No More Harlem Shake, Now ‘Do The Hadouken?’

Remember the video game “Street Fighter?” Or better yet have you thought about those crazy fights in the Dragon Ball Z animes. Yes the over exaggerated ones where there was more screaming than punching.

The game is having a comeback with a new meme that could only be described as having your friends take photos of you doing poses and power moves from anime series like Dragon Ball Z.

I’ll explain.

Based on an attack move from the game, “Hadouken-ing” basically consists of one person striking either a pushing pose or punching the ground (are you still with me?), while others seemingly fly away around them.

So imagine Goku slamming into the ground and everyone being tossed away by the force of impact.

If you can imagine this, congratulations. You understand the concept behind the newest meme to hit the web, which is giving the waning Harlem Shake a run for its money.

Like “Street Fighter” itself, the current hadouken trend seems to have originated in Japan, and some predict it will be the next Tebowing (or planking, owling, milking, harlem shaking … wow we really are a culture obsessed with memes, aren’t we).

Just as the Harlem Shake has reached a billion views on YouTube, we’re already getting sick of watching people have seizures to loud music in colored costumes (no, no, I’m not talking about Ultra).

I actually liked the Harlem Shake, mostly because it incorporated music and dance into the meme and and involved some actual movement (here’s looking at you planking), even if it looked like the people in the video were in urgent need of a doctor.

And unlike planking, owling or milking (I’ll get to that one), you need friends to do this meme, otherwise it just looks weak.

I like Hadouken-ing even more than Harlem Shake. If done properly, it can be the coolest looking meme out there, and it doesn’t even require a costume.

My personal favorite is the one I described before. The “landing on the ground with so much force you blow everyone away with the force” one.

Honestly, this has to be one of the best memes to come out. There have been some really weird ones to go viral and it wasn’t until the Harlem Shake that I really found any worth doing.

We had planking (remember that). You lay down straight on different objects. You lay down! Only place I would plank is on my bed under the covers.

Owling was one of the creepiest ones. It looked like one of those possessed zombie children from a horror movie was waiting to attack you as it curled up in an elevated corner of the house.

Milking is just a waste of good hearty milk. Why anyone would run down the aisle and ‘slip’ just to be able to toss and break a gallon of milk is beyond me.

Harlem Shake was the first decent one. But even great memes must end.

So you can lay down as a plank (yawn), curl up in the tight space somewhere with your eyes wide open (creepy), or if you feel like being banned from the supermarket you can slip on milk (I don’t even know what to say about this one).

Hadouken-ing is the next greatest meme to hit the Internet and my favorite (but give it three weeks and I’ll probably have a new favorite to choose from, psst, look up Vadering).

You can be an early adopter. Make sure you do before it goes stale (or before LeBron James and the Heat decide to do one also).