

Caramelldansen SpeedyCake remix





About

Caramelldansen (eng. The Caramel Dance) is a series of animated dance videos that use the dance track with the same title. Its original track was released in Supergott which is the 2nd album of the Swedish pop group Caramell in November 2001.

The big sensation was caused on the web by the huge amount of fan-made videos and artworks in such as YouTube, deviantART and the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) around 2008 to 2009. In February 2020, Caramelldancen regained meme popularity with Caramelldancen Lights edits.

Origin

According to Ruakuu's Blog , The origin of Caramelldansen was the flash loop composed by Sven from Sweden at the first half on 2006, and it was originally posted on his personal website.





Its visual source is an animated gif taken from an opening movie of the Japanese adult visual novel Popotan released in 2002. This animated gif of bunny dance was entitled "Popotan dance" and had existed on the web since before 2005. In the interview by Ruakuu's blog, Sven said he found this animated gif on /gif/ in 4chan.





The song in this flash loop wasn't the original Caramelldansen, but its sped up version composed by DJ Speedycake , probably an amateur DJ. He released this remix on 4chan just at that time when Sven was combining that popotan dance animated gif with several dance tunes.

In this way, Caramelldansen was the product of chance by 4chan users.

Lyrics translated [WIP]

We are wondering are you ready to join

Arms up now you will see

Come on

Anyone can join

So move your feet

(O-a-a-a)

And wiggle your hips

(O-la-la-la)

Do like us

To this melody

(O-o-oa-oa)

So come and dance with us

Clap your hands

Do it like us

Take a few steps to the left

Listen and learn

Don't miss the chance

Now we are here with

Caramelldansen

(O-o-oa-oa 4x)

It will be a sensation everywhere of course

At parties everybody will let loose

Come on

Now we take the steps again

(O-O-Oa-Oa)

So move your feet

(Oa-a-a)

And wiggle your hips

(O-la-la-la)

Do it like us

To this melody

So come and

Dance with us

Clap your hands

Do it like us

Take a few steps to the left

Listen and learn

Don't miss the chance

Now we are here with Caramelldansen

Dance with us

Clap your hands

Do it like us

Take a few steps to the left

Listen and learn

Don't miss the chance

Now we are here with Caramelldansen

(O-o-oa-oa 4x)

So come and dance with us

Clap your hands

Do it like us

Take a few steps to the left

Listen and learn

Don't miss the chance

Now we are here with Caramelldansen

Dance with us

Clap your hands

Do it like us

Take a few steps to the left

Listen and learn

Don't miss the chance

Now we are here with Caramelldansen

Spread

This flash loop made with the resources found on 4chan was re-imported to there, and quickly spread out of control across the internet as people made their own parodies featuring other fictional characters performing the dance, and other variations. It was also adopted by the anime community and often featured at conventions- seriously, play it at a con and watch as every cosplayer in earshot starts dancing.

Those animated videos, illustrations and cosplay videos/pictures have been posted to many online communities such as YouTube , deviantART and NND since 2007, and the amount of them on the web is over tens of thousands in total.

In an episode of the animated children's show Phineas and Ferb titled "Summer Belongs to You!," which aired on August 2nd, 2010, characters from the show perform the dance.





Japan

Caramelldansen made succeed particularly in Japan. The video that led to a substantial increase in popularity of the series in Japan was posted to NND in February 1st, 2008 , and featured the characters from THE iDOLM@STER that was also a huge online phenomenon on NND in those days. In Japan, Caramelldansen was called the popular name "Uu-Uu-UmaUma" (Japanese: ｳｯｰｳｯｰｳﾏｳﾏ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)) that came from a misheard phrase in this song.





By many people inspired by this video had been posting a large number of their works with various characters, Caramelldanse caused a big sensation in the first half of 2008.

A Japanese record label EXIT TUNES gained the rights from the original Caramell producers and released the single CD for Caramelldansen, including the sped-up version, on the coattails of its popularity on the web in May 21st in that year. This CD was sold quite well and soon ranked in top 20 in Japanese weekly sales chart for the first time since Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" in 2005. Moreover, Caramelldansen recorded the best sales of an international song in 2008, and was awarded single of the year (international section) in the 23rd Japan Gold Disc Award.

Caramelldansen Lights

Caramelldansen Lights refer to a series of humorous edits which are accompanied by the song Caramelldansen, usually muffled, and feature a certain object, such as a window or a person's face, rapidly flashing rainbow colors in sync with the beat. The format is also known as Parties Too Hard and Dies due to a number of memes imagining SpongeBob and other characters dead due to partying to Caramelldansen too hard.





Notable Examples

For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.

Cosplay Dancing





Compilation

Caramelldansen – Random Series





Search Interest

Know Your Meme Store

External References

Editor's Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.