1. The Environment: The Harlem Shake must either take place in a room so small that you can’t hide your farts or a large office where more time is spent on Pinterest than work.
2. The Lone Dancer: This lone dancer must be wearing some sort of face covering. Both Darth Vader helmets and Ziploc trash bags can suffice. The dancer should have light pelvic movement such as thrusting or swaying. The arms should never reach over the dancer’s head.
3. The Pre-Drop: Right before the beat drops, the song will say something in Spanish, or German for all we know. Make sure that as many people in the scene are oblivious to the lone dancer. It is acceptable for the onlookers to proceed in casual conversation.
4. The Drop: At this point, everyone in the environment should be dancing. The most common types of dancing are burnie-ing and twerking. It is also acceptable to make humping motions with inanimate objects or other humans. In some more creative versions of the Harlem Shake, people will be wearing costumes. Some of The Flipside’s favorites include the hotdog suit from Accepted, the male Speedo swimsuit, and that awkward Vampire costume your uncle sometimes wears on Halloween.
5. The Fade-out: After about 30 seconds of the Harlem Shake, the videos tend to fade out so that the viewer wont be repulsed by what they just watched. The ending should include about one second of slow motion in order to see the artistic stylings of each participant’s dance.
