The Koopa Troopa Dance from New Super Mario Bros. Wii is now a TikTok meme

The “Koopa Troopa Dance” appears to be one of the latest trends to hit TikTok. This new meme originates from New Super Mario Bros. Wii where Koopa Troopas will dance along to the background music no matter what situation they’re in.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a 2D platforming game in the Mario series that released on the Nintendo Wii back in 2009. One defining feature of the game was how certain enemies would dance to the background music of the stage during gameplay. Goombas would perform a little hop to the beat and Koopa Troopas would face the screen and wave their arms to liven things up a bit. Enemies dancing to the background music was first introduced in New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS and was subsequently carried over to later titles in the series.

Whether in the face of Mario on his shell stomping rampage or on a dangerous platform, Koopa Troopas will dutifully dance to the background music. It’s this dance that’s become popular on TikTok in an unexpected way.

According to Know Your Meme, it started with a video posted on October 28. The video contained two Koopa Troopas dancing to the stage music which received around 18.5 million views and 3.5 million likes in two weeks. Since then, users on TikTok have been using its features to add their own videos to the original video’s music. In November, TikTok user not so epic submitted a video titled “A koopa at his wife’s funeral.” Even in this moment of sadness, something about the music compels the Koopa Troopa to dance.

TikTok user frankie also posted a video called “A koopa fighting for full custody of his children in court.” While passionately making their case to win custody of their children, this Koopa Troopa still has to sway to the music. As of this writing, the video has around 2.6 million likes and established the image that Koopa Troopas dance to the music against their will no matter the situation.

With the above video as the instigator, Koopa Troopas dancing in serious situations became a meme on TikTok as more users submitted tons of videos. Examples include a Koopa Troopa trying to defuse a bomb, a Koopa Troopa that’s been given three days to live, and a Koopa Troopa that caught their partner cheating on them. What they all have in common is a person playing the role of a Koopa Troopa dancing in situations where they shouldn’t be.

The previously mentioned Koopa Troopa in court video grew even more popular as other users uploaded their own collaboration videos which added a judge and jury to the scene (as Koopa Troopas).

The Koopa Troopa Dance meme has already seen a lot of variations as well, from hand-drawn animation videos to videos making other characters dance. Below is a video submitted by Twitter user @Derpy_Horse4 that adds the Mario stage music to Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 and makes the usually creepy Springtrap do a cheerful little dance.

The Koopa Troopa Dance likely caught on because of how odd and cute it is that Koopa Troopas will sway to the music no matter the situation. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the original basis for the meme, was a massive hit that sold 30 million copies worldwide. Now a little over 10 years later, it’s popular once again in a new way.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-11-15 14:34 JST)