Back in March, Epic Games announced a “Boogie Down” contest where players submitted dance videos for a chance to have their moves added to the game as an emote. Winners were announced, and a champion was crowned. The community seemingly hated the results, though.
In first place came Twitter user @Populotus:
Doing my #BoogieDown dance for #Fortnite with other dancers! 🙂
Youtube Link: https://t.co/tJ48DWtsNn pic.twitter.com/fGPWp9wJvl
— Widowvlogger (@Populotus) April 7, 2018
Per contest rules, Populotus would become immortalised in Fortnite. However, Epic also published a wider list of runner-ups who would enjoy other prizes. In 23rd place came this humble little entry from @Kid_Fortnite12.
Lmao I’m so cringe.But here.#BoogieDown pic.twitter.com/HlxnchVOy7
— Orange Shirt Kid (@Kid_Fortnite12) March 30, 2018
While the Twitter video warned of a potentially embarrassing dance, Fortnite players loved it. The original video has been viewed 1.12 million times as of this writing, and has been retweeted over 18,000 times, and that isn’t counting re-uploads. Compare that to the number one winner, which has only been viewed 232k times and retweeted only 405 times.
Perceiving a mass injustice, Fortnite players uploaded all sorts of memes, Reddit threads and YouTube videos in protest, most of which were kicked off by this video by Dolan Darker titled “The problem with Fortnite #BOOGIEDOWN”.
Since then, Fortnite players have been talking about this almost as much as the extremely hyped comet event. The “Orange Shirt Kid”, as he was dubbed, had his dance put over hilariously intense songs, and many of these jokes garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
But for all of the jokes and viral videos, Orange Shirt Kid did not win. Everyone was sad.
Except yesterday, Fortnite got a big 4.0 update and lo and behold, the dance still made it into the game. It’s called “Orange Justice”, and you can get it on tier 26. If you buy the Battle Pass, you pretty much get Orange Justice right away. “It’s also a great exercise move,” reads the flavour text. As you can see in the GIF of the top of this post, just like Orange Shirt Kid, the emote goes pretty hard.
We reached out to Epic to inquire about how the emote ended up in the game, but did not hear back in time for publication. Orange Shirt Kid seems thrilled, though:
THEY ADDED IT OMGOMG
— Orange Shirt Kid (@Kid_Fortnite12) May 1, 2018
ORANGE JUSTICE BOI
— Orange Shirt Kid (@Kid_Fortnite12) May 1, 2018
Can’t wait for someone to kill me, know its me then do my dance. It’ll be so funny. GG Epic
— Orange Shirt Kid (@Kid_Fortnite12) May 1, 2018
Fortnite players, meanwhile, are rejoicing. “We, the people, have today shown the power of protest,” one joked. “We must be proud.” “JusticeServedForBoogieBoy,” another chimed in.
Comments
4 responses to “After Mass Fan Outcry, Epic Adds ‘Orange Shirt Kid’ Dance To Fortnite”
Is it just me or has Twitter content not loaded on Kotaku for a couple of weeks now?
That was a quick fix! Cheers ????
Shhhhhhh, it was making things better!!
I jest, sometimes it loads, sometimes it don’t.
A gaming community whining about a trivial thing??? GET OUT OF TOWN.