Electric Boogaloo

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About

Electric Boogaloo (snowclone: “X 2: Electric Boogaloo”) is a term used in unwanted or bad sequels of something. It was first used as the subtitle for the 1984 dance film Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,^[3][4] a sequel to the break-dancing film Breakin’. An Electric Boogaloo is a kind of dance that arose in the 1970s, arising out of funk, hip hop, and popping.^[2]

Origin

WIP

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo is the sequel of Breakin’.

Spread

Since the film was released, the phrase “electric boogaloo” has broken from its initial context and has been used both on and offline to refer unseriously to any kind of sequel.^[5][6] The pattern has even come under the scrutiny of professional linguists. For example, Ben Zimmer, an editor at Oxford University Press, has commented on the phenomenon on his blog:^[1]

Readers grounded in the last few decades of American pop culture might recognize that it’s a less-than-subtle reference to the breakdancing films of the mid-’80s: Breakin’ and its sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. If you do a Google search on the pattern “___ 2: Electric Boogaloo” (excluding the word Breakin’), you’ll find thousands of web pages that use this template to create a jocular name for a sequel or followup of some sort -- with everything from “Mac Update” to “The 9/11/ Commission” filling the slot once held by Breakin’.

Search Interest

External References