Everybody loves a dinosaur song
Everybody Walk the Dinosaur | Know Your Meme
43
- 803,726
- 55
- 31
Part of a series on Copypasta. [View Related Entries]
- Meme
- Status
- Confirmed
- Type:
- Song
- Year
- 2008
- Origin
- Was (Not Was)
- Tags
- 4chan, chat, dinosaur, ice age, dance, movies, music, was (was not), george clinton, the goombas, elhabibpatrick, queen latifa
- Additional References
- Encyclopedia Dramatica Urban Dictionary Wikipedia
About
Everybody Walk The Dinosaur is a 1987 pop song by "Was (Not Was)." Used in a number of feature films, the song was ever-present in popular culture from the late-80s through the early-90s. The song would eventually become a copypasta on the popular imageboard 4chan, using the song's closing lyrics ("Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur") as part of a bait-and-switch meme, replacing the ending of the story with the lyrics.
Origin
In 1987, the band Was (Not Was) released the song "Everybody Walk the Dinosaur" in 1987. The song peaked at the position of #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (shown below).[1]
Origin
In the early-to-mid-90s, numerous motion pictures used the song on their soundtrack. The 1993 adaptation of Super Mario Bros. featured a version of the song performed by The Goombas and featuring recording artist George Clinton (music video below, left).[2] The following year, the song appeared on the soundtrack for the 1994 adaptation of The Flintstones. [3]
On July 1st, 2009, 20th Century Fox released the film Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in the United States.[4] Ahead of the film's release, on June 19th, YouTuber elhabibpatrick posted a music video for a cover version of the song by Queen Latifa, included on the film's soundtrack.
within 12 years, the post received more than 1.1 million views (shown below, right).
Copypasta
In 2008, some online began using the lyrics of the song as a copypasta. On August 8th, 2008, an anonymous user on the DerbyTrail.com[5] forums posted the earliest known usage of the copypasta, posting it as part of a bait-and-switch story and using the lyrics as the punchline to a story and creating an anti-climax. They wrote, "guys, you'll never believe what just happened no less than 15 minutes ago. so my sister and her boyfriend came home while i was watching tv and they went into the kitchen to get some drinks.
while in the kitchen they were doing their whole lovey dovey thing and kissing and playing grab-ass and what not, and it was unappealing to me, so i went up to my room. a few minutes later, i heard them enter into my sister's room and then some rustling occured. i thought nothing of it, they were probably just making out again on her bed. then i heard her scream and i got worried so i ran over to her room, and opened the door, got on the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur! open to door, get on the floor, everbody walk the dinosaur! BOOM BOOM ACKLAKKALAKKA BOOM BOOM BOOM ACKLAKKALAKKA BOOM!"
Over the next decade, usage of the phrase continued, as people posted the lyrics as the closing line to a story, effectively depriving readers of a satisfying ending. This continued until at least December 8th, 2020, when an anonymous 4chan user posted the copypasta in the /sp/ [6] imageboard (shown below).
Search Interest
External References
[1] All Music – What Up Dog
[2] IMDB – Super Mario Bros
[3] IMDB – The Flintstones
[4] Fandom – Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
[5] DerbyTrail.
com – copypasta
[6] 4chan – /sp/
Recent Videos
55 total+ Add a Video
View All Videos
Recent Images
31 total+ Add an Image
View All Images
Was (Not Was) - Walk the Dinosaur Lyrics
In Lyrics
By Artist
By Album
#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ NEW
In Lyrics
By Artist
by Album
Listen online
Was (Not Was)
Lyrics currently unavailable…
Written by: David Jay Weiss, Donald E. Fagenson, Randall Keith Jacobs
Citation
Use the citation below to add these lyrics to your bibliography:
Missing lyrics by Was (Not Was)?
Know any other songs by Was (Not Was)? Don't keep it to yourself!
The Web's Largest Resource for
Music, Songs & Lyrics
A Member Of The STANDS4 Network
Watch the song video
Walk the Dinosaur
more tracks from the album
What Up Dog
#1
Somewhere in America There's a Street Named After My Dad
#2
Spy in the House of Love
#3
Out Come the Freaks
#4
Earth to Doris
#5
Love Can Be Bad Luck
#6
Boy's Gone Crazy
#7
11 MPH [Abe Zapp Ruder Version]
#8
What Up, Dog?
#9
Anything Can Happen
#10
Robot Girl
#11
Wedding Vows in Vegas
#12
Anytime Lisa
#13
Walk the Dinosaur
#15
Shadow & Jimmy
#16
Dad I'm in Jail
Browse Lyrics.
com #ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Quiz
Are you a music master?
»
Sjoukje Lucie van 't Spijker was the real name of?
-
A. Maggie Rogers
-
B. Maggie MacNeal
-
C. Maggie Bell
-
D. Maggie Reilly
Free, no signup required:
Add to Chrome
Get instant explanation for any lyrics that hits you anywhere on the web!
Free, no signup required:
Add to Firefox
Get instant explanation for any acronym or abbreviation that hits you anywhere on the web!
Was (Not Was) tracks
On Radio Right Now
Loading.
..
Powered by OnRad.io
Think you know music? Test your MusicIQ here!
Movies in which is played
Walk the Dinosaur
»
- The Flintstones 1994
The Last Dinosaur: How Mark Knopfler Voiced the Life of the Yuppie Generation | Articles
He never looked like a rock star - an awkward guy with a receding hairline, in an eternal denim shirt over a T-shirt, looking more at the neck of his Stratocaster than at the audience. Nevertheless, it was he who wrote Money For Nothing, Tunnel Of Love, Sultans of Swing and half a dozen more songs that are definitely included in any compilation of the "best rock songs" of the last three decades. However, and to rock Mark Knopfler, who is celebrating 's 70th birthday today, August 12, has a very indirect relationship: musically, he has always stuck to his blues and folk roots. Listeners, however, do not go into such subtleties, but continue to create full houses at his concerts and buy records, the total circulation of which has long exceeded one and a half hundred million.
On the birthday of the famous British guitarist, composer and singer, Izvestia is pondering why he has been so loved for four decades now.
Their life's work
The group that brought fame to a quiet, lanky guy from Glasgow, a native of an intelligent family (father is an architect who fled from Nazi persecution in 1939 from Hungary; mother is an English teacher), was called Dire Straits, literally: “Aground”, which absolutely accurately characterized the financial condition of both Knopfler himself and the team founded together with his younger brother David. And even the debut album, released in 1979, at first did not give much hope of getting out of the financial hole - only after the release of the song Sultans of Swing as a single, which became a hit on the continent and in the USA, sales crept up. nine0007
Curiously, critics stubbornly ignored Dire Straits in their homeland - although all the LPs, up to Brothers In Arms, which soared straight to the top, were in the top 10 of the national hit parade.
The audience that went to the concerts (not yet stadiums, but no longer clubs: in 1983 Dire Straits played two sold-out shows at London's important Hammersmith Odeon) was also quite specific - not the teenagers who usually make up the rock and pop fan base. -idols, but sedate, often family people over 30.
Knopfler_1
Mark Knopfler at a Dire Straits concert in Berlin, July 21, 1992
Photo: TASS/imago/BRIGANI-ART/imago stock&people
The reason for this, in fact, was the very fact that Knopfler and his team were, by the standards of show business, almost old men. Only young people who had moved away from punk and were carried away by the “new romantics” and “angry” NME critics considered even The Police fakes - simply because Sting was under 30, and guitarist Andy Summers was generally the same age as the Beatles (he, in fact, managed to play even in the Old Testament The Animals). nine0007
For example, the art-rockers Genesis also passed through the department of dinosaurs: songs for dads (although, strictly speaking, Collins and his comrades were not yet 30).
Music had nothing to do with it - the conversation was about generational values. And it was these values - and tastes - that Mark Knopfler suddenly managed to grasp, understand and embody in his work.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the music lover out of adolescence was offered, in general, a poor choice. Or imposing stage beauties, sometimes with a claim to "rock" - like Cliff Richard, sometimes without it - like Barry Manilow; or pompous American stadium rock, ranging from Styx to some very dull REO Speedwagon. Strange as it may seem, they all had one thing in common - excessive peppy optimism. nine0007
Knopfler_2
Mark Knopfler concert in Rome, July 21, 2015
Photo: Global Look Press/Kika Press
The surrounding reality, however, did not particularly inspire optimism, especially for the British who survived under Thatcherism. The quiet melancholy of Knopfler's songs came in handy here - Dire Straits appeared at the right time and in the right place.
's unique playing style probably played its role, both as a guitarist and as a vocalist. Knopfler is left-handed, but plays the “right-handed” guitar without the help of a mediator, using the sound production technique he invented himself; as a singer, he clearly cannot compete with the "vociferous" pop heroes, so he sings in a style close to the schprechgesang of the serialists of the early twentieth century - an intimate semi-recitative, hoarse, soulful. nine0004
On every street
It is somewhat ironic, of course, that a company of "almost losers" ended up recording Brothers In Arms - one of the most commercially successful albums of all time (total circulation of about 30 million - more than any U2 disc or, say, Queen, the first in the history of British show business to become ten times platinum, the songs from which are still not released from the radio.
"Band of Brothers" has become perhaps the most important sound artifact of the generation of "yuppies" - successful young urban professionals 1980s, lovers of expensive sports cars, outfits from Gucci and Armani, elite alcohol and "designer" drugs (which was mockingly sung about at the same time by the Pet Shop Boys, who practically documented the habits of British yuppies in their songs).
What a string in the soul of these, what to hide, rather narcissistic and self-confident conformist consumers were touched by Knopfler's quiet introspective writings - God knows; but the fact remains - it was Brothers In Arms that became the first album to be sold on CDs (at 1985, still expensive and inaccessible to most exotics) exceeded sales on other media.
Knopfler_3
Mark Knopfler at the premiere of "Altamira" in Madrid, March 31, 2016
Photo: Global Look Press/Gabriel Maseda
It is even more ironic, of course, that the song Money For Nothing, which has become almost the band's hallmark, rather caustically ridicules the consumerism of the lyrical hero - to everything else, a homophobe. Those who listened to Brothers In Arms in their own BMWs didn't seem to notice the irony; those who, a quarter of a century after the release of the album, began to demand that the song be removed from the radio air as insulting sexual minorities, did not notice it either.
nine0004 True, here came that rare case when a scythe of righteous politically correct anger found a stone of ordinary human prudence: after the ban of the song by the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Board in 2011, several radio stations played Money For Nothing continuously for an hour every day; the ban was eventually lifted.
Knopfler, however, now performs the composition, omitting the verse about "little f***drila"; there is also an edited version of the original by Dire Straits for especially sensitive radio program directors. What to do - and dinosaurs have to adapt to new conditions. nine0007
Knopfler hints that last year's Down the Road Wherever will be his last; perhaps this is true. Judging by the reaction to the record, Knopfler's old audience already prefers well-tested classics, both with Dire Straits and solo, and younger listeners listen with great interest to his film music, which Mark has been doing for a long time and successfully - you can recall the soundtracks for the films "The Last Turn to Brooklyn" or "The tail wags the dog.
" But the musician does not intend to give up concert activity yet - and, hopefully, he will finally reach Russia, where he is known and loved. nine0007
SEE ALSO
Dinosaurs and other fossil animals
- Russian dinosaurs
- When whales could walk
- miraculous egg
- Such different dinosaurs: an encyclopedia in pictures
Elena Sereda
"Russian dinosaurs"
Artist Maria Kolker
Nastya and Nikita Publishing House, 2020
Why are there so few dinosaurs in Russia? - such an unexpected question is posed at the very beginning of this book. Indeed, it turns out that for a long time most of the fossil remains of dinosaurs were found on the American continents and in Asia, but in Russia there were almost no such finds.
The reason for this was primarily the climatic history of the territory of modern Russia. Most of it was once covered by seas, and then by glaciers - all this did not benefit the fossil remains. And even now it is difficult to look for dinosaurs in Russia. Almost everywhere we have forests, and where there are no forests, there are big cities, under which you can’t dig much. But still, scientists managed to find dinosaur bones even in such difficult conditions: the book tells about several species discovered in Siberia and the Far East. It is very important that many of these discoveries are very recent, made over the past 5-10 years - children see that the history of science is happening before their eyes and that you can participate in it. nine0080 The book is more suitable for children who already know a little about dinosaurs and read quite confidently. There is a lot of text in it - at least one or two paragraphs per page. And to imagine what ancient lizards might look like, large and bright illustrations help.
Dougal Dixon
“When whales could walk. Evolution. Incredible Transformations of Species
Artist Hannah Bailey
Translated from English by K. Vantukh
Labyrinth Publishing House, 2020
What is evolution, how fins were transformed into legs, what the ancestors of elephants looked like, why primates descended from trees to earth - this book gives short but meaningful answers to questions about how the evolutionary process works. The author of the book, geologist and paleontologist Dougal Dixon, talks about evolution in an accessible and clear way. The text is divided into small blocks, they are accompanied by illustrations: images of animals, as well as graphs explaining the geological periods and the evolutionary tree. Using various animals as examples, it is explained in detail how the gradual adaptation to new habitats takes place - for example, how whales, through a number of intermediate species, developed from terrestrial four-legged ancestors that used water as a refuge.
At the same time, the author introduces the child to rather complex scientific terms (“tetrapods”, “carnivores”), so the book is more suitable for a more prepared child who has already begun to get involved in dinosaurs and other fossils. nine0007
Dalov Ipkar
“Wonderful Egg”
Illustrations by the author
Translated from English by Marina Aromshtam
Swing Publishing House , 2016
This book is a fabulous story about dinosaurs with an educational component. In the center of the tale is an amazing egg that one day suddenly appears in a nest at the roots of a giant fern. The narration is very rhythmic due to the question repeated on each page: “Maybe it was a brontosaurus egg? ..”, “Or maybe it was a triceratops egg? ..” After the question, each dinosaur is given a small description. Almost all drawings are made in a greenish-gray scale, only occasionally there are bright spots. And at the end of the story, the world suddenly transforms fabulously - it is filled with a joyful pink color.
The first bird appears, which hatched from the egg and "sang the first real bird song." (The fairy-tale genre allows the author to forgive the "bird" song performed by Archeopteryx.)
On the last, purely scientific spread, the reader finds small images of dinosaurs indicating their sizes in numbers: it will be difficult for a small child to understand these data, but an adult can come to the rescue here and show objects of a similar size.
Read about this book in the articles "My child loves dinosaurs!".
Listen to the book "The Miraculous Egg".
Victoria Zatolokina, Tatyana Rudenko, Maria Melik-Pashayeva
"Such different dinosaurs: an encyclopedia in pictures"
Artists Alexander Sichkar and Philip Yarin
Melik-Pashayev Publishing House, 2016
The book is divided into two main parts. The first is a kind of comics, scenes from the life of dinosaurs with funny remarks. The everyday context helps the child to see dinosaurs as part of the living life of the Earth, and not just as museum pieces.
