Oluwa Mark Dancing White Guy Dancing To Afrobeat Music

2020viral videoclassic

Oluwa Mark Dancing is a viral TikTok clip of Dutch creator Timo Hendriksen dancing in a Nigerian dashiki to Maleek Berry's Afrobeat song 'Kontrol,' first posted in May 2020. The video was rediscovered in October 2023, picked up the nickname 'Oluwa Mark,' and turned into a greenscreen template for jokes about being the only white person in a Black setting.

dance memesgreen screen memesdelayed virality memestiktok sound trendsglobal crossover memes

Overview

Oluwa Mark Dancing is a viral video meme built around Dutch TikToker Timo Hendriksen, who first shared clips of himself dancing to Afrobeat music in spring 20201. The best-known video shows him in a Nigerian-style dashiki moving to Maleek Berry's 'Kontrol,' captioned 'White boys can dance a little bit'1.

Three years later the footage was rediscovered on TikTok and picked up the nickname 'Oluwa Mark,' turning into a template for object-labeling jokes about being the only white person in a Black setting3. Editors typically layer the dance over an unrelated scene or place it beside another out-of-place white guy for a side-by-side crossover.

How It Spread

An early remix appeared on August 23rd, 2021, when a TikTok user paired Hendriksen's dashiki dance with the text 'Help I'm crying,' pulling about 232,000 plays across the next two years3. The full resurgence started on October 4th, 2023, when TikToker @d.r_lovesyeshua reposted the clip set to 'Not Responsible' by Amon and hit roughly 1.8 million plays in 20 days5.

The day after that repost, a commenter named Mememe3 asked 'Is this not "OluwaMark"?' underneath it, and the nickname stuck to Hendriksen. By October 15th, TikToker @wockhardtrockstar was writing 'Oluwa Mark' straight into captions on a clip about showing a Black girlfriend's family your support, which hit 1.4 million plays in nine days3.

Greenscreen edits followed almost immediately. @happyscott_ dropped Oluwa Mark into a basketball clip on October 11th, 2023, and @fck.thatbiss placed him inside a Jujutsu Kaisen edit four days later that reached over 2.9 million plays. Editors also started pairing him with @dustygiamanco, another white dancer whose suit-and-tie clip from August 24th, 2023 was already sitting at 11.5 million plays4, most visibly in an October 21st side-by-side edit by @danny.luvxoxo.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Oluwa Mark edit greenscreens Hendriksen's dashiki dance over a scene where a white person would be out of place, often a Black cultural setting, and cuts it to 'Not Responsible' by Amon5. A common variant sets the clip side-by-side with @dustygiamanco's shirt-and-tie dance for a two-white-guys crossover4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Oluwa Mark Dancing White Guy Dancing To Afrobeat Music

2020viral videoclassic

Oluwa Mark Dancing is a viral TikTok clip of Dutch creator Timo Hendriksen dancing in a Nigerian dashiki to Maleek Berry's Afrobeat song 'Kontrol,' first posted in May 2020. The video was rediscovered in October 2023, picked up the nickname 'Oluwa Mark,' and turned into a greenscreen template for jokes about being the only white person in a Black setting.

dance memes green screen memes delayed virality memes tiktok sound trends global crossover memes

Overview

Oluwa Mark Dancing is a viral video meme built around Dutch TikToker Timo Hendriksen, who first shared clips of himself dancing to Afrobeat music in spring 20201. The best-known video shows him in a Nigerian-style dashiki moving to Maleek Berry's 'Kontrol,' captioned 'White boys can dance a little bit'1.

Three years later the footage was rediscovered on TikTok and picked up the nickname 'Oluwa Mark,' turning into a template for object-labeling jokes about being the only white person in a Black setting3. Editors typically layer the dance over an unrelated scene or place it beside another out-of-place white guy for a side-by-side crossover.

How It Spread

An early remix appeared on August 23rd, 2021, when a TikTok user paired Hendriksen's dashiki dance with the text 'Help I'm crying,' pulling about 232,000 plays across the next two years3. The full resurgence started on October 4th, 2023, when TikToker @d.r_lovesyeshua reposted the clip set to 'Not Responsible' by Amon and hit roughly 1.8 million plays in 20 days5.

The day after that repost, a commenter named Mememe3 asked 'Is this not "OluwaMark"?' underneath it, and the nickname stuck to Hendriksen. By October 15th, TikToker @wockhardtrockstar was writing 'Oluwa Mark' straight into captions on a clip about showing a Black girlfriend's family your support, which hit 1.4 million plays in nine days3.

Greenscreen edits followed almost immediately. @happyscott_ dropped Oluwa Mark into a basketball clip on October 11th, 2023, and @fck.thatbiss placed him inside a Jujutsu Kaisen edit four days later that reached over 2.9 million plays. Editors also started pairing him with @dustygiamanco, another white dancer whose suit-and-tie clip from August 24th, 2023 was already sitting at 11.5 million plays4, most visibly in an October 21st side-by-side edit by @danny.luvxoxo.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Oluwa Mark edit greenscreens Hendriksen's dashiki dance over a scene where a white person would be out of place, often a Black cultural setting, and cuts it to 'Not Responsible' by Amon5. A common variant sets the clip side-by-side with @dustygiamanco's shirt-and-tie dance for a two-white-guys crossover4.

Frequently Asked Questions