Dancing Pallbearers

The Dancing Pallbearers are led by Benjamin Aidoo, who started the group as a regular pallbearer service in 2003.[6][7] He later had the idea of adding choreography to their pallbearing work. Extra fees are charged for dancing with the coffin during a funeral.[8] The Dancing Pallbearers first rose to prominence in 2017 when they were featured in a BBC News report.[9] The third video, which depicted pallbearers accidentally dropping a coffin during their dance, was first posted by Facebook user Bigscout Nana Prempeth on May 2, 2019 and gaining over 2,900 reactions, 4,600 shares and 350,000 views in one year, and reuploaded in YouTube where it received over 725,000 views.[10]

The video gained significant popularity on TikTok as a punchline for FAIL clips in a manner similar to To Be Continued and We'll Be Right Back memes, implying that the person in the FAIL video has died. For example, on March 6, 2020, TikTok account Trickshots posted a version of the meme that received over 2.9 million views and 237,000 likes.[11] In 2020, the meme was used to send a message around the world during in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.[12] Since the trend, it has been popular on social media but mostly used on TikTok.[13]

In Nigeria, displaying different dancing skills with casket on their way to the burial site.

• In late March 2020, a YouTuber with the channel name "Syon" uploaded the video onto YouTube which started a trend on the Internet. In April, the group became the subject of a darkly comedic internet meme when videos of people suffering various mishaps, followed by clips of the pallbearers dancing with coffins (implicitly the victims of the preceding clips), were widely uploaded to Reddit, YouTube and TikTok.[14] The clips are generally paired up with the song "Astronomia" by Russian musical artist Tony Igy and remixed by Dutch duo Vicetone, although others use either "You Know I'll Go Get" by DJ Haning and Rizky Ayuba (a remixed version of Enrique Iglesias's song "Finally Found You") or Lenka's "Trouble Is a Friend".[15] Many uses of this meme are commonly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which was ongoing when the meme became popular.[16]
• In Brazil, the social media meme was brought to the streets, as a billboard image featuring the coffin dancers was displayed with the caption 'stay home or dance with us'.[17] In May, the group released a video where they capitalized on the phrase, encouraging viewers to 'stay home or dance with us'.[18]
• Leaders of the Libertarian party in Georgia "Girchi" dressed up in traditional Georgian clothes – Chokha – and made their own version of the video.[19]
• In May 2020, US President Donald Trump shared an edited video of the dancing pallbearers carrying a coffin on his social media in response to a controversial remark by Joe Biden. In the edited video, Biden's campaign logo was superimposed on the coffin.[20] Biden, who was Vice President under Barack Obama, later defeated Trump to become President in the 2020 election.
• In Colombia and Peru, policemen imitate the group's dance carrying a coffin on their shoulders, encouraging the community to stay home to stem the spread of the Coronavirus.[21][22]
• In Hong Kong, a company has started cashing in by molding them into plastic figurines for sale.[23]
• They have become a symbol warning people to stay home during the pandemic as their videos are edited into memes to prevent people from behaviors exposing them to COVID-19 and urging them to stay indoors. Their videos have been also shared globally and garnered a strong following in countries such as Brazil, United States and China. Dancing pallbearers has been mentioned on Twitter 60,000 times in April.[16]
• In early October 2020, the meme experienced a revival on social media following the White House COVID-19 outbreak, in which President Trump himself was diagnosed with the disease.[24]
• The usage of the meme also increased after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was tested positive for COVID-19.
• In Australia the meme has been used to mockingly note the death of Australian cricket following the Men’s Test Team’s 2-1 series loss to India in January 2021.

• Jazz funeral