By Kristyn Johnson, Contributing Writer
“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” featured TikTok star Addison Rae on March 26. Rae performed eight TikTok dances that have gone viral on the app. Fallon received backlash since Rae’s feature on the show because he did not give credit to the mostly Black creators who made those dances.
Fallon welcomed nine of the original dance creators to talk about their dances and perform them on the show. Mya Nicole Johnson, Chris Cotter, Dorien Scott, Fur-Quan Powell, Camyra Franklin, Adam Snyder, Nate Nale, Greg Dahl and Keara Wilson explained to Fallon how they came up with their dances.
Fallon stated, “We recognize that the creators of those dances deserve to have their own spotlight.” First, he had Johnson and Cotter, who created the TikTok dance to “Up” by Cardi B, discuss their viral dance and perform it.
The two said they decided to use “Up” because the song was new and going viral. Cardi B recognized the pair’s dance and reposted it on her Instagram and TikTok page.
Fallon then had Scott talk about his viral dance to “Adderall (Corvette Corvette)” by Popp Hunna. Scott discusses how he has been dancing for a long time but began as a gymnast. He says that he wants to continue to be a performer and entertainer.
Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster, also created his own viral TikToks to the song as he danced on top of the opponent’s midfield logo before some games. This brought up controversy as some fans believed the football player should not be dancing for social media as a pregame warmup.
Next, Powell created the remix to “Laffy Taffy.” Powell created the remix about 10 years ago and it recently blew up on TikTok. Camyra Franklin created the TikTok dance for the remix. Franklin said that she created the dance for fun and was not expecting it to go viral.
Snyder, Nale and Dahl created the dance to “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd.
Snyder said that he has always been a big fan of The Weeknd, and he was listening to the song all the time. The group came up with the dance by beginning with a foot movement that was their “go-to dance.”
Lastly, Wilson created the dance to “Savage” by rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Wilson said that it took her about 30 minutes to create the dance. She explained that she never expected the dance to go viral and that she did it for fun. Wilson was excited that the dance made others happy during quarantine.
People were frustrated that Rae’s performance of the dances instilled white privilege, since most of the creators are Black while others think that the talk show handled the situation well by giving the creators their deserved credit and understanding the mistake and taking responsibility for it.
johnsokr19@bonaventure.edu
