Coffin Dance and More: The Music Memes of 2020 So Far

Memes are part of internet culture. People enjoy them because they are funny and a new one seems to be born every now and then.

While memes mostly use images or video clips, some memes have music samples in them to help set the mood or maybe simply because the meme creator found it hilarious.

Here are some of the music memes that have been created or became increasingly popular this year, and the list will most likely grow:

Coffin Dance

Also known as the Dancing Coffin or Dancing Pallbearers, this meme revolves around a video of pallbearers dancing while ceremoniously carrying a coffin. The gentlemen are dancing to the upbeat electronic music in the background called "Astronomia" by Tony Igy.

The said tradition is from Ghania and the dancing pallbearers are meant to uplift the mood as people say their last goodbye to the deceased.

Gaining popularity since March 2020, the strong contrast between the energetic dancing and the funeral ceremony made this the unofficial dance song for the coronavirus epidemic. The meme is used for FAIL clips where the person is about get themselves hurt.

Dame Da ne or Baka Mitai Deepfake

This refers to facemorph videos where the character sings a melancholic Japanese pop ballad "Baka Mitai." The song comes from the Yakuza video game series and can be played in the karaoke section of the game. It was already in Yakuza 0 back in 2015 but interest reemerged when Yakuza 5 was released for the Playstation 4 worldwide on February 2020.

"Dame Da Ne" means "It's no use" and "Baka Mitai" means "I Have been a Fool." The melancholic karaoke song seems to be about self-reflections during a breakup.

At first, the song was used for parodies. Then, meme makers started to use deepfake technology to incorporate other popular personalities such as politicians, anime characters, and many others. Most of these use a video template of YouTuber named Dobbysrules while the latter is lip-syncing to the song.

Ben Shapiro WAP

WAP is a collaboration from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released in August 2020. The song contains explicit lyrics and the title is acronym for "Wet A*s P*ssy." Because of that, it caught the attention of many politicians and commentators. There were also critics and fans who ended up defending the empowering message of the song.

One of the conservative political commentators who criticized the controversial Cardi B song was Ben Shapiro. He read the lyrics to mock the song on his YouTube channel show. Due to the vulgar lyrics of the song, Shapiro had to censor some terms by using "P-Word" explaining that it stands "for female genitalia." This prompted many meme creators to make an entertaining remix of the WAP song with Ben Shapiro rapping to the lyrics.

Wide Putin

This is a meme video of a stretched Russian President Vladimir Putin walking down the hallway. To set the mood of the empowering walk, the "Song for Denise" (Maxi Version) by Piano Fantasia plays in the background. The video is from the President's fourth inauguration back in 2018.

A hilarious caption is usually added to the clip and Internet users started spreading it on Discord and YouTube in May 2020. It is used to denote someone being awesome or powerful but it is also utilized to mock those who think highly of themselves. It is also referred to as "Wide Putin Walking" or "IT'S HIM."

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Meme