Seriously, people. Not only is the Harlem Shake craze on Youtube getting old, it’s also becoming potentially life-altering, and not in a good way.
Just ask the 15 gold miners in Australia who all lost their jobs because they posted their own version of it online. The Agnew Mine overnight crew, who all appeared in their own half-minute Harlem Shake clip, lost more than their minds dancing the famous thrust move: They also lost all their six-figure salaries.
The miners were previously under contract with an Australia-based underground services company, Barminco. They maintain that they were being safe all throughout the duration of the video, stating that they were wearing helmets and portable oxygen devices and were even out of their uniforms so the company’s name would not be displayed. According to the Mercury News, the stunt the group performed breached the company’s “core values of safety, integrity, and excellence”.
That’s not the only damage being done by this viral video, which is swiftly becoming the Gangnam Style of 2013. A student from the University of Alabama is facing possible expulsion for orchestrating a college-wide Harlem Shake. Nojan Radfar, for his efforts in making his dream of starting the “biggest Harlem Shake video ever” come true, only got a ticket but he is worried the university might take more drastic measures and expel him. And truth be told, he has the right to be worried, as more and more students and even members of faculties get subjected to suspension for participating in a Harlem Shake video.
According to MSN Money, up to 4,000 videos featuring the Harlem Shake in different circumstances and locations are uploaded to the World Wide Web on a daily basis, and more people are challenged to tape themselves doing the dance in unique environments. Thinking about making a video with your friends? It’s probably not a good idea to do it in a plane. Probably not a good idea to do it in general, since the people of Harlem do not approve of this viral phenomenon:
