What is going on in this video?

November 1, 2017 12:42 PM

What is going on here?

Found while searching for Pony Time by Chubby Checker, in case that is relevant.

posted by drunkonthemoon to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: It's a camp song. I don't know when the song dates from, but here's a video explaining how the whole things works. It's called Ride That Pony. I'm old, so I didn't do it when I went to camp, but I've seen my friends' kids do it.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 12:51 PM on November 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

There are a series of similar videos in the "related" sidebar. It's seems to be a "Go Team" sort of thing.
posted by humboldt32 at 12:57 PM on November 1, 2017

Possibly from the "flash mob" fad of the 2000s?
posted by thelonius at 1:12 PM on November 1, 2017

We did this dance at church camp in middle and high school (1990-1998) as a time killer ( like 200 teens are milling around for lunch at 1155 but the canteen had a problem and can't open until 1215) or energizers (it's 9 am and time to discuss theology- let's get you pumped up beforehand so you don't fall asleep!). For horny teens at church camp, it is the only way to grind up on your crush in a god-approved way, and hence is highly popular among the time killers and energizers available, and sometimes would emerge/occur when teens were bored and wanted to do some church-approved flirting.
posted by holyrood at 1:48 PM on November 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

Like The Wrong Kind of Cheese, I'm also old(ish) but one summer, many, many moons ago, I attended a Moravian Church day camp for little guys and girls. We played a game with a the same dance, but the words were different. I don't remember the point of the game. Any older Moravians out there who remember?

(My gosh, that bring back memories of people I haven't thought of in yonks!)
posted by james33 at 5:06 AM on November 2, 2017