 times per 90-minute shift[9]. - The Google AI paper using Mannequin Challenge data was titled "Learning the Depths of Moving People by Watching Frozen People"[7]. - Taylor Swift did her version on Thanksgiving at a beach[4]. - The trend went from zero to Hillary Clinton's campaign plane in less than two weeks[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Mannequin Challenge? A viral video trend from November 2016 where groups of people freeze in mid-action poses while a camera pans through the scene, usually set to "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd[1]. ### Where did the Mannequin Challenge come from? It started on October 26, 2016, when Twitter user @pvrity__ posted a video of students at Edward H. White High School in Jacksonville, Florida posing motionless for a panning camera[3]. ### What does the Mannequin Challenge mean? Participants stand still like mannequins, creating a frozen tableau that the camera explores. The visual effect was compared to bullet time from *The Matrix*[4]. ### How do you use the Mannequin Challenge? Gather a group, have everyone freeze in creative poses, and film the scene with a moving camera. Post with #MannequinChallenge and typically set it to "Black Beatles"[1]. ### Is the Mannequin Challenge still popular? No. The trend peaked in November-December 2016 and died off quickly after that, as is typical of participatory video fads[5]. Its legacy lives on primarily through its use as AI training data[8]. ### What song is used in Mannequin Challenge videos? "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd was the overwhelming favorite, and the duo even performed their own Mannequin Challenge on stage at a Denver concert[3]. ### Did the Mannequin Challenge help "Black Beatles" reach #1? Yes. The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2016, with the viral challenge widely seen as a major factor[4]. ### Did Hillary Clinton do the Mannequin Challenge? Yes. On November 8, 2016, the night before the presidential election, Clinton performed the challenge with her campaign staff on an airplane[3]. ### Who got arrested for a Mannequin Challenge? Two Alabama men, Kenneth Fennell White and Terry Brown, were arrested in December 2016 after their Facebook video featuring multiple men holding over a dozen guns led to a search warrant that uncovered firearms and marijuana[11]. ### How did Google use Mannequin Challenge videos? In 2019, Google AI researchers scraped 2,000 Mannequin Challenge videos from YouTube to train a neural network in depth prediction, helping machines understand 3D space from 2D video[10]. ### What is the Andy's Coming Challenge? A related trend where people drop to the floor when someone yells "Andy's coming!", referencing the *Toy Story* films. It originated on Vine in 2013 and was revived after the Mannequin Challenge in November 2016[2]. ## References 1. [The Mannequin Challenge will actually make you miss planking | Mashable]() 2. [#AndysComing will make you forget all about the Mannequin Challenge | Mashable]() 3. [Teens Just Rediscovered the #AndysComing Meme From 'Toy Story']() 4. [Mannequin Challenge - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Mannequin Challenge]() 6. [Mannequin Challenge - Urban Dictionary]() 7. [What Is the Mannequin Challenge? Teens Freezing in Place]() 8. [Deadspin | The New Thing Teens Are Doing Is Called The "Mannequin Challenge"]() 9. [[1904.11111] Learning the Depths of Moving People by Watching Frozen People]() 10. [What Is the Mannequin Challenge? Teens Freezing in Place]() 11. [If you did the Mannequin Challenge, you are now advancing robotics research | MIT Technology Review]() 12. [Andy's Coming! | Snopes.com]() 13. [#AndysComing will make you forget all about the Mannequin Challenge | Mashable]() 14. [The Mannequin Challenge will actually make you miss planking | Mashable]() 15. [Google researchers trained AI with your Mannequin Challenge videos]() 16. [Alabama Men Arrested After Mannequin Challenge With Guns]() 17. [Teens Just Rediscovered the #AndysComing Meme From 'Toy Story']() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/mannequin-challenge Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library