Fun

There’s a viral trend of Pete Buttigieg fans dancing to Panic! at the Disco and it really needs to be seen to be believed

Pete Buttigieg sporting grooving to the beat to Panic! at the Disco. (Screen capture via Twitter)

Pete Buttigieg sporting grooving to the beat to Panic! at the Disco. (Screen capture via Twitter)

Supporters of the Pete Buttigieg US presidential campaign have created a dance that makes people want to implode into a singularity of pure second-hand embarrassment.

Dancing to the oh so cool beat of Panic! at the Disco‘s ‘High Hopes’, the yellow t-shirted supporters of the South Bend, Indiana, mayor have stormed social media with their synchronised ritual.

Whether they like it or not.

His campaign trail has been chugging to the beat of songs by Hall & Oats, George Michael and Aretha Franklin for months, but the Brendan Urie song is often his walk-up song of choice.

And supporters of the Democrat contender are hoping to lift spirits in his campaign plagued by controversy with a catchy dance not too dissimilar from a shopping mall mob dance circa 2008.

The Pete ‘High Hopes’ Buttigieg dance, a brief history. 

Buttigieg backers have been boogying to Panic! at the Disco since September at least.

A video went viral of young supporters pumping while signs reading ‘Boot Edge Edge’ and giant placards with the presidential hopeful’s face on it bopping up and down:

It was later seen again in Iowa, where dozens of Barnstormers – a grassroots campaign team – ahead of a trip to New Hampshire did the dance.

It came after a user called Conor McQuivey tweeted a video at the Nevada Day Parade of him teaching people the dance in late October.

“Study up, we’ll be doing it a lot!” he said at the time. But not only has he since made his account private, but his bio states he is “unaffiliated with any campaign”.

Some supporters even did the dance in a club once.

Then last weekend, Buttigieg campaign officer Liz McLeod posted a behind-the-scenes peek into the ‘Pete Summit’ in New Hampshire.

In the low eye-strain grey walls of a conference room, Buttigieg stans stood on a stage and danced the ‘High Hopes Dance’, according to a projected slideshow behind them.

The dance itself is simple enough, involving a lot of clapping, hand-whirling, moving your arms up and down and denying yourself any sense of dignity.

For the real Pete effect, some recommend rolling your shirt sleeves up.

Pete dance ‘irrevocably breaks’ something inside all of Twitter. 

Pretty much every Twitter user in all of human existence had the same feeling when seeing clips of the dance: “I want to die.”

Mainly because, as John Delaney described, it involves dancing “like 85-year-old white people”.

Grandmas love the Pete ‘High Hopes’ dance, though.

However, not everyone has been so negative about the dance.

“This dance is fun!” GrandmasForPete tweeted.

“It’s an expression of JOY, the joy we have in knowing we’re backing the best candidate to Unify our country!

“Y’all should try it sometime. I can’t stop!”

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