About

Dance If You're an NPC is a catchphrase used in video memes (predominantly on TikTok) that show a guy with an Edgar Haircut dancing, using him to represent a Real-Life NPC (non-playable-character) that fits the description of the meme's second sentence. The man's carefree dancing portrays that the person described is an unabashed NPC. The meme format became popularized on TikTok in early 2023, used as a way to humorously criticize groups of people with similar and perceivably strange or annoying traits. The memes often use videos of TikToker Lil G (@_lilg4) dancing. Also, the videos mostly used one TikTok sound that's a slowed down Yeat song with Call of Duty: Zombies laughing added to it.

Origin

On July 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[1] @yoursaltylmao posted a video that had text overlay reading, "DANCE IF YOU'RE AN NPC," and referenced people who were in the Minion Cult TikTok cult. The meme used a video of TikToker^[2] Lil G dancing and used a TikTok^[3] sound which was a slowed-down Yeat song with Call of Duty: Zombies laughing added to it. Over the course of 11 months, the video gained roughly 22,300 plays and 2,500 likes (shown below).

Spread

Going into July 2022, the TikToker continued uploading similar videos that achieved more virality. For instance, on July 3rd, 2022, TikToker^[4] @yoursaltylmao posted an iteration about people who make their beds, gaining roughly 128,600 plays and 15,600 likes in 11 months (shown below, left). Others began to copy the format, such as TikToker^[5] @deviousrapnews on July 9th, whose iteration about people who think broccoli's gross gained roughly 39,800 plays and 4,500 likes in 11 months (shown below, right).

The format achieved more virality and iterations in May 2023, started by a few viral instances that grew the trend. One of these videos was posted by TikToker^[6] @zthang_baby on May 11th, 2023, who instead wrote, "Dance if you are alive," gaining roughly 478,000 plays and 99,700 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On May 17th, TikToker^[7] @shifu579 posted an iteration that used the original catchphrase, likening people who still wear COVID masks as NPCs, gaining roughly 5.6 million plays and 517,700 likes in 16 days (shown below, right).

Going into the end of May and early June 2023, the TikTok^[3] sound used for the memes amassed over 6,100 videos.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References