“It’s the viral dance that everybody is talking about,” Ellen DeGeneres tells the studio audience during Tuesday’s installment of the Ellen Show. “It’s not the Whip Nae-Nae, it’s not the Dab. It’s called the Running Man Challenge.”
So begins a fun segment of the supremely popular program that would’ve been impossible to comprehend a few short weeks ago. And eventually, the TV personality brings out Maryland basketball guards Jaylen Brantley and Jared Nickens to shed light on the foot-shuffling and mini-hopping craze they helped make famous after two New Jersey kids started it.
Out of all the attention the Terps have garnered because of their involvement in the dance, from mentions on major websites to a story in the Washington Post, this is the peak. Seeing them on the stage in their Maryland shooting shirts, on a show that has a country’s worth of viewers, is simply nuts.
The edited video, which was posted to DeGeneres’ ellentube, runs for a little more than five minutes, but a lot takes place in that span. The pair joins those creative teens and discusses the origins of the movement, receives customized Ellen underwear, and finally — of course — performs for the audience. Nickens and Brantley break out the CPR routine that was featured in one of their films.
You can watch the whole package here, as you continue to try and wrap your head around just how big this whole thing has become:
