For so many, Halloween brings to mind sweet treats, clever costumes and fun parties. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” song and dance has become so synonymous with Halloween that it can be found on repeat anywhere you go. Another festive dance that you may not have heard of and are likely to encounter is the Pumpkin Dance.
Created in 2006 by then Omaha CW news anchor Matt Geiler, it was intended (as a special segment) to fill space in between news broadcasts. Geiler’s original idea was to dance in a graveyard wearing his pumpkin head, however, a green screen with various images ultimately became his background as he wiggled wildly about the floor. Set to the popular “Ghostbusters” theme song, the pumpkin dance clip was uploaded to YouTube in it’s infancy, so had initially reached a modest sized audience. By 2009 it was picked up by BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, and Videogum and began to go viral with more than one million views. Geiler’s pumpkin character then became immortalized as a meme, GIF and popular Halloween costume. He was even invited to showcase his character on the hit TV show America’s Got Talent, but he declined, stating that he felt it would ruin the sanctity of character.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4IC7qaNr7I
The original Halloween pumpkin dance.
Not a trained dancer by any means, Geiler’s silly, out of control dance style appealed to viewers as a feel good kind of shtick comic sketch; a dance that has been described to be so bad it’s good. News reporter turned comedian, Geiler reprised his sacred pumpkin character again, donning the one piece unitard and pumpkin head again for a Christmas theme segment. It remains to be seen whether there will be any spin off dances or characters from this, but for now the novelty and humor of the original dance is sure to live on for many Halloween’s to come.
Halloween pumpkin dance performed to a mash up of music styles to demonstrate its versatility.
