About

Oluwa Mark Dancing, also known as OluwaMark Dancing, refers to a viral video of a white guy dancing in an African dashiki to Afrobeat music. Plus, another video of the same white man dancing while wearing a tan jacket and black shirt trended on TikTok in 2023. The videos were originally posted in 2020 by TikToker Timo Hendriksen (@timohendriksenn). Hendriksen was given the nickname Oluwa Mark in 2023, as the meme spread, paired with object label captions about being white in a Black setting. An exploitable greenscreen template of Oluwa Mark dancing was used in October 2023, most often paired with the song "Not Responsible" by Amon. Also in 2023, the video of Oluwa Mark dancing was contrasted with a different video of a white guy in a suit (dress shirt and tie) dancing whose name is Dusty Giamanco (@dustygiamanco).

Origin

On May 29th, 2020, TikToker^[1] @timohendriksenn uploaded a video captioned "White boys can dance a little bit," which showed him wearing an African dashiki while dancing to Maleek Berry's music "Kontrol." The video (shown below, left), garnered over 1.6 million plays and 136,000 likes in three years. On June 9th, 2020, TikToker^[2] @timohendriksenn posted another dancing video in which he was wearing a tan jacket and a black shirt, garnering over 248,200 plays and 22,700 likes in three years (shown below, right).

Spread

Timo Hendriksen's dance videos became the subject of memes and object-labeling videos as early as 2021. For example, on August 23rd, 2021, TikToker^[3] @yaritzadiva12 posted Hendriksen's dance (shown below, left) paired with the text overlay reading, "Help I'm crying," which amassed roughly 232,000 plays and 6,100 likes in two years. On October 4th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @d.r_lovesyeshua posted a video (shown below, right) with the song "Not Responsible" by Amon, officially starting a resurgence in memes using Hendriksen's dance videos, earning roughly 1.8 million plays and 324,500 likes in 20 days.

Oluwa Mark

The first known usage of the nickname "Oluwa Mark" was a comment posted on TikToker^[4] @d.r_lovesyeshua's video. The comment was posted by a TikToker named Mememe3 on October 5th, 2023, and it read, "Is this not 'OluwaMark'? 😭," gaining roughly 8,600 likes in 19 days (shown below).

Soon after, usage of the nickname "Oluwa Mark" spread in video content, such as a video posted by TikToker^[5] @wockhardtrockstar on October 15th, 2023, which had "Oluwa Mark" in the caption and text overlay reading, "tryna show your black gf's family you stand with them," gaining roughly 1.4 million plays and 179,600 likes in nine days (shown below).

Greenscreen Memes

On October 11th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @happyscott_ posted a basketball meme that used the song "Not Responsible" by Amon and greenscreened Oluwa Mark dancing, gaining roughly 1.3 million plays and 228,000 likes in 13 days (shown below, left). Soon after, others posted similar greenscreen memes, such as TikToker^[7] @fck.thatbiss on October 15th, who posted an edit of Oluwa Mark in Jujutsu Kaisen, amassing over 2.9 million plays and 602,000 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Guy In Suit Vs. Oluwa Mark

On August 24th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @dustygiamanco posted a video of himself in a shirt and tie dancing outside, gaining roughly 11.5 million plays and 1.3 million likes in two months (shown below, left). In October 2023, the video of @dustygiamanco was paired with Oluwa Mark dancing. For instance, on October 21st, 2023, TikToker^[9] @danny.luvxoxo posted an edit with both men, gaining roughly 4.2 million plays and 881,600 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References