The floss is a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

in which a person repeatedly swings their arms, with clenched fists, from the back of their body to the front, on each side.

Etymology

The name comes from the moves themselves, which involve "a lot of fast arms and hip swings as though using a huge, invisible piece of

dental floss Dental floss is a cord of thin filaments, typically made of nylon or silk, used in interdental cleaning to remove food and dental plaque from between teeth or places a toothbrush has difficulty reaching or is unable to reach. Its regular use a ...

History

An earlier instance of the dance being promoted on the internet was in a 2014 clip uploaded by the YouTube channel JStuStudios, run by content creators Justin Stewart and Andrew Scites. Stewart and Scites have performed the dance, called "The Squeege" in televised appearances, such as ''

The Meredith Vieira Show ''The Meredith Vieira Show'' is an American talk show that was hosted by Meredith Vieira and produced by NBCUniversal Television Distribution. It premiered on September 8, 2014, and was airing in syndication. The second and final season premier ...

''. The earliest instance of the dance was published October 18, 2010 by the YouTube channel Ryan Mayall (MayAllLove13). Videos of the dance on social media achieved viral popularity after 14-year-old Russell Horning, known as "the backpack kid", performed the dance in an August 2016 video. Horning was invited to participate in a live ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' performance of

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

's song "

Swish Swish "Swish Swish" is a song by American singer Katy Perry featuring Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj from the former's fifth studio album ''Witness''. It was initially released as a promotional single on May 19, 2017, and later as the album's third s ...

" in May 2017. It has since become a trend among children and younger teens, and has been performed by celebrities in videos. The floss has been featured in ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'', and in television shows airing on

Universal Kids Universal Kids was an American children's cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel launched on September 26, 2005, as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented offshoot of ...

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...

, and

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

. Flossing is featured in the 2017 video game ''

Fortnite Battle Royale ''Fortnite Battle Royale'' is a 2017 Battle royale game, battle royale video game produced by Epic Games. It was originally developed as a companion game part of the early access version of ''Fortnite: Save the World'', a cooperative survival ...

'', developed and published by

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

, as a limited-time dance "

emote An emote is an entry in a text-based chat client that indicates an action taking place. Unlike emoticons, they are not text art, and instead describe the action using words or images (similar to emoji). Overview In most IRC chat clients, enteri ...

" as a reward from the Battle Pass Season 2 that can be performed by the characters while playing. Flossing has become popular in schools due to the popularity of ''Fortnite'' and because of support from parents and administrators, as flossing can be seen as lacking the relative eroticism seen in other dance moves popular with young people. In December 2018, Horning's mother filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for copyright infringement of the dance emote, the third such similar that Epic had seen. Horning's suit against Epic resulted in Playground Games removing the dance emote in their 2018 racing video game ''Forza Horizon 4'' via an update chilling effect, to avoid possible litigation against them.

References

{{reflist 2010s fads and trends 2017 in Internet culture Fortnite Novelty and fad dances Shorty Award winners Street dance