About

The Scuba Dance or Scuba Trend is a dance trend created by rapper and YouTuber Desean Hawk Logan-Russell (h5wk) where the dancer plugs their nose with one hand, extends their free arm forward and waves their hand back and forth while opening and closing their knees. The dance was created and posted on TikTok in early October 2025, going viral in November along with Desean Hawk Logan-Russell's song "Scuba Juke (It Stank)," which the dance is often set to.

In November 2025, numerous NFL players were filmed doing the dance as a celebration. In late October 2025, the dance was featured in many examples of the controversial Flip the Camera trend. In March 2026, the dance went viral again via the Nick Wilde Scuba Dance meme.

Origin

On October 5th, 2025, TikToker^[1] @h5wk_ (Desean Hawk Logan-Russell) posted a video in which he dances to an original song, "Scuba Juke," under the caption, "me because god woke me up." The dance involves plugging his nose with one hand, opening and closing his knees and waving his free hand in front of his face. It gained over 74,000 likes in five months. This is the earliest known instance of the dance.

Spread

Following h5wk's video, the scuba dance was popularized on TikTok between October and November 2025 as it spread online.

In late October 2025, the dance was featured in numerous examples of the Flip the Camera trend, a controversial trend where users perform the dance while an unknowing party records them, then they flip the camera on the recorder unknowingly to show their face and make fun of them.

The earliest known example of the trend, posted by TikToker @jaycrudddy on October 29th, notably features the group performing the prank doing the scuba dance before flipping the camera, which received over 1.5 million views in two weeks.

On November 10th, 2025, TikToker^[2] @jettasnfl posted a video compiling videos of NFL players doing the dance as a scoring celebration, garnering over 950,000 views in four months.

On November 20th, TikToker^[3] @prettylil_c.bandzzzz posted a video of school cheerleaders doing the dance that gained over 1.9 million views in the same span of time.

On November 26th, 2025, the creator of the song and dance uploaded a visualizer video on YouTube^[4] that compiles many videos of TikTokers doing the dance, gaining over 400,000 views in four months.

The dance experienced a surge in popularity in February 2026, carrying into March 2026.

On February 28th, 2026, TikToker^[5] @y4yuro_ posted a video of a Chuck E. Cheese mascot doing the dance set to "Scuba Juke," garnering over one million views in two weeks.

In early March 2026, an AI-generated or assisted meme of Nick Wilde from Zootopia doing the scuba dance went viral, inspiring some controversy on X / Twitter after it was reanimated and some viewers claimed that they preferred the AI version.^[6]

On March 6th, TikToker^[7] @regi._.mac posted a video where she does the scuba dance with a mascot playing Alex the lion from the Madagascar series, gaining over 7.5 million views in six days.

Various Examples

Related Memes

Flip the Camera Trend

The Flip the Camera Trend is a TikTok trend and internet challenge in which a TikToker asks someone to film them doing a dance, hands the person their phone with the screen facing outward, as if they want to be recorded with the selfie or front cam, then approaches the phone and flips the camera, changing it to record the person holding the phone without their knowledge. The trend, which often features the scuba dance, inspired backlash from some, who saw it as a form of bullying, suggesting that the trend is only performed to make fun of the person being unknowingly filmed for being ugly. The trend, often set to the rap song "Mari Glock" by Lil Noonie and Lil Sy, was started as early as October 2025 and became increasingly popularized throughout November of that year.

Nick Wilde Scuba Dance

Nick Wilde Scuba Dance is an AI-generated reaction GIF meme of Nick Wilde, the fox from the Zootopia movies, plugging his nose with one hand and waving the other hand in front of his body, known as the "scuba dance." The GIF went viral in early March 2026 as a reaction meme on TikTok and Instagram Reels. That month, an X / Twitter user recreated the GIF with traditional animation, sparking debates over whether the AI version was better than the animated version.

Search Interest

External References