Where did The Floss come from?

The earliest known video was uploaded by YouTuber ryan mayall on October 18, 2010, but the move went mainstream after Russell Horning (the Backpack Kid) performed it on SNL alongside Katy Perry in May 2017.

What does The Floss mean?

The move has no inherent meaning; it's named for the back-and-forth arm motion that looks like someone flossing teeth.

How do you do The Floss?

Keep your arms straight and swing them as one unit across your body while your hips rotate the opposite way, so a fist ends up in front of your pelvis and another behind your back, then flip sides every beat.

Is The Floss still popular?

It peaked between the Backpack Kid's May 2017 SNL moment and the UK school craze reported in spring 2018, and now reads as a time-stamped dance from that era rather than a current fad.

The Floss

Q: What is The Floss?

A dance where you swing your hips one way and your straight arms the opposite way, with one hand passing in front of your hips and the other behind your back, alternating each beat.

2010viral danceclassic

Published October 1, 2026

On May 20, 2017, a teenager called the Backpack Kid upstaged Katy Perry on Saturday Night Live by performing a stiff-armed hip-swinging dance called the Floss. The move had been documented on YouTube since 2010, but his SNL cameo turned it into one of the biggest schoolyard crazes of the late 2010s.

dance memes child virality memes delayed virality memes snl memes 2017 memes

Overview

The Floss involves swinging your hips in one direction while swinging straight arms the opposite way, with one hand passing in front of your hips and the other passing behind your back, then alternating on every beat1. HuffPost described the coordination challenge as similar to patting your head while rubbing your belly at the same time1. The name points at the resemblance to flossing teeth, though the arms stay rigid rather than sawing.

Kids filmed each other learning the rhythm, with the behind-the-back arm swing being the visual signature that separates the Floss from similar moves6. The dance doesn't require a specific song, though it got locked to Katy Perry's 'Swish Swish' after the SNL moment2.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

YouTube (first video) / Instagram and SNL (viral spread)

Key People

Unknown; earliest known video posted by YouTuber ryan mayall, popularized by Russell Horning

Date

2010

On October 18, 2010, a YouTuber named ryan mayall uploaded a short clip titled 'Ryan Mayall "The Dance"'3, the earliest documented footage of the move. It took years to catch on. The dance appeared sporadically in later videos, including a January 2011 prank clip by Eual Kennedy, a 2012 Grantsville West One Direction lip dub, and the 2014 JStuStudios comedy video 'Look What I Can Do'6. None of these broke through to wider notice.

How It Spread

The dance stayed niche until August 18, 2016, when 15-year-old Russell Horning, posting as @thebackpackkid on Instagram, started performing it in his clips6. His account picked up traction into 2017, and on May 20 of that year he joined Katy Perry on Saturday Night Live, flossing during her 'Swish Swish' performance1. Inside Edition's follow-up interview two days later pulled more than 32 million views4. The clip blew up outside of pop fan circles.

NFL linebacker T.J. Watt did a quick Floss after a sack on September 10, 2017, and the Pittsburgh Steelers' social team posted a gif that got hundreds of retweets and over 1,800 likes5. Tutorial videos followed within days, including LokTer Shab's 'HOW TO DO THE BACKPACK KID DANCE (THE FLOSS),' which hit 5.1 million views7, while Whitney Bjerken's earlier 'How to do the Swish Swish Dance' crossed 3.4 million views8. In November 2017, DJ Suede and Backpack Kid released a track called 'Flossin' built around the move10.

By March 2018, the dance had crossed the Atlantic into UK schools. Tottington Primary teacher Simon Hunt posted a Facebook video of his pupils teaching him the move, pulling about 65,000 views in two weeks and prompting BBC Manchester coverage2. On April 5, 2018, a Redditor asked /r/OutOfTheLoop 'What is the dance where kids swing their arms?'9, confirming the move had reached mainstream-adult confusion.

Timeline

2010-10-18

YouTuber ryan mayall uploads 'Ryan Mayall "The Dance"', the earliest documented video of the move.

2016-08-18

Russell Horning as @thebackpackkid posts an Instagram clip of himself flossing.

2017-05-20

Backpack Kid performs the Floss alongside Katy Perry during 'Swish Swish' on Saturday Night Live.

2017-05-22

Inside Edition publishes a Backpack Kid interview that pulls over 32 million YouTube views.

2017-09-10

Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt flosses after a sack; the team's gif of the moment goes viral.

2017-11-18

DJ Suede the Remix God and Backpack Kid release the song 'Flossin'.

2018-03-21

Tottington Primary teacher Simon Hunt posts a Facebook video of his class teaching him the Floss, prompting BBC coverage.

2018-04-05

A Redditor posts 'What is the dance where kids swing their arms?' on /r/OutOfTheLoop.

How to Use This Meme

Keep your arms straight, your hands in loose fists and your core still above the hips. Swing both arms as a single rigid unit to one side while your hips swing the other way, so one fist ends up in front of your pelvis and the other behind your lower back. Reverse on every beat. Speed matters less than keeping the hip-arm counter-rotation clean1.