Have You Seen the Mannequin Challenge?

This is What’s Trending Today. A mannequin is a plastic model used in clothing stores. A storeowner puts clothing on the mannequin to show shoppers how the clothing looks on the human body. Unlike a human being that moves, the mannequins stay in one place. Starting in late October, videos with the hashtag #MannequinChallenge started coming out on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The videos show people freezing in place while the camera moves around them. In the background, you sometimes can hear a song called “Black Beatles” by the hip-hop group Rae Sremmurd. At first, high school students and college sports teams were doing the Mannequin Challenge. One story about the development of the video trend says a Twitter user posted the first Mannequin Challenge video on October 26. It showed some students at a high school in Florida.  Then it started to catch on. Hillary Clinton did a video on her airplane on November 8.  Just two days later, the NBA champion basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, visited President Barack Obama at the White House. While the players were there, they made a Mannequin Challenge video with Michelle Obama. LeBron James was not perfect, however. He blinked his eyes when the camera passed by. He posed taking a selfie with Michelle Obama. Other sports teams have done videos, too. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League, or NFL, did a video that showed players talking to media members, along with other locker room scenes.  The challenge seems like fun for the participants and viewers. But not everyone is impressed by them. For example, the Spanish national soccer team posted a video after its game with England on Tuesday night. During the game, England scored a goal and did the Mannequin Challenge on the field as part of its celebration. Neither team succeeded in winning the game, which ended in a 2-2 tie. One sports newspaper from Spain said the video was better than the team’s performance on the field.  And that’s What’s Trending Today. I’m Jill Robbins. Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. Have you seen some other good Mannequin Challenge videos? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story blink – v. to close and then open your eyes very quickly pose –v. to stand, sit or hold some position without moving, often as a model photograph or painting scene – n. a view or sight that looks like a picture participant – n. a person who is involved in an activity or event viewer – n. a person who sees or looks at something

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