Boogie Fever, Worldwide Epidemic

Sometimes you just can’t introduce people better than they introduce themselves:

“Hi, I’m Matt, from Where the Hell is Matt. I dance badly all around the world.”
– Matt Harding, Where in Google Earth is Matt, 2007

It all began in 2003 when former video game designer (and creator of the concept for Destroy All Humans) Matt Harding was traveling through Asia with a friend and periodically updating friends and family via his site, Where the Hell is Matt. One day in Hanoi, his companion suggested filming Harding doing “that dance,” a goofy jig that was his longstanding specialty. It was so much fun Harding kept doing “that dance” everywhere he traveled. In 2005, he scored his collective moves with “Sweet Lullaby,” an international hit by Deep Forest and posted the video online and… boom! Dancing everywhere.

In 2006, Stride Gum took note, and sponsored a second globetrot through 39 countries and 7 continents. The result was a second video, released in June of 2006, that made Harding a bonafide E-lebrity. That video has racked up nearly 10 million views to date (and, might we add, without any shenanigans — we’re looking at you, Numfar, aka Mr. Joss Whedon, on Angel. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.)

Fame may get Harding lecturing gigs and interviews with people who think “internet celebrity” is a career path, but in the end, he’s more Margaret Mead than Numa Numa. Whether he’s dancing with the Huli Wigmen of New Guinea or hitting the Solomon Islands in search of Afunakwa, singer of the traditional song sampled in “Sweet Lullaby,” Harding’s focus remains on knowledge, culture, and making it all fun.

First and foremost, he’s just a guy who dances badly. All around the world.