Thanks to dad and Catherine for sharing this video. I actually find this video amusing. How an idea or how one man can influence the whole world amazes me! And how lucky he is to have travelled to so many cities all over the world.
At first I liked watching the videos just because I wanted to see different places in the world and where Matt has been to. I also found his dancing so entertaining. I was trying to figure out what he was trying to do or what he was trying to convey. Then I saw this comment on his video, which by the way has 21,000 + comments and 10 million plus views, which sort of says it all.
“Hi Matt, the new video absolultey Rocks! I wish I had a better word. It brought be to happy tears because it is pure joy, no politics, no attachments, no stress, no problems, just people having fun together doing the same thing (dancing badly) at the same time, all over our big beautiful world. We were all in the moment and it shows in every clip!
Your videos bring such happines and joy to so many, that of course is why they are such a hit and this one will be the biggest hit!
Thank you Matt, and thank you Stride Gum for allowing Matt Harding to continue his good work……..dancing badly and spreading joy!
Tashi Delek Matt!
Posted by: Roemarie | June 20, 2008 at 08:28 AM
note: You can view the video in YOUTUBE in HIGH RESOLUTION so it is clearer
2008
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2006
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This is funny too!
Outakes
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website: Where the Hell is Matt?
About Matt
Matt is a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he’d saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.
A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said “Hey, why don’t you stand over there and do that dance. I’ll record it.” He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It’s actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.
A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as “That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I’ll send you the link. It’s funny.”
The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he’d be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they’d be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.
In 2006, Matt took a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In that time, he danced a great deal.
The second video made Matt even more quasi-famous. In fact, for a brief period in July, he was semi-famous.
Things settled down again, and then in 2007 Matt went back to Stride with another idea. He realized his bad dancing wasn’t actually all that interesting, and that other people were much better at being bad at it. He showed them his inbox, which, as a result of his semi-famousness, was overflowing with emails from all over the planet. He told them he wanted to travel around the world one more time and invite the people who’d written him to come out and dance too.
The Stride people thought that sounded like yet another very good idea, so they let him do it. And he did. And now it’s done. And he hopes you like it.
Matt lives in Seattle, Washington with his girlfriend, Melissa, and dog, Sydney. He hasn’t had a real job since Stride called him up. Matt doesn’t mind working, but he doesn’t much care for having to show up at the same place every day.
Matt is not rich. Matt also doesn’t have some magical secret for traveling cheaply. He does it pretty much the same way everybody else does.
Matt thinks Americans need to travel abroad more.
Matt was a very poor student and never went to college. When he got older, he was pleased to discover that no one actually cares. Matt doesn’t want to imply that college is bad or anything. He’s just saying is all. There’s other ways to fill your head.
Matt is left-handed.
When Matt was younger, he could hang seven spoons on his face at once. Sadly, puberty made Matt’s face less conducive to spoon-hanging.
Matt’s Xbox Live screen name is BadDancer. He plays a lot of Rock Band.
Matt has a little piece of extra cartilage sticking out on the rim of one ear and a little hole in the same place on the other ear. Since saying so on this page, he’s been informed that the extra piece of cartilage is called a Darwinian Tubercle. Matt thinks
website: Where the Hell is Matt?
i love this video! better to watch it in high quality resolution!
Rics, I love it!!
What a fresh take on life! I think I will just do THE DANCE whenever I am feeling stressed! hahaha
It seems like a pretty crazy and funny thing to do. But, when you look deep into this video, its just not a guy dancing but, a person with a message. Our dean here at BU says that you have to look past at the foolishness and look and interpret this video. What you should be seeing is actually the true message of this video and that is we are all human. No matter what race, color or culture we are all human. We all bleed in pain, laugh with tears of joy and cry salty tears. Its hard to believe that there is so much war in this world, killings, and HATE that rages in so much people. What really makes this Matt guy special is he has found a common ground that exists in all four corners of the world…. and that is dancing. Everyone has a common ground with everyone, we just need to find out what it is. Once we do then I believe everything will work out. The world and everyone in it must realize that our common ground is that we all are human. We must learn to cope with one another and learn to live with one another. Its not that hard to think empathetic but we seriously need to open our eyes and see the effects we put out with all the negativity in this world and everything that goes on in our everyday life. WE should all love one another no matter what, religion says we are all related and we came from the same ancestors. And for people who believe in science and evolution, this still implies since we must have all evolved which also means “we”, in a way are all related through evolution. This world was made to contain all of us so we have to learn to live together with one another and preserve what we have. I dunno i just felt like sharing this with everyone in the group. What makes anyone different from us? Well nothing, we all have our minds and bodies we should use it. Feeling miserable all the time isnt the way life is suppose to be and i fined it a big waste of time. So be happy its much better.
Just look at the smiles on everyones faces. Imagine ONE person being able to make so many different people from different classes, backgrounds and races SMILE like that. Now imagine what ALL of us can do TOGETHER and what we can ACCOMPLISH…
The soundtrack is pretty cool too, i have no clue what the words are but from the sound of it i can pretty much understand it.
WE as Humans were created with the most blessed gift of them all and that is COMMUNICATION and the power of LOGICAL THINKING, this is the only thing that separates us from being animals.
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