80s Group Dance Scenes

I watched Can’t Buy Me Love tonight. I had seen it on Pay-Per-View when I was in middle school. I had no idea at the time just how awful it was. Besides the general meanness of everybody in the second half of the film, there were two cliched scenes that I can’t stand in any film and really couldn’t stand in this one. The second was the moving public speech that sets everything right, complete with clapping from the audience at the end. Barf.

The first, and perhaps worst offender, was the group dance. You know how these scenes go. One guy brings a new dance routine to the party and then everybody starts doing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxIrQPffSIg

To be honest, this one did at least have a humorous payoff. Plus, it was choreographed by Paula Abdul, so that’s something. Unfortunately, I can’t say that about the many other times we see the group dance, such as in Encino Man

or Teen Wolf

I first became aware of the group dance in the video for The Communards “Never Can Say Goodbye” cover. I think I saw this video on VH1’s Pop Video, and they stated that the singer really wanted to do a group dance.

I realized right away how ridiculous the group dance is. How could everybody learn the moves that fast and do them right? Why doesn’t anybody just laugh at the idiot who tries to start the dance? And how do they pick up the new moves they’ve never scene that always get added once everyone is dancing? But, illogical though it is, there you have it. In movie after movie after movie.

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Doug

Doug is a child of the 80s who was raised in Ohio and is now living the life of oblivion in the bay area of California.

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