The Mannequin Challenge has taken over the internet. With the fast-paced nature of the internet, viral trends come and go. There is no telling how long the Mannequin challenge will remain relevant. But for now, the mesmerizing, physically demanding stunt has the world’s attention, and for good reason, teens are creating a new living art form and it is also challenging the internet to join in.

The Mannequin challenge is where people imitate a mannequin and stand completely still while one person walks around videoing everything. That person moves the camera to get all of the details in the positions people are frozen in.

The cinnamon challenge began online in 2001 and became popular around 2007. There was the planking challenge in 2010, the ice bucket challenge two years ago and now there is the Mannequin challenge. The Mannequin challenge originated in Jacksonville Florida, where a girl named Emili went up to the front of the class and stood there silently. That was when her friend A’laynah said, “Hey, you look like a mannequin.” Her friend Bre’Onna and Jasmine joined and the students started doing all of these crazy poses. The class prank then evolved into a full blown social media challenge.

While frozen, there is music playing in the background. The song playing is “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane. According to telegraph.co.uk “at a concert in Denver, the American hip hop duo ackowldege the challenge by telling the audiance to remain completely still as they recorded their Mannequin challenge.”

Thanks to the Mannequin challenge,“Black Beatles” became the number one song in the country by the second week of November. According to pigeonsandplanes.com “it hit 50 million streams in consecutive weeks, which has not been done since the ‘Harlem Shake’”.

The Mannequin challenge has been done by so many people worldwide, not just teens. Many famous people have accomplished this challenge. Destiny’s child, Hillary Clinton, Kevin Hart, Ellen DeGeneres, the cast from Dancing With the Stars, Blac Chyna, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift  and even the football team the Dallas Cowboys are just a few of the celebrities who have done the challenge.

There are many people who have participated in the challenge but there are some who have not even tried the Mannequin Challenge. One person is George Williamson.

“I have never done the Mannequin Challenge, and I do not plan on doing it,” Williamson said. “I think that the challenge is cool if people do physically demanding positions, but I think it is boring if you are just standing there.”

There have been some interesting poses on the multitude of videos for this challenge. Some such as Kevin Hart froze while holding some weights on his shoulders. Then people on gymnastic teams holding themselves in a gravity defying handstand position.

The different physically demanding positions people put themselves in is what has made the mannequin challenge so exciting and all the rage lately.

“Art is a way of freezing time or, extending time…. it’s another way to bridge the gaps between us.” says Sarah Ruhl. Why does society feel the need to have these mindless challenges to fill the time that would have otherwise been spent differently?