The Ghanaian dancing pallbearer (coffin dance meme) internet phenomenon.

For the last few months, the world is in a global lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Government around the world made a rule for their people to stay at home, making a safety
protocol and reduce social activity during this pandemic in order to decrease the spread of the
virus. The virus itself is dangerous and is easy to spread from one person to the other, The
virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an
infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air,
and quickly fall on floors or surfaces. You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are
within close proximity of someone who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated
surface and then your eyes, nose or mouth. It is stated in various website the number of
confirmed case of COVID-19 around the world reach a high number of 18,4+ million
positive cases, 11+ million people recovered from it, and around 700+ thousand deaths.
Back in March, the early month of COVID-19 lockdown, the government tried to warn the
people about the danger of the virus, even so a lot of people underestimate the virus and made
thing worse by still going outside and didn’t following the safety protocol, because of that a
lot of people got infected by the virus. People on the internet start posting a video or a picture
showing other people who didn’t following the rule like people going outside in group, or
people who didn’t wear a mask and didn’t maintain a safe distance from each other. In spite
of frustration, the people who follow the rule made a meme in the internet as a reminder
about the danger of COVID-19, thus born the sensational coffin dance meme on the internet.
The meme itself showing a video of dancing pallbearers led by Benjamin Aidoo, who started
the group as a regular pallbearer service. He later had the idea of adding choreography to
their pallbearing work. Extra fees are charged for dancing with the coffin during a funeral.
The Dancing Pallbearers first rose to prominence in 2017 when they were featured in a BBC
News report. the videos was paired with EDM song "Astronomia" by Tony Igy and gained
popularity in FAIL edits. A meme that appeared to spread as a morbidly humorous reminder
about the dangers of COVID-19. People on the internet accept the meme well, and it spread
globally with same intention as a reminder. In some country, the police officer and health
worker do the coffin dance meme as the pallbearer on the street, complete with coffin
property and the music background to spread awareness of the COVID-19 dangers.
Aparrently, it seems people is more accepting information if it is entertaining and humourous
like the meme. In the internet itself people is more aware about the COVID-19 dangers
because of the meme, in the streets when people getting reminded about the dangers they pay
more attention to it and actually doing the suggested regulation. And other thing that come
from the meme itself is people had some kind of entertainment in this trying time and had a
good laugh because of it.
 Bibilography
Trends desk. 4 May 2020. TN police imitate Ghana dancing pallbearers to urge people to
stay indoors. The Indian Express, New delhi India. Retrieved from :
https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-in-india/viral-video-tamil-nadu-police-
imitate-ghana-dancing-pallbearers-to-encourage-staying-indoors-6391992/.
Charlie Amter. 30 April 2020. Tracing the ‘Coffin Dance’ Meme Music’s Path From Russia
to Ghana to the World. The decade-old “Astronomia” has become the unlikely
soundtrack to a pandemic. Retrived from : https://variety.com/2020/music/news/coffin-
dance-meme-music-song-astronomia-origin-russia-1234594523/.
Sulley Lansah. 26 July 2017. Ghana's dancing pallbearers bring funeral joy. BBC News.
Retrieved from : https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-40716576/ghana-s-dancing-
pallbearers-bring-funeral-joy.
John, E. August 5, 2020. Number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths worldwide as of
August 5, 2020, by country. Retrieved from :
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1093256/novel-coronavirus-2019ncov-deaths-
worldwide-by-country/.
COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic. Last updated: August 05, 2020, 13:26 GMT. Retrived
from : https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.