#RunningManChallenge: Florida Cops Challenge One Another to Video Dance Battle

Last week, my colleague over at Miami New Times, Ryan Pfeffer, made the salient point that government agencies are responsible for killing nearly all the world's memes. The "Harlem Shake" stopped being fun after your local DMV hate-shook its arms to Baauer in 2013. And that was the Harlem Shake, a dance craze that required literally no skill or practice to pull off. You just swung your arms until you fell over.

Now, the #RunningManChallenge, a video craze in which dancers pump their fists and scoot across the floor to "My Boo" by Ghost Town DJs, is bringing new life to video dance battles — with the Broward Sheriff's Office contributing a valiant effort.

Miami Beach Police Department put together a #RunningManChallenge video last week, but it was halfhearted. Cops and employees just sort of stomp around on the sand, figuratively trampling what had been a booming dance craze until that point. Then, the department Facebook tagged the mainland police force, drawing it into a challenge. 



City of Miami Police responded in full force with a well-edited, well-shot clip, which, notably, actually shows someone doing the updated version of the "Running Man" correctly:


After being tagged by Miami, now comes the Broward Sheriff's Office with bagpipes! And jokes! And a recruiting message! 

In the agency's video, after opening with a blaring bagpipe concerto, the rest of the Broward Sheriff's Office shows up. There's a lot of boogying, a ton of flailing, some dancing mascots, and multiple renditions of the Worm" but save one valiant, pea-sized cop at the very beginning, we don't really see the Running Man at all. (Nor do we see anything in HD. It's 2016, guys!)

About a minute into the clip, Sheriff Scott Israel finally arrives: After being told that his department has not, in fact, committed some large-scale form of mutiny and is instead acting out a Running Man, Israel makes a joke: 

"Running Man?" he says. "Last time I was a running man, I got hit by a pickup truck," he says, referring to an incident last month when he got swiped while jogging. In the video, he shows off a brace on his foot — and then gets back to business,  asking folks to apply to work for BSO.

The video brought out some hometown pride, with one Facebook commenter even forgiving officers for all the speeding tickets: "Y'all have given me some tickets over the years but I still got love for you lol. Nice to see you guys having fun, and thanks for making our city safer. That's great you all are hiring, great way to get the word out. Respect. ????????????"

Here is Delray PD's also, while we're at it: