The Luddy / Ludwig Dance

About

The Luddy or The Ludwig Dance is a dance created by Twitch streamer Ludwig where the dancer rotates their arms in a semi-circle motion in front of their body while shifting their feet back and forth in place. The dance was first made by Ludwig in high school and can be seen in videos as early as May 2020. In October through November 2022, the dance saw a resurgence as other streamers began trying to "hit the Luddy."

Origin

One of the earliest videos of Ludwig doing the Luddy was posted to the Ludwig YouTube^[1] channel on May 30th, 2020. In the video, titled, "UNBOXING $2500 WORTH OF STUFF STREAM BOUGHT ME," which consists of clips from his Twitch stream, Ludwig does the dance while wearing a pink maid outfit, garnering over 590,000 views in two years (shown below). On September 21st, a clip from streamer YourRAGEz's stream was posted to YouTube^[2] where he teases Ludwig, assuming he dances like a typical white guy (shown below, right).

On October 8th, 2022, streamer YourRAGEz then posted a video to Twitter^[3] from the 2022 FaZe Clan TwitchCon party where Ludwig does the dance, garnering over 777,000 views and 65,000 likes in a month (shown below).

Nah Ludwig goin CRAZYYYY pic.twitter.com/lej3LOaB9q

— YourRAGE (@YourRAGEz) October 8, 2022

According to an explainer video posted to YouTube^[4] by Ludwig on October 22nd, he invented the dance in high school with his friend Nick Page when they were in theater class as a way to distract people who were on-stage from backstage (shown below).

Spread

Following the October 8th, 2022, post to Twitter, the Luddy started to spread online as streamers reacted to the clip and attempted the dance for themselves. On October 12th, YouTuber^[5] thooming posted a video reacting to streamer Fanum Troupe doing the dance, garnering over 299,000 views in a month (shown below, left). On the same day, the xQc Clips YouTube^[6] channel uploaded a livestream clip where Ludwig teaches xQc to do the Luddy, garnering over 243,000 views in a month (shown below, right). On October 22nd, Ludwig uploaded his video explaining the backstory of the dance.

On October 27th, YouTuber^[7] Clipz Ahoy posted a video of streamer Kai Cenat hitting the Luddy during a stream, garnering over 3,800 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On October 28th, YouTuber^[8] Clip Complex posted a compilation video of content creators hitting the Luddy, garnering over 440,000 views in just over a week (shown below, right).

That day, Hasan Piker posted a video to TikTok^[9] from his stream where he teaches rapper bbno$ how to hit the Luddy, garnering over 419,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On November 4th, Ludwig posted an original Luddy video to TikTok,^[10] garnering over 3 million views in three days (shown below, right).

On November 6th, 2022, streamer Fuslie posted a video to TikTok^[11] where she and Ludwig do the Luddy, garnering over 2.1 million views in a day (shown below).

Valkyrae Hits The Luddy On TikTok

On November 7th, 2022, Twitch streamer Valkyrae posted a duet to Ludwig's November 4th luddy video on TikTok^[12] where she does the dance in sync with him, garnering over 3.9 million views in under 24 hours (shown below). That day, she tweeted,^[13] "As promised I hit the Luddy and it’s on tiktok 😤," garnering over 39,000 likes in the same rough span of time. On November 8th, Dexerto^[14] published an article about her video.

Ludwig reacted to Valkyrae's video during his stream on November 7th. On November 8th, YouTuber^[15] Sykkey Daily uploaded the clip, garnering over 8,100 views in roughly three hours (shown below).

Natsumiii and BaboAbe's Wedding

On November 9th, 2022, Ludwig posted a video to TikTok^[16] where he gets everyone at streamers Natsumiii and BaboAbe's wedding to do the Luddy, garnering over 4.6 million views in under 24 hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References