About

The Koopa Troopa Dance, also known as the Koopa Dance or Koopas Dancing, refers to a brief, hand-swinging dance that is performed by Koopa Troopas in the Nintendo Wii game New Super Mario Bros. The dance became widespread in late 2022 on TikTok as several fan videos and skits emerged that involved Koopas performing the dance at unfortunate moments and during ill-timed scenarios.

Origin

The Koopa Troopa Dance originates from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was first released on November 12th, 2009, in Australia. ^[1] When playing certain stages, the overworld music plays occasional vocal "bah" sounds, which enemies dance to. Koopa Troopas in particular stop mid-walk and face the camera to do a brief arm swing (examples shown below).

On October 28th, 2022, TikToker^[2] koopatroopa_official uploaded a video zoomed in on two Koopas walking on a rotating hill in World 1-6. In two weeks, the video received roughly 18.5 million views and 3.5 million likes (shown below, left). On November 3rd, 2022, TikToker^[3] kedmerwin dueted the video, showing him and his friend mimicking the Koopas' dance. Over the course of 11 days, the TikTok received roughly 212,000 plays and 27,500 likes, becoming the first known user on the platform to joke about the Koopa Dance (shown below, right).

Spread

Soon, TikTokers began using the audio to pantomime and illustrate various situations where such a dance would be considered inappropriate. For example, on November 9th, 2022, TikToker^[4] notsoepic0 posted a video with text overlay reading, "A koopa at his wife's funeral," in which he performed the dance at the "bah bah" moment of the song despite crying beforehand. In five days, the video received roughly 915,900 plays and 177,200 likes (shown below, left). On November 10th, 2022, TikToker^[5] frankiejustchillin uploaded a variant with text overlay reading, "koopa fighting for custody of his child in court," gaining roughly 10.9 million views and 2.6 million likes in three days (shown below, right).

On November 12th, 2022, TikToker^[6] sof_artfactory posted an animated variant featuring a family of Koopas gathering at a funeral, earning roughly 4.5 million views and 196,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). On November 13th, 2022, TikToker^[7] wtfaleisa added to a growing string of duets with TikToker^[5] frankiejustchillin's video, gaining roughly 377,500 plays and 61,400 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Koopa Troopa Dance TikToks were then reposted to various platforms. For instance, on November 13th, 2022, Twitter ^[8] user 256GBMemes reposted TikToker^[5] frankiejustchillin's video, gaining roughly 577,400 views and 37,700 likes in one day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References