The Floss

About

The Floss is a dance in which the performer swings their arms and hips in unison, while alternating swinging the arms behind the back.

Origin

On October 18th, 2010, YouTuber ryan mayall uploaded a video of himself performing the Floss, titled "Ryan Mayall 'The Dance'" (shown below). Within nine years, the video gained over 140,000 views and 1,100 comments.

Spread

On January 13th, 2011, YouTuber Eual Kennedy uploaded a video in which he pranks students by performing the dance, which received more than 330,000 views over the next eight years (shown below).

On October 14th, 2012, YouTuber Dano D uploaded a video entitled You Are Beautiful – Grantsville West Stake (One Direction Lip Dub). At about three minutes into the video, a man does the dance. The post received more than 427,000 views in six years (shown below).

On November 12th, 2014 YouTuber JStuStudios posted a video entitled "Look What I Can Do," in which a man does the dance. The post (shown below) received more than 3.9 million views in three-and-a-half years.

On August 18th, 2016, Instagram ^[1] user @thebackpackkid posted a video of himself doing the dance. The post (shown below) received more than 58,000 views and 1,600 views in a year and a half.

The following month, on September 28th, YouTuber ^[2] Jeff Schoolfield posted a video entitled "THE FLOSS…slo mo." In the video, a boy performs the dance. The video (shown below, left) received more than 5,100 views in a year and a half.

The following year, on February 20th, 2017, YouTuber^[3] Whitney Bjerken published a video of several children performing the dance entitled "How to do the Swish Swish Dance." The post (shown below, right) received more than 3.4 million views.

On May 20th, the Backpack Kid performed with Katy Perry on Saturday Night Live. During a performance of the song "Swish Swish," he danced the Floss. Two days later, Inside Edition published a video interview with Backpack Kid.^[4] The post (shown below) received more than 32 million views in one year.

On September 11th, Pittsburgh Steelers football player T.J. Watt briefly performed the Floss during the game. The official Steelers Twitter ^[5] account published a gif of the moment. The post (shown below) received more than 620 retweets and 1,800 likes in six months.

Three days later, the YouTube^[6] account LokTer Shab published a video entitled "HOW TO DO THE BACKPACK KID DANCE (THE FLOSS)." The post (shown below, left) received more than 5.1 million views in six months.

Two months later, on November 18th, YouTuber^[7] remixgodsuede uploaded a video for a song featuring DJ Suede and Backpack Kid entitled "Flossin." The video (shown below) received more than 1.6 million views in five months.

On March 21st, 2018, a teacher from Tottington Primary School published a video of himself doing the dance on Facebook. ^[9] The post (shown below) received more than 580r reactions, 270 shares and 65,000 views in two weeks.

On April 5th, Redditor ^[8] fishandgrits asked the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit "What is the dance where kids swing their arms?"

Several media outlets have covered the trend, including HuffPost,^[10] BBC,^[11] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References