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".

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 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" 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, Disney XD, 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'', 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" 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 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