Dancing Toothless

About

Dancing Toothless is an exploitable viral video and series of green screen edits depicting a 2D animated Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon dancing to the song "Driftveil City" from Pokémon: Black & White. The animation clip comes from a December 2023 video by YouTuber Cas van de Pol and became the subject of memes, including video edits, that same month on sites including YouTube and TikTok. The dance is based on the 2018 Dancing Lizard meme.

Origin

Precursor (Dancing Lizard)

In 2018, a meme was popularized on sites including X and YouTube in which a 3D animated lizard dances to various songs. In one popular version of the meme, posted several times to YouTube in 2019, the lizard dances to the Pokémon song "Driftveil City." For example, on April 22nd, 2019, YouTuber^[1] it’s me jb posted a version of the meme that gained over 1.4 million views in four years (shown below).

Dancing Toothless

On December 9th, 2023, YouTuber^[2] Cas van de Pol posted a How to Train Your Dragon animation titled "The Ultimate 'How To Train Your Dragon' Recap Cartoon." Around the 1:30 timestamp, Hiccup snaps his finger and Toothless, the dragon, begins dancing to the song "Driftveil City" from Pokémon: Black & White, mimicking the lizard dance (shown below). The video gained over 4 million views in two weeks.

That day, YouTuber^[3] A . Z . Clubs ♣️ posted a video isolating the dance scene, titled, "Toothless dance meme," garnering over 30,000 views in two weeks. On December 11th, YouTuber^[4] The Meek Guy posted a one-hour edit of Toothless dancing, garnering over 300,000 views in two weeks (shown below).

Spread

The dance scene became notably popular on TikTok later that month. On December 13th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @uwaa.w posted a video editing Toothless' dance next to the lizard's dance, garnering over 2.6 million views in two weeks (shown below, left). On December 22nd, TikToker^[6] @igreenscreenthings posted a green screen of Toothless dancing, garnering over 6 million views in five days (shown below, right).

The green screen inspired memes where Toothless dances in various scenarios. For example, on December 22nd, TikTokers^[7][8] @i0hades0i and @scream_soda67 posted videos using the green screen, garnering over 1.3 million views each in five days (shown below, left and right).

League of Legends Post Controversy

On January 11th, 2024, the League of Legends UK X^[9] account posted a version of the Toothless dance animation meme traced over with a new dragon, writing, "he's just a happy lil' guy 🐲," garnering over 21,000 likes in a day (shown below).

he's just a happy lil' guy 🐲 pic.twitter.com/miEXLvDUq3

— League of Legends // UK, IE & Nordics (@LoLUKN) January 11, 2024

Later that day, the animator behind the original video, Cas Van De Pol, quote reposted the League of Legends animation on X,^[10] writing, "who do i invoice for this ? @riotgames," garnering over 140,000 likes in a day (shown below, left). In response, numerous people began leaving comments on the League of Legends post suggesting they pay or credit Cas Van De Pol (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References