Prancercise

Submission 21,931

About

Prancercise is an exercise developed by Florida resident Joanna Rohrback that involves dancing in a similar fashion to a horse's gait.^[5] The regimen gained notoriety when a demonstration video began circulating online in May of 2013.

Origin

On December 12th, 2012, the Prancercise YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "Prancercise: A Fitness Workout," which featured Rohrback performing various dance moves while walking down a pathway in a park. As of June 2013, the video has received over five million views and 200 comments.

Spread

The video remained relatively obscure until May 25th, 2013, when it was posted to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit. On May 28th, the video was highlighted on the viral content site BuzzFeed,^[2] where it received over 38,700 views and 6,500 Facebook likes in the first six days. On the following day, Redditor jhangel77 reposted the video to the /r/cringe^[10] subreddit. Also on May 29th, the Seattle-based novelty store Archie McPhee uploaded a video to YouTube featuring a man Prancercising while wearing a unicorn-themed horse head mask (shown below). In the following five days, the video accumulated upwards of 73,000 views and 100 comments.

On May 30th, The Week^[4] published an article about the exercise, revealing that Rohrback invented the regimen back in 1989. That same day, CNBC^[6] published an interview with Rohrback, who responded to those making fun of her video saying, "Let them laugh." Also on May 30th, The Daily Beast^[8] published another interview with Rohrback in which she explained that she invented the exercise while walking down the street in the late 1980s.

“I must have heard a really good song I liked on the radio. I started moving in a rhythmic way, using ankle weights. And it just evolved.”

On May 31st, Time Magazine^[3] highlighted the video on their Newsfeed blog. On the following day, Rohrback appeared on Inside Edition to promote and demonstrate her exercise (shown below). Also on June 1st, ABC News^[9] published an article comparing Prancercise to other bizarre workouts, including "treadmill dancing" and the "heel hop workout."