A Brief History of the Nae Nae in Sports: The Celebration That Just Won't Die
For reasons still unclear, Wake Forest football players YouTubed a locker room Nae Nae battle over the weekend. Yep, this is the Wake Forest football team that hasn't had a winning season since 2008. No, we're not sure what they actually have to celebrate.
The creation of the dance has been attributed to WeAreToonz, a group of kids from Atlanta who will have trouble living this down for the rest of their lives. The Nae Nae has infiltrated sport -- a display of jubilation that will forever timestamp its users into the year that was 2014 (at least we hope).
It's been about six months since the Nae Nae's inception. In honor of its mysterious staying power, we'll take a ride in our DeLorean and look at some notable moments.
First, there was Michigan State football—celebrating its Rose Bowl victory with a tip of the cap to new friend Rich Homie Quan. And there was New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram with an endzone splash in the NFC Wild Card game.
Shortly afterward, Dwight Howard continued making everyone despise him to display his fun-loving personality by linking up with WeAreToonz themselves in this somewhat bizarre video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuJWFljt-OA
Here's John Wall, Paul George and that scary Wizards mascot celebrating Wall's impressive dunk contest victory. In retrospect, this makes the Eastern Conference semifinals slightly more awkward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1diePfOr4lA
In today's edition of "Let's Irrationally Blame Duke": this would never have happened had the Blue Devils not lost to 14-seed Mercer in the second round of the tournament.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ul8fPnodlE
Then former Mr. Universe-slash-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tried his hand at it, and all bets were off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qvO7zETYXc
All of a sudden, it went beyond the athletes. There was Betsy Ross, who stitched the original American flag but these days makes her living as the 76ers mascot.
And this excitable Rangers fan.
And then everybody else, ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvv-v8t9vEM
