Nearly a thousand UCF students showed up on Friday to film the official UCF version of the recent Harlem Shake trend.
Meeting in the Student Union, many participants were dressed in their best, wearing the most random “clothes” they could find. There were multiple “robot heads,” a Captain America, Bat Girl, Deadmau5, a gecko, a bear, banana suits, Abe Lincoln and Hermione Granger cutouts, a guy in a full scuba outfit, two huge stuffed whales, a stuffed Domo, a blow up doll (which everyone so gratefully applauded for), morphsuits in American flag, tuxedo, green and black, and much, much more. Knightro, the UCF mascot, also made an appearance as the “first” person in the beginning of the video.
By 3:45 p.m. there were already hundreds of students inside the union. By 4:15 we were ready to shoot the big take. The music played, and as the drop approached, everyone began getting crazier and crazier. When the big moment finally came, everyone let it all out – streamers were thrown and silly string was shot into the air (and all over nearby dancers). The ragefest was followed by an intense chant of “UCF! UCF!”
Students blew up the Facebook event before, during and after the actual event. Everyone came together with ideas on what to bring and wear, where the shot would be filmed, etc. During the event, people were commenting on how insane it was and how many people were there – and immediately after the event, students were posting about how awesome the experience was and, of course, asking when the final product would be uploaded.
The editors didn’t disappoint. By Friday evening the video was up and edited – and awesome! UCF is definitely one of the colleges with the most students participating in its version of the Harlem Shake, and rightly so, considering we have 60,000 students. And…speaking of 60,000, after a little over a full day the video had already doubled that amount of views! News outlets such as Fox 35 and the Orlando Sentinel also covered the event.
Although the Harlem Shake trend seems to be already “getting old” and dying down, the UCF Harlem Shake video was an experience not to be missed. The sense of community between the participants and the ability to show our UCF pride really made for an awesome afternoon for everyone involved.
Go Knights!