This has been floating around for a while — it seems like someone emails it to me every couple of months — but I never get tired of watching it. It always boosts my spirits a little, even on days like this one. Maybe especially on days like this, when I’m not depressed, exactly, but I am feeling beaten down because of too many nights staying up late trying to finish the crap I didn’t have time to accomplish earlier, and too many afternoons putting out stupid little fires that have everyone around me losing their heads while I struggle gamely on.
What a charming notion, don’t you think? That disparate people from all over the globe can find common ground in a sweet old chestnut from Motown’s golden years? Yeah, I feel a little better now.
It is quite uplifting, even though now that I know the truth about that Dancing Matt guy, I can’t help but be cynical about the purported locations. It is very nicely put together, regardless.
Wait, there’s a truth about Dancing Matt? I’m almost afraid to ask…
Sorry, Jason, that’s me putting my foot in my mouth by using English structures not appropriate to the occasion. My only defense is that I tried to speak Hungarian for the few days prior to this, and my brain is now fried. (No offense to Hungarians in the audience – I think it is a matter of national pride that the language is so complicated for a foreigner to comprehend.)
If you Google “dancing Matt hoax”, you’ll get links to a “revelatory” video where Matt Harding confesses that the dancing videos were a hoax, aided by animatronics and green screen. You will also find a lot of links – and Harding’s later statements – that the confession was made sarcastically in order to poke fun at people who doubt everything and that the videos are all completely genuine.
My initial inclination upon seeing the “confession” several months ago was that it rang truer than the idea of a guy just deciding to travel the world and film himself badly dancing. I suppose I’m cynical that way.
The fact is, when I first saw the dancing video, every time there was a shot with only Matt in the frame against some undistinguished background, I thought to myself “Yeah, right, I believe that it is Johannesburg or Montevideo or whatever. It could be anything. Dance in front of some national monument, dude, then I’ll believe you.” (And, in fairness, there are plenty easily recognizable sights in the video as well.) I always had my doubts, and despite any latter protestations, that pseudo-confession reinforced them. Whatever he says now, I can’t help but think that at least past of the Dancing Matt video was doctored.
The way I should have phrased it above, though, was “… now that Dancing Matt guy himself fanned my doubts about his exploits…” Sorry.
No worries. I wouldn’t be surprised if those were faked… but I would be disappointed. It really is such a sweet idea to think that an ordinary guy could serve as a goodwill ambassador, merely by dancing. God knows we could use some genuinely sweet goodwill in the world… I guess like Mulder on The X Files, I want to believe.