About
Drop the cane is a viral video of an elderly man dropping his walking sticks to the ground before overjoyfully dancing. The video was then remixed with various music tracks to fit the man’s ecstatic moves.
Origin
On July 18th, 2014, Facebook user Edgard Eleuterio Daza posted a 3-minute long video to his wall titled “Eternamente joven”, which is Spanish for “Forever young”. A Youtube upload from July 21th can be found below.
It features an elderly man with walking sticks in the middle of a ball, surrounded by middle-aged couples dancing around him to the tune of Bill Haley’s “Rock around the clock”. The man then suddenly drops his sticks and goes on an happy solo dancing before inviting two women to dance with him. As of December 2014, the Facebook post was shared more than 1 850 000 times and reached over 163 000 likes.
Spread
As several reuploads of the video were made on Youtube, each one gaining their fair amounts of views, new sites such as Time[2], Daily Mail[3] or even Buzzfeed[4] sarted reporting on the viral phenomenon as early as July 21th and onward, often commenting on its funny and heartwarming nature.
Remixes
On July 20th, Youtube user Klaypex uploaded a cut version of the video with remixed music in order to promote his song #shutyourtrap (shown below).
As of December 2014, the video has gained more than 2 100 000 views.
While it’s not clear if it was a direct influence, more people joined in to create their own video remixes featuring the dancing old man.
External References
[1]Facebook – Eternamente joven
[2]Time – This Video of an Old Man Dancing Will Brighten Your Day
[3]Daily Mail – From old-folk to old rock! Elderly man shocks fellow wedding guests by throwing down his canes and taking over the dance floor with his nifty moves
[4]Buzzfeed – Watch This Awesome Old Man Throw Away His Crutches And Dance