They called it the Harlem shake. 

If you’ve opened any of your social media sites in the past two weeks you’ve seen a version of the dancing craze. Children did it. Swimmers did it. Grumpy Cat — my personal favorite — got into it. And even University students gathered outside Foellinger Auditorium last week, clad in their craziest costumes, dancing their Illini spirit right onto YouTube. 

It was fun while it lasted, but the shake has lost its appeal — think: MickyD’s shamrock shake in July. 

Never fear, the bored and creative among us have graced YouTube with yet another soon to fade fad hitting its hay day this past week. 

Goats. 

It’s true: Goats have stolen the limelight not only from Harlem shakers, but also from music’s biggest celebrities. 

Several days ago a YouTuber posted a version of TSwift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” goat edition. The video features Swift’s original music video for her latest hit cut with a screaming goat in all the right places. If you didn’t laugh when Swift first released this track — better known as her first attempt at country-turned-pop-turned-dubstep — you certainly will now. YouTubers have proved that the only thing better than hearing TSwift’s transition from country to dubstep is TSwift attempting dubstep with goats.

Swift isn’t alone. The video has exploded across social media in the past few days. Now everyone from Usher to Justin Bieber to Nicki Minaj and thousands of others are singing with the goats. 

A search for “goat edition” on YouTube will present you with over 5,000 goat edition remixes — just what students gearing up for midterms and a certain officially unofficial party like to hear. 

Aside from the questionable similarity of the goats’ screams to the glossed over lyrics of these stars, what makes these videos so popular? 

Goats certainly don’t have the cute factor of a cuddly kitten. Or the wow-factor of a Korean pop star dancing to lyrics many Americans can’t understand but love anyway. No, these screaming goats have something far more attractive to the average YouTube viewer: unsuspecting humor. 

These days you never know what Taylor Swift will come up with next (let’s all hope it’s not rap. I don’t care if you broke up with Harry Styles, and it moves you to rap out your feelings. Please do not cut a rap version). What these goat videos have is the element of shock. 

For starters the goats’ screams are hilarious by themselves. Couple that funny clip with a mega-popular song and make the screams sound like lyrics and you are golden. People watching these videos (just like those of us suckered into watching dozens of Harlem Shakes) find themselves caught up in the surprise of a goat screaming “Ohhhh”’s from Swift, Bieber and countless others’ top hits. 

They are simply entertaining. 

That’s what people look for nowadays online. They want to be more than informed and interconnected; They want to be entertained. Countless websites have been erected in the hopes of making web surfers laugh (Pinterest humor category anyone?). 

YouTube remains, however, king of the clowns. The accessibility and entertainment value of the site has accrued millions of loyal viewers. It makes perfect sense. Society’s fast-track pace feeds off of snap entertainment — digital videos, photos and the like made for instant entertainment value. YouTube is the ultimate in snap entertaining providing a plethora of videos at your fingertips (after those blasted commercials) at any given moment. 

Unfortunate for YouTubers, an instant entertainment-hungry society means videos have expanded to the “one hit wonder” category. 

My advice: Enjoy the goat editions while they last. Keep a weathered look on the horizon for social media’s next big thing — perhaps the Harlem Shake meets goat edition in an epic mash-up? Just a thought. 

Shalayne Pulia,

freshman in Media