In the past few weeks I’ve not been able to escape a rather familiar character blowing up on TikTok and Instagram, but not for the reason you might think. I’m sure we all have fond memories of the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” from our childhoods and the many characters from within that universe, but none more so than the star ‘Toothless’ the dragon. Recently you might have come across some videos of a cartoon version of the dragon dancing to various different scenarios on social media. But just what is this random but hilarious “Dancing Toothless” meme and where did it come from?
Where did the Dancing Toothless Meme come from?
The true origin of the meme dates back to 2018 when Twitter user @ka92 uploaded a dancing lizard that he states was created in design software Maximo, per Know your meme.
The popularity of the meme cemented itself when the meme evolved to include music to the Pokémon song “Driftveil City”, with some of these videos gaining over a million views. This particular era saw many memes emerge of animals dancing to bizarre songs, such as Polish cow.
![Image displaying dancing Polish Cow meme and dancing lizard meme.](https://megasplain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ka92-1-1024x429.png)
People clearly have an interest for animals dancing, and the person of todays topic was about to capitalise on said interest. Cue December 9th 2023, when youtuber Cas Van de Pol decided to resurrect the Dancing Lizard meme during his animated version of ‘How To Train your Dragon’ titled “The Ultimate How To train Your Dragon recap Carton“. At the 1:32 mark in the video we see “Hiccup” comically snap his fingers which commences the Toothless dragon dancing to the song “Driftveil City” from the games – Pokémon Black & White. The video (listed below) has over 20 million views as of writing this article.
Dancing Toothless Meme
Viewers were quick to realise the meme potential of the dancing toothless bit. YouTuber A. Z. Clubs reuploaded the 10 second clip of Toothless dancing on the same day, reaching over 800 thousand views in a few weeks.
One week later, TikTok user @igreenscreenthings uploaded a green-screened version of Dancing Toothless, allowing for easy integration of the Dragon into fresh memes for social media use. People’s appetite for trend are clearly gigantic as the clip amassed 15 million views in a month!
Creator Cas Van De Pol recognised the potential of the viral hit as he uploaded variations of the green-screen dance to further propagate the meme.
![](https://megasplain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cas-van-de-pol.png)
Since then, many people have gladly obliged in using the green-screened versions of the dance to create their own viral successes. Even going as far as taking part in the dance choreography themselves!
The how to train your dragon dance on TikTok alone amassed 7 Billion views in less than 2 months which is crazy!
I have a feeling with the New live action film in the works with Universal (due in 2025) we may get some new toothless memes in the future! But for now maybe “Dancing Toothless” is what we all needed, I know I cant get enough of the cute dancing dragon!.