"Virtual Insanity" by Jamiroquai

Submission 8,004

About

"Virtual Insanity" is a 1996 song by British funk band Jamiroquai. The song's music video inspired several fan edits and recreations of the video in the early 2020s, as well as various memes including Dancing, Walking, Rearranging Furniture and Jamiroquai Grab.

Origin

The song was first released as a single on August 19th, 1996, and was later included on the Jamiroquai album Travelling Without Moving, released on August 28th, 1996.^[1]^[2] The song's music video was released in September of 1996 and won several awards including "Video of the Year" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. The music video (shown below) was later uploaded to the official Jamiroquai YouTube channel on October 25th, 2009, where it received over 228 million views in over thirteen years.^[3] In the music video, Jamiroquai's lead singer "Jay Kay" wears a fur top hat and performs the song while sliding around the room, with various pieces of furniture sliding around the room as well.

Spread

On October 18th, 2008, Nicovideo user taka posted a recreation of the music video in Miku Miku Dance using Hatsune Miku.^[4] The video received over 958,000 views in over fourteen years. An upscaled version of the video (shown below, left) was posted to YouTube on November 12th, 2009, which received over 380,000 views in over fourteen years.^[5] On March 17th, 2013, YouTube user MiracleSeven posted a recreation of the video using stop-motion photography. The video (shown below, right) received over 157,000 views in over ten years.^[6]

On May 3rd, 2013, Nicovideo user WNsegR posted a recreation of the music video using rotoscoped animation of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure character Weather Report.^[7] The video received over 539,000 views in over nine years. WNsegR later reposted the video (shown below, left) to YouTube on June 28th, 2013, where it received over 4.6 million views in over nine years.^[8] On April 6th, 2016, YouTube user chocopen meme posted a fan music video using an animation of dancing penguins.^[9] The video (shown below, right) received over 625,000 views in over seven years.

Dancing, Walking, Rearranging Furniture

Dancing, Walking, Rearranging Furniture, also known as Cartermiroquai, refers to a song sung by Family Guy character Carter Pewterschmidt in the Season 14 episode "Scammed Yankees." The song and cut-away gag are a spoof on the music video for Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity." The video and Carter Pewterschmidt's singing became a meme on iFunny and TikTok starting in late 2021.

Jamiroquai Grab / Virtual Insanity Grab

Jamiroquai Grab or Jamiroquai Slide refers to a clip from the music video for Jamiroquai's song "Virtual Insanity" in which the singer Jay Kay slides towards the camera wearing a large top hat, his hand reaching outward prepared for a grab. The clip has been used as source material for GIF caption memes since 2019, regaining virality in 2023 following the spread of the Dancing, Walking, Rearranging Furniture meme.