Ninja Works It (aka Karateka Dance or just work it), is a meme based solely around an animated GIF of a Ninja Dancing, most commonly to the song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk.

Origins

The animated .gif is based on a video game, called "Karateka". It was a game made by Jordan Mechner, of Prince Of Persia fame, in 1984. Originally for the Apple II, it was later ported to six home computers including the Commodore 64 and DOS, as well as the Atari 7800, Nintendo Famicom (Japan-only on NES) and the Game Boy (Japan-Only). The game was famous for it's smooth animation, straight forward plot and the few silly ways to die (like falling off a cliff and the very start of the game).

The animated .gif's origins is currently unknown, the high quality version which is below was obtained by me from a now defunct website which had the highest quality version at the time.

While the maker of the original animated gif is still unknown, it has actually been verified that the dance moves have been taken from MC Hammer's "U Can's Touch This" music video.

The meme's origin was on the 23rd October 2004, when ytmnd user thenixfactor posted the first YTMND Ninja Works It site. As of now, there have been 44 Ninja Work it submissions between 2004 and 2008, and the Ninja has even intergrated with other popular YTMND memes like "Link finds a…" although it took nine months for other YTMND users to make it a hit.

Current Status

Basically, it's pretty much dead, it still might have some popularity still on YTMND.com but it didn't catch on everywhere else. Although it was used in the end of Rinry's game review show, since Karateka was mentioned in the episode "All About 31-in-1"

Videos

Too Much Dancing Ninja

Link finds a Ninja

Can't Touch the Ninja

Dancing Ninja Dancing to Fix Me by Velvet

Dancing Ninja Dancing to September, with Shoop Da Woop Dodongo

Easter Egg Ending in Karateka?