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The Mannequin Challenge is a viral Internet video trend where people remain frozen in action like mannequins while a moving camera films them, usually with the song "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd playing in the background. The hashtag #MannequinChallenge was used for popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. It is believed that the phenomenon was started by students in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 12, 2016. The initial posting has inspired works by other groups, especially professional athletes and sports teams, who have posted increasingly complex and elaborate videos.
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News outlets have compared the videos to bullet time scenes from science fiction films such as The Matrix, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, Lost in Space or Buffalo '66. The portrayal of ordinary people in a scene from normal life by movement-suppressed actors appeared in the 2015 music video for Alessia Cara's song "Here". Meanwhile, the participatory nature of the challenge on social media makes it similar to memes such as Makankosappo or the Harlem Shake. Others have noted similarities with the HBO TV series Westworld, which debuted around the same time, where robotic hosts can be stopped in their tracks.
Sports figures
A number of notable sports teams, including both collegiate and professional, as well as sports personalities, have engaged in the challenge. Notable instances of sport-figure participation include:
Television broadcasters who have participated include:
College football teams that posted videos include Texas Christian University, Mizzou, Penn State University, US Naval Academy, University of Michigan, Old Dominion University, Temple University, University of Pittsburgh, Clemson University, University of Utah, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Kennesaw State University, Kent State University, Louisiana State University.
Artists and celebrities
Once many versions of the challenge began surfacing with Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" as the background music, Rae Sremmurd paused a concert to do a Mannequin Challenge video live on stage.
Dancing With the Stars in the U.S. created a video with cast and crew on the dance floor that was posted to dancer Val Chmerkovskiy's Instagram account.
Musical artists who participated included:
The cast and crew of Arrow performed the mannequin challenge and was posted on Instagram.
Ellen DeGeneres and Warren Beatty created a video of a table tennis game and posted it to Instagram.
The The Late Late Show with James Corden created an elaborate video of more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, that involved the entire crew, backstage area and studio audience.
Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian created a video in the hospital delivery room.
The cast of Saturday Night Live created a video along with Kristen Wiig as a promotion for the season's November 19, 2016 episode.
First Lady Michelle Obama froze for the Mannequin Challenge together with LeBron James and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers during their visit to the White House to be honored for their NBA Championship victory.
On November 18, 2016, the erotic dance troupe Chippendales uploaded their Challenge on their social medias. On November 22, actress Tracee Ellis Ross coordinated a video before the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House, which included celebrities such as Ellen Degeneres, Robert DeNiro, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates, Diana Ross, Rita Wilson, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Frank Gehry.
On December 6, celebrity attendees at the 2016 British Fashion Awards participated in the challenge as Gigi Hadid won the award for International Model of the Year. Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace, Christopher Bailey, Franca Sozzani, Kate Moss, Yolanda Foster and Naomi Campbell were also part of it.
On December 14, the Boston Pops Orchestra and Conductor Keith Lockhart participated in the challenge during a rehearsal for the orchestra's 43rd Annual Holiday Pops Season and posted a video on YouTube.
On December 21, the crew of Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay participated in the challenge and posted a video on Facebook
Politicians
On November 7, the night before election day, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton participated in a video with Jon Bon Jovi, Bill Clinton, Huma Abedin and various staffers on her campaign plane.
First Lady Michelle Obama posed for a video with the NBA champions Cleveland Cavaliers at the White House.
Former Managing Director of World Bank Group and current Indonesian Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, did the challenge after delivering a lecture at Padjadjaran University, along with the Rector and thousands of students whom attended the lecture.
On December 13th, Westmount, Quebec's city council became the first municipality to release a mannequin challenge filmed in the council chambers. The video features eight council members and the mayor frozen during a seemingly chaotic council meeting.
Activism
On November 10, film makers Simone Shepherd, Kevalena Everett and Todd Anthony made a series of videos that re-created scenes related to the Black Lives Matter movement, as a promotional teaser for their feature film Black in Blue.