Memes

The history and origins of the ‘Dancing Toothless’ meme

This handy primer will unveil “how to meme your dragon.”

Photo of Mike Hadge

Mike Hadge

toothless dancing meme on abstract background

A new meme has taken over the Internet—which is actually an old meme spawned from the How to Train Your Dragon series.

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What is the Dancing Toothless Meme?

We all know Toothless the Dragon at this point, right? The adorable little dude has starred in three acclaimed blockbuster films, with a fourth on the way. He’s even got his own theme park land. Toothless is living large these days, so of course he’s staked his place in the meme-iverse. 

I refer, naturally, to the Dancing Toothless meme. 

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Dancing Toothless Origin

As its history proves, Dancing Toothless has many fathers. It all started, auspiciously enough, in 2018, when a video surfaced of a lizard dancing to different songs.

One year later, one of the most popular versions of the meme spread, with the lizard cutting a rug to the Pokemon: Black & White song, “Driftveil City.” Behold! 

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Cut to December, 2023. It was an innocent time.

The nation was still reeling from the previous summer’s Barbenheimer experience, Santas was prepping for a fast-approaching Christmas Eve, and YouTuber Cas van de Pol posted “The Ultimate ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Recap Cartoon.” 

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See where this is going? If not, cut to 1:30 in the video, where you’ll find Toothless dancing to—what else —”Driftveil City” much in the style (well, exactly in the style) of our dancing lizard chum.

The video racked up 4 million views in two weeks. 

In Body Image
via imgflip

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Dancing Toothless Goes Solo

As it often does, TikTok now enters the story, as on December 13th, 2023, TikToker @uwaa.w posted a video edit of Toothless’ dance taking place next to the OG lizard. The Tok snagged over 2.6 million views in two weeks. A star was born. 

@uwaa.w SCOTLAND FOREVER Animation credit cas van de pol #howtotrainyourdragon#casvandepol#parody#toothless#toothlessedit#toothlessthedragon#toothlessthenightfury#nightfury ♬ оригинальный звук – Tito

Dancing Toothless Meme Examples

Quickly, TikTokker @igreenscreenthings did his thing with Toothless. The internet did not wait around, putting Dancing Toothless in various settings and backgrounds. 

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@i0hades0i Forever lost to the void… 🕳️ #toothless #dancingtoothless #fyp #meme ♬ original sound  – Nintendo
@f4ithful.v0id we do it every time #toothless #dancingtoothless #howtotrainyourdragon #meme #memecut #capcutedit #fyp #foryourpage #broke #myfriendsandi #food ♬ original sound – Daily Toothless dancing
@yevhen_maybe Funky😂😂😂 #toothless #dance  #howtotrainyourdragon ♬ original sound – Daily Toothless dancing
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@yevhen_maybe Funky😂😂😂 #toothless #dance  #howtotrainyourdragon ♬ original sound – Daily Toothless dancing

Never made your own Dancing Toothless? Well, get on it. The dude is not picky about his dancing locales—he just loves to dance! Here’s a gif so you can make your own:

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