Marcel Winatschek

The Dance Moves

I watched Fallon and Smith run through hip-hop dances the other night—Running Man, Dougie, Twerk, the ones you half-remember from 2 AM YouTube holes. Two middle-aged guys in suits doing nostalgia that’s not even old yet. Late night has gotten good at this: find something recognizable, stick celebrities in it, film it, done.

Smith looked like he was having fun. Fallon looked like he was working, which is funnier. There’s something about his total commitment to bits that don’t need it.

It made me think about how fast we burn through culture now. Twenty years and these dances are museum pieces. They need the irony frame already. Nobody does the Dougie straight anymore—it’s only funny because we all know it’s dead. That’s how you know the culture moves fast: it can turn its own recent past into a joke before anyone’s even sad about it.