The Morning GIF: The king of pop

Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.

A GIF of Michael Jackson’s smoothest moves, created entirely out of LEGOs?

Not Bad at all.

Originally, it was a Vimeo video by Berlin artist Annette Jung of the animation studio Talking Animals, which comprises a group of schoolmates who all graduated from the same school a scant four years ago.

Just like the real MJ, this one is a blockbuster, boasting more than 373,000 views since its uploading on Feb. 22. The GIF, only 12 hours old from 4GIFs on Tumblr, already has 4,764 notes.

It’s no wonder it’s so popular: Jackson’s fans are unlike any others in their loyalty and their veneration of the supernova around which they cluster. It’s possible for a GIF, if it truly captures the man the way this does, to become a religious experience for them.

Jackson’s moves were one way that neglected African-American classics like the moonwalk re-entered popular culture, and thanks to his personal power, this time they were allowed to stay. What Cab Calloway could popularize momentarily, MJ could make permanent.

And you can, too: just right-click and save.