"Flash Mobs! Assemble!"

Ever since our subject of flash mobs came into discussion, I’ve been thinking about all that was said and what I think about these random, quickly assembled, often cool looking, yet not always effective large groups of people doing stuff. Personally I have never seen a flash mob accomplish anything serious or further anyone’s opinion about an important matter. Not to say those kinds of flash mobs don’t exists, but I’m going strictly off of my personal experience with them. From what I’ve seen/been apart of, flash mobs can do two things: entertain and promote.

First the entertainment. Who wouldn’t get instant enjoyment out of seeing a random group of people you thought looked perfectly normal start dancing or singing or both. I know I wish my life was a musical, so seeing YouTube hits like “Food Court Musical” gives me some hope that people like me exist. Even the flash mobs such as the one in Grand Central Station where a large bunch of passengers froze for no reason at all but to see the people’s reactions held the purpose to entertain or shock viewers. Flash mobs are special, despite their growing popularity, because they break reality for a while. And from my previous posts, I firmly believe this is something we all want. Now, just because a group attempts to do a flash mob doesn’t always means it works out. Usually people don’t type in “Flash mob fail”, but believe me, they happen. A recent one was to promote the Ball State Theatre and Dance Department and their newly opening show, Evil Dead. The mob assembled and planned to do a dance from the show that morphed famous dances together such as Thriller, the Robot, the Time Warp and many others. However, news had leaked about this dance and many showed up, yet not many were actually participating, much to the actual dancers’ dismay. I watched as my friends danced with all they had in them, yet they now knew the huge mass of people who showed were not there to support, but to gawk. It’s all right though, theatre people are very resilient.

But what does a promotional flash mob success look like? One of my favorites is an elaborate dance done in a train station in Belgium to promote a new revival of the musical The Sound of Music. It starts with one man and his daughter and bursts into at least a hundred people dancing by the end. I’m guessing after making the national news and being given the name “historic flash mob” a lot of people went to see this classic musical.

I think flash mobs are fun. Can they be used for bad? Apparently. The huge crime flash mob where people pillaged a store is not so fun and happy, but I think it still accomplishes what flash mobs are meant to do, which is break reality. People steal all the time, but people don’t gather and do it in a huge group. Reality is broken whenever a group of people comes together to do someone out of the norm. I also think flash mobs show our human nature desire to group and find some sort of identity. Good or bad, fun or dangerous, success or fail, flash mobs unite. So live on flash mob, live on.

Unless you’re going to flash mob assassinate…then don’t do it.

Instead, watch this and be happy