The Clinton Campaign Just Joined the #MannequinChallenge Internet Fad

Gordon Hurd
Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Photo: Melina Mara/the Washington Post via Getty Images

It’s hard to believe it has been well over four years since the planking craze faded into obscurity. Since then we’ve been faced with numerous other Internet-fueled fads, crazes, and challenges. Remember the Harlem Shake? The Ice Bucket challenge? The Running Man? If you dearly miss any of those, be heartened, because the mannequin challenge is the latest entry in the guidebook to things to waste your time doing and then post on social media.

Hillary Clinton and her campaign team have taken part in the mannequin challenge, the night before the election, with the nominee frozen in place on board an airplane, along with musician Jon Bon Jovi, right-hand woman Huma Abedin, husband and former president Bill Clinton, and Jon Podesta on the campaign’s airplane. Clinton shared the footage on her Twitter page Tuesday morning, with the caption, “Don’t stand still. Vote today.”

The trend has also spread among football circles in the past week or so, with teams like the Buffalo Bills taking the challenge, among others:

There are plenty of contenders for the so-called original mannequin challenge, but the earliest cited clip we could find is a Vine video from 2014:

As for the more recent vintage mannequin challenges, we’ve seen them in concerts:

At In-N-Out Burger:

At lots of high schools:

On the basketball court:

And in some surreal slice of the universe:

But this cheer squad example is probably the most skillful one we’ve seen yet:

Will you take the #MannequinChallenge?