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Happy Dance
aka: Victory Dance

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SUPPERTIME!

"Scuse me while I do my happy dance!"
Oghren, Dragon Age: Origins

This trope is a dance that a character does when they're happy. Maybe it's time to celebrate. Maybe it's time to make themselves feel better. Maybe their excitement overflows into action. Maybe they want to pat themselves on the back. Whatever the reason may be, they quickly bust a couple of moves. The Happy Dance! It's also known as a victory dance.

May even be a signature moment for the character (for example, this picture may seem awfully familiar). See also Victory Pose.

Contrast Angry Dance and Dance of Despair.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • In the commercials for Kellogg's Raisin Bran Crunch with Johnson, Johnson's low-level manager wants to fire him for apparently just sitting at his desk all day eating cereal instead of doing any work, but can't because the brass likes Johnson due to the amazing things he unwittingly does while eating cereal to benefit the company. In one installment of this saga, the manager tries to fire him anyway, but finds Johnson's desk apparently empty because Johnson ducked under the desk to grab a pencil he dropped. Thrilled, he begins a happy dance, fists pumped up in the air, singing "Yes! He's gone! Johnson is gone! Johnson's gone, Johnson's gone... Yes he is!" and twirling. Johnson can't hear any of this because he's re-emerged from under the desk and is crunching on his cereal, but as the boss turns back around, Johnson smiles at him and does a brief sitting-down imitation of the happy dance and the boss ducks out.
  • Bong Revilla pulled this off in what went down in Filipino pop culture as the cringiest, most tasteless election advertisement in recent memory. It didn't help that he was (suspiciously) acquitted for embezzlement not long after he was tried guilty for stealing public funds, and to make matters worse, people actually voted for him. Memetic Mutation ensues.

    Anime and Manga 
  • Death Note: Ryuk + apple = Happy Dance. It's in the second intro.
  • Digimon V-Tamer 01 sees Yagami Taichi and Zeromaru do this pretty often. When a new monster shows up that no one recognizes, it is instantly identified as Zero the moment it and Taichi do their usual routine.
    Taichi and Zeromaru: VICTORY DANCE! YAY! YAY!
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The Ox-King does this in the first arc when Goku reveals he knows Master Roshi, as it means he's found someone who can ask the master for the Bansho-sen that will put out Frypan Mountain's fire keeping Ox-King from his castle.
    • Roshi does one himself when Launch agrees to live in the Kame House.
    • Captain Ginyu performs a Dance of Joy for Frieza. He tried. All things considered we shouldn't blame Frieza for refusing this *ahem* generous offer.
  • In Get Backers, Ginji occasionally does a happy-happy dance by going chibi and waving victory fans.
  • In Hetalia: Axis Powers, Russia does this after he defeats Poland and Lithuania.
  • One Piece':
    • Chopper has a trademark happy dance which he burst into every time someone gives him a compliment. He tries to act like he doesn't want their praise, and calls them assholes while wiggling his hips and grinning ear-to-ear.
    • Bartholomew Kuma is revealed to have one, where he does a little jig while doing an acapella of the Drums of Liberation associated with "Sun God" Nika, a legendary liberator of slaves. He was taught by his father Clapp and is later shown doing the dance with his daughter Bonney.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Ash's Totodile always seemed to be in a happy dance sort of mood. Sometimes even dancing around incoming attacks while laughing the whole time.
    • Misty's Togepi often does happy dances, but since it's usually in Misty's arms, it simply waves its arms back and forth, which sometimes triggers the move Metronome.
  • In Sarazanmai, Reo dances in excitement while singing how he and Mabu are "the ultimate couple" in Episode 9. The dance itself is taken shot for shot from the film version of West Side Story. It also doubles as an Actor Allusion, since Mamoru Miyano, Reo's voice actor, was set to play Tony in a Japanese production of West Side Story at the time.
  • Yotsuba&!: "What's goin' on!? It's the Daddy Dance!" Performed when Koiwai finished a big work project (see chapter 11).
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Joey and Tristan do a silly victory dance a couple of times.
    "Can-can, kick a little can-can, tell me who's the man-man..."
  • In Yuri!!! on Ice, Minako and the Nishigori triplets do this since they're excited about the "Onsen on Ice" event and how this will mark Yuri's comeback as a figure skater. However, it's mostly just spinning.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Fic 
  • Examples from the Calvinverse:
  • In The Great Alicorn Hunt, Celestia and Luna start doing the Happy Hoofy Dance when they are in the presence of the six Mane Six newly-reborn as alicorns.
  • The Loud House fanfics:
    • Anger Management:
      • At the beginning, Lincoln is excitedly hopping up and down while waiting for the results of a raffle.
      • Lana is said to do a "victory dance" when she wins the mud wrestling match.
    • In Tongue Tied, Lisa does a little dance when she finds out her invention will be used.
    • In A Town Hates a Boy, Lisa (again) does a little dance upon finding she's created a Hate Plague (she was even more of a mad scientist than in canon).
    • Lincoln's Memories:
      • After winning at "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", Pop-Pop, Lynn Jr., and Liam's grandma do a "goofy victory dance".
      • Lynn does a victory dance in "Happy Easter!" when she and Lincoln win the Easter egg hunt.
      • In "Lincoln Chases the Rainbow", six-year-old Lincoln dances at the idea of finding gold at the end of the rainbow.
      • Lincoln dances with joy in "Nothing But the Tooth" after Lynn Sr. suggests a trip to Dairyland.

    Film — Animated 
  • In 101 Dalmatians, Roger and Pongo briefly do a little dance to celebrate Perdita's puppies being born.
  • At the end of Fantastic Mr. Fox, the animals all dance to celebrate their survival.
  • Monsters, Inc.:
    • Played straight when Sulley and Mike do a little dance to celebrate their earning more electricity (they get electricity from human screams) from kids at a slumber party.
    • Subverted when Sulley and Mike think Boo is dancing with joy, but really she needs to pee.
  • In Onward, Wilden starts a goofy one, drawing in his sons, Ian and Barley.
  • In Rise of the Guardians, Pitch celebrates his Near-Villain Victory by bursting into North's workshop and dancing on the globe.
  • In Tangled, Rapunzel starts dancing in the city once her hair is braided, and draws people into the Dance Line.
  • In Turning Red, Mei and her friends do a little dance to celebrate their making $200.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • The Mamushka from The Addams Family movie is a very complicated celebratory dance. As crazy as you would expect any tradition of that family to be and utterly awesome.
  • The 2010 Alice in Wonderland (2010): When the Mad Hatter is celebrating the Red Queen's banishment, he does a traditional dance called the "futterwacken".
  • In Annie (1982), Warbucks and Grace do a dance after the former adopts Annie, all the while singing about how great Annie is.
  • In Baseketball, Coop is forced to do the happy dance when depressed.
  • In Chaplin's The Circus, the Tramp does this after hearing the fortune teller talk about Merna ending up with a dark, handsome man. Too bad for him, it turns out to be a Prophetic Fallacy.
  • Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers: After Gus proposes to her, and she accepts, Rose manages to contain herself long enough to make it back to her room before breaking out in an incredibly cute happy dance.
  • George C. Scott as Scrooge does a happy dance in A Christmas Carol (1984) after he realises that he still has time to change his course of life. Characteristically, Scott's intensity of portrayal helps to make the scene heartwarming.
  • In Dante's Peak, Terry Furlong does something like a happy dance towards the end of the film chanting "Thank you, NASA! Thank you, NASA!" when a piece of equipment loaned by the agency allows him to find the missing and presumed-dead protagonist. It's not a real dance because his leg is broken and he instead does the brief "dance" with his crutches.
  • If You Believe: Susan Stone is an editor. She performs a Happy Dance when she phones Dilly, her biggest star among her writers. She learns that he finally overcame his Writer's Block. That's quite a reason to celebrate, right?
  • Godzilla in Invasion of Astro-Monster. It has to be seen to be believed.
  • In Jane Wants a Boyfriend, Jane dances around in excitement over her plans to get a boyfriend.
  • In The Knowledge, Ted does a happy dance when he passes his Knowledge of London. Chris does an exaggerated happy dance when he cracks the first run (out of four hundred and sixty-eight).
  • In The Last Boy Scout, Joe Hallenbeck tells Jimmy Dix that if he survives their adventure, "I'm gonna dance a jig." After he defeats The Dragon, that's exactly what he does.
  • Koskov's Narm-inducing dance in a fabulous sunhat and bathrobe in The Living Daylights once he learns that he's successfully manipulated the British government into using 007 to kill his rival.
  • In Love Actually, Sarah excuses herself to do a brief one after she finally gets to bring Karl back to her apartment.
  • In The Muppets (2011), characters dance during "Life's a Happy Song" to celebrate life and friendship.
  • The Party has an entire group of people do this when the Russian ballet troupe arrives, though Peter Sellers' character (who has just saved a girl from her creepy Hollywood agent) exhibits the most excellent example.
  • Qivitoq: Mama Caecile and a couple other old Inuit ladies do a literal happy dance, after Pavia comes back with a freshly killed seal.
  • Done to very disturbing effect by Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, as he cheerfully dances to "Stuck in the Middle With You", right before and after slicing a man's ear off.
  • The nine sidekicks do a loud happy dance in Sanjuro, but catch themselves doing it, so continue more quietly.
  • Singin' in the Rain: In the eponymous number, Don does a dance in the rain to celebrate his idea of making his movie into a musical.
  • Walter Huston's dance from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, echoed and parodied repeatedly in City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.
  • Les Grossman has one at the end of Tropic Thunder after the documentary of of the making of Tropic Thunder becomes a successful film in its own right.
  • Near the end of Yankee Doodle Dandy, George Cohan (James Cagney) breaks into an impromptu tap-dance as he descends the staircase from the second floor of the White House, after receiving the Congressional Gold Medal (misidentified in the dialogue as the Medal of Honor) from President Franklin Roosevelt.

    Jokes 
  • Subverted in the following joke:
    • An unlucky man just had his right arm amputated, and this upsets him. He is thinking he'll not do without and never have a good life again. Right as he leaves the hospital, he sees another man who is missing both arms, but still dances happily around as if he's never felt better. The first man wants to find out why the other man is so overjoyed despite his lack of arms, so he asks him what makes him so happy that he is dancing. The other man replies angrily: "I'm not dancing! My ass is itching, and I can't scratch it!".

    Literature 
  • Angela Nicely: In “The Big Bike Ride!”, Angela does a little dance upon getting her pocket money.
  • In the The Berenstain Bears book "Lose a Friend", Goldie does a little dance whenever she gets fed.
  • Choo Choo (1937): When Jim, Oley, and Archibald bring Choo Choo home at the end of the book, they're so happy to have her back that they dance a jig together.
  • Dinosaur Vs: Subverted in "Dinosaur vs. the Potty" where the narrator thinks Dinosaur is doing a victory dance, but it turns out to be a Potty Dance.
  • Nikki does a "Happy Snoopy Dance" in Dork Diaries.
  • Bear does a happy dance in Franklin Has a Sleepover after learning that Franklin has invited him for a sleepover. Franklin does one at the end after his parents agree that he can go over to Bear's place for a sleepover next time.
  • In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley kids are all said to break into a group happy dance when Harry is acquitted of underage wizardry charges.
    "He got off, he got off, he got off, he got off..."
  • Referenced in Jeeves and Wooster a couple times; Bertie tends to be rather demonstrative when sudden joy hits him.
  • Journey to Chaos: When Eric recovers from a magical disease known as mana mutation, Kallen does a quick run around the room complete with Squee.
  • In the picture book Kat and Juju, Kat tells Juju that sometimes you just have to let go and do a happy dance. She wishes that she could, but worries that everyone will laugh at her. Finally, at the end of the book, she gives in and does one after she and Kat successfully nurse a baby bird back to health. Nobody laughs at her.
  • In The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma, Mr. Curtain arranges for certain agents to come to the prison facility where he is conducting operations and holding the members of the society. He arranges secret password — the answer to a question that the man previously failed on a test. Constance uses her telepathic powers to steal the question from his mind, and Sticky provides the answer, which Constance then uses to transmit to Mr. Benedict, who is the one actually at the gate. When Mr. Benedict answers the question correctly, Mr. Curtain begins jerking his wheelchair, which he doesn't actually need to get around, side-to-side.
    Then, half-closing his eyes, he began snapping his fingers and jerking his wheelchair side to side as if dancing. After a moment Reynie realized he was dancing. He was humming a tune barely audible over the sound of the wheelchair's rubber tires, which made sharp chirping noises against the floor, rather like the squeak of sneakers on a basketball court.
  • Roys Bedoys:
    • In “Just Tell the Truth, Roys Bedoys!”, Loys dances to celebrate winning at a video game.
    • Loys starts dancing with joy in “Meet the Baby, Roys Bedoys!” when he realises he’s no longer the youngest.
    • In “Let’s Get Ready for Christmas, Roys Bedoys!”, when Mr. Bedoys asks his sons to help him put up the Christmas tree, the boys start dancing around and singing “Jingle Bells”.
    • In “Do Your Chores, Roys Bedoys!”, the Bedoys brothers start dancing in unison at the idea of getting an allowance.
    • Loys dances happily on his birthday in “Let Others Shine, Roys Bedoys!”.
    • In “Stop Changing the Rules, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys dances in joy when he wins the board game illegally.
    • In “Let’s Go Fishing, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys and Loys dance for joy when Grandpa takes them fishing.
    • In “What’s Your New Year’s Resolution, Roys Bedoys?”, Roys dances to celebrate getting an A+.
  • The Storm Swimmer: After Ginika first sees the sea people, a human subspecies that have adapted to live in the ocean, she dances all the way back to Cormorant Heights.
  • It's mentioned at the end of Isard's Revenge that Wedge was so happy to find that Wes Janson hadn't died at around the book's midpoint that he performed an "Ewok dance of joy".

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel:
    • Numfar! Do the Dance of Joy!
    • At the end of "Disharmony", Wesley makes a speech about how time and space are the only things that can fix the recent rifts in Team Angel...only for Cordelia to come bounding in, squeeing over the new clothes Angel bought her. It gets funnier when Angel joins in.
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Amy has one that is way over the top given her normally straight-laced and reserved personality, Jake seems to enjoy it. Terry also does this sometimes, one time when he was told to stop he stood still but his pecs kept dancing.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • There's Anya's "Dance of Capitalist Superiority" in "All the Way".
    • Xander does the "Snoopy Dance" for Willow in "The Replacement".
    • In "Entropy", when Anya and Spike are talking about the impact that falling in love with their respective partners had.
    Anya: And I'm off my guard. Happy! I'm singing in the shower and doing my sexy dance.
    Spike: Exactly - I have no dance.
  • Doctor Who: In Flatline The Doctor gives a little dance despite being stuck in his TARDIS.
  • Family Feud: Steve Harvey sometimes does this whenever a contestant's family-unfriendly answer isn't on the board.
  • Ba Wool from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop does a happy dance after he gets a kiss on the cheek from Soo Yi. Eun Bi smacks him around the head for being stupid.
  • Friends:
    • In "The One Hundreth", Chandler Bing from one after he has a heart-to-heart talk with Monica, reassuring each other that they feel serious about their secret relationship. When Monica leaves, she senses that he's doing it and she says without looking back: "Don't do the dance."
    • In the next episode "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS", after learning that Monica's secret boyfriend (a.k.a himself) is the best she has ever had Chandler gets a bit full of himself. This culminates in him hoping on top of Monica's coffee table and dancing noting that it's what he would do if he were Monica's secret boyfriend and just found out he was the best sex she’s ever had. Monica does a mocking version of the same dance when Chandler asks her later on why she doesn't want to have sex with him.
  • In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, it's revealed that Marshall does happy dances so often that he got "dancer's hip", an injury common among ballerinas.
  • On The Late Late Show, whenever Craig Ferguson brings out Secretariat, EVERYBODY dances!!!
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert usually opens with Stephen himself doing a brief one of these onstage immediately after he comes running out. When this is absent — such as after the UCC shooting in Oregon in October 2015 — it's a sign that something really sad has happened.

  • Parker did a version of this after getting the dagger in "The Rashomon Job" on Leverage.
  • The L Word: Jenny excuses herself to do one after finding out that a New York bigwig loved her manuscript-excuses herself five feet away from the table the bigwig was at.
  • Malcolm in the Middle: The show has one in Sarcasm Mode. "Happy dance, happy dance, we love to do the happy dance." "Happier!!"
  • Maury: If the titular host ever reads "You are NOT the father!" on a paternity test, there's a chance the tested man will break out into one of these. The show has become infamous for these sorts of over-the-top displays after the results of a paternity test are read.
  • Monk:
    • Monk does the jig after solving the case in "Mr. Monk Gets Fired". Sharona is weirded out but calls Captain Stottlemeyer as requested while her boss continues to "dance."
    • In one of the blog entries, "Mr. Monk Scores at the Soccer Game", this turns out to be key to solving the mystery. A banker has been murdered and the police found a bizarre group of bloody footprints at the scene, which they initially attribute to the victim scoring a head blow and making the killer dizzy. While he and Natalie are at a school soccer game, Monk observes one "sore winner" coach's behavior and tells Natalie to call Stottlemeyer — the coach's "victory dance" that he does whenever the team scores matches the footprints.
  • MythBusters:
    • After Kari finished constructing a pole for an experiment, she celebrated by doing her "pole dance". It turned out to be a Happy Dance.
      Kari: Not what you expected, huh?
    • In the episode where the guys tested Latex Perfection, Adam did a lot of Happy Dances while disguised as Jamie in order to have fun with his image as The Comically Serious.
  • Squacky from The Pajanimals is known for breaking into one and one of the show's songs is all about happy dances.
  • Balki's Dance of Joy from Perfect Strangers.
  • In Phil of the Future, Phil and Keely each do one of these after they make plans to go to the dance together in "Get Ready To Go Go".
  • On Saturday Night Live's Church Lady sketches by Dana Carvey, the character would go into a strutting "Superior Dance" whenever she thinks she has proven her superiority over anybody.
  • Scrubs:
    • Turk has many of these (including the "you are so getting a piece of this" dance, the "there's a sale on lotion" dance and the "I'm gonna cut you open" dance). At one point, JD is shown to have a Happy Dance coach.
    • Elliot has, on two occassions, displayed her "I Told You So" dance.
  • Martin Short's character Ed Grimley, on SCTV and Saturday Night Live, often does one upon receiving good news: "I'm going mental!"
  • On Sherlock, Sherlock does one of these — literally leaping into the air, whirling about the room, shouting "It's Christmas!" and kissing Mrs Hudson — when he's called in to investigate a fourth mysterious serial suicide.
  • Smart Guy sometimes has Marcus (the older brother of the pint-size genius protagonist, T.J.) do a Happy Dance routine that differs depending on the episode. He first does this by himself in Season 1’s "Brother, Brother"; starting with Season 2’s "T.J. Versus the Machine," his best friend Mo usually dances along with him.
  • Spaced has a standard Happy Dance routine that crops up a few times to the exact same tune — walk jauntily down the street, click heels, head a football that flies out of nowhere, hug bewildered stranger. Tim does it, later in the episode Brian tries but manages to mess up every step. In a later episode, Tim and Bilbo do it side by side.
  • Belgian children's show Kabouter Plop by Studio100 has a song called "Joepiejee" with a music video of the cast dancing and thinking of silly, or happy things to cheer up Lui.
  • James May on Top Gear (UK) and The Grand Tour likes to do these, especially when he bests the others in a challenge.
  • Two and a Half Men: Five, Six, Seven, Eight! No more alimony! No more alimony! No more alimony! No more alimony!
  • One clip on World's Dumbest... features a man who gets high on gasoline and performs what Leif Garrett calls a "happy gasoline dance".

    Music 
  • During Duke Ellington's 1956 performance at Newport, the 15-minute rendition of "Dimenuendo and Crescendo in Blue" slowly started getting the crowd riled up during Paul Gonsalves's legendary 27-chorus tenor sax solo, after an inauspicious beginning to the program. When a platinum blonde in one row spontaneously jumped to her feet and started one of these, the audience exploded, and pandemonium ensued.
  • The Learning Station has a song teaching kids how to do a happy dance, with the lyrics, "I'm so happy, that's why I [action], because I'm feeling happy." The actions are clapping, twisting hips, marching in place, and waving arms.
  • Lindsey Stirling sings about how "We're in Europe! We're here in Europe right now, gonna be awesome, so excited!" whilst doing some kind of dance across the screen and back again.

    Newspaper Comics 
  • Dilbert: Dilbert and Wally have done "victory dances" at work, incorporating such moves as Russian-dancing kicks and "turbo mooning".
  • Garfield: Garfield does the Happy Dance occasionally, like when he hears the automatic can opener.
  • The current page image is Snoopy's iconic Happy Dance from Peanuts. One time, Charlie Brown celebrates getting the better of the dog with a mocking happy dance of his own.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The All Knighters, Joey Knight in particular being known for a flexing bouncing shin dance.
  • Black Rose, making use of her professional dancing experience and leading to a rivalry with fellow dancer Barbie Boy in the International Wrestling Association. Noemi Bosques later became her dancer partner.
  • Brodus Clay's (and later, R-Truth and Xavier Woods's) cheerleaders, The Funkadactyls, tend to do so when their charges win, as well as part of their own entrance, or when Naomi doesn't immediately go for a pin follow the rear view, or...
  • Carlos Colon prior to the figure four leg lock, a trait that would be passed down to Carly, Stacy and Eddie. His nemesis, Ray González, has his own dance before the figure four, which González Jr would also do.
  • Double Subverted by Fandango, who can't actually dance, despite his and everyone else's insistence otherwise but then accidentally created a new dance craze.
  • The Human Tornado, being a walking throwback to the 1970s, is known for his funky break dancing, and he'll happily stomp a mud hole in you and your friends all at once while getting loose.
  • Oddities tended to do so after they were joined by Insane Clown Posse in the World Wrestling Federation. John Tenta, Kurrgan, Luna Vachon and Giant Silva would continue to do so afterwards.
  • La Parka and his many, many, derivatives, starting in AAA and spreading elsewhere, such as WCW, CMLL, Chikara, Toryumon, The NWA and Lucha Libre USA. He put a good third of the wrestling industry In The Thrilla!
  • Victoria was a dancing ho during her time with the Godfather and a dancing ex ho for sometime afterwards before her gimmick became being Ax-Crazy. Then she went back to dancing around the same time Lance Storm was doing his "happy dance" gimmick.
  • The Osirian Portal, who are so funky you'll have to dance along with them. And if you don't, you'll end up doing so anyway via Mass Hypnosis.
  • Pretty Bitchin, the team of "Portuguese Princess" Ariel and Nikki "La Gringa" Roxx tended to breakout in dance before matches and after victories, often inviting fans to join them.
  • The Prime Time Players's two man Million Dollar Dance.
  • Too Cool and Rikishi, being hip hop dancers.
  • Courtney Rush and Jodi D'Milo, The Moonwalk Thrillers, though Rush's dancing was so bad Portia Perez and Sara Del Rey found it offensive.
  • Ryusuke Taguchi, after he took up his "Funky Weapon" gimmick to taunt his opponents.
  • Shawn Michaels used to dance around like a fairy as part of a Gorgeous George gimmick, but later it just became something that he did.
  • Emma's gimmick revolves around the bizarre dances she does.
  • The Usos, particularly when an opponent's attack completely fails to hurt one of them.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Fraggle Rock: Fraggles do a lot of these. It's right there in the theme song!
    Dance your cares away!
    Worry's for another day!
    Let the music play
    Down at Fraggle Rock!
  • LazyTown:
  • In "Sleepless in LazyTown", the townsfolk dance about and sing a song called "Wake Up" to celebrate getting up in the morning.
  • Sesame Street:
    • The "Elmo's World" segment has Elmo doing one. "When we learn something new, we do the happy dance, yeah!"
    • In the "Good Birds Club" episode, Big Bird does a little tap dance because he's happy to be a bird.
    • One "Abby's Flying Fairy School" skit has a donkey do the "Donkey Dance of Joy" upon being fed.

    Sports 
  • These are very much employed by NFL players (often called Endzone Dances), despite the heavy fines that are handed down from the No Fun League...err...National Football League.
  • Tennis star Serena Willams did the 'Crip Walk' after winning gold at the 2012 Olympic Games.
  • The Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA and their fans dance to Sugar Hill Gang Apache's "Jump On It" after home wins.
  • Korean golfer K. J. Choi once celebrated a successful putt into the hole by breaking into Psy's "Gangnam Style" dance.
  • It's not uncommon to see a "victory spin" performed by triumphant Robot Combat participants, partly so the drivers can celebrate and partly to wow the crowd with how the victorious robot's mobility was not impaired by the fight.

    Stand-Up Comedy 
  • When Steve Martin was doing stand-up, he would get frequent attacks of "Happy Feet".

    Theatre 
  • In Megasta episode 2: Goodbye my dear Frenemy, Moe does this when she finds out she won the illustration competition.

    Video Games 
  • One of Pearl Fey's portraits in the Ace Attorney series has her bouncing up and down Happy Dance-style. And it's adorable.
  • Agent Hugo: RoboRumble: Hugo always busts a move with something related to the course if he's victorious upon exiting it.
  • Many characters do this when they make a touchdown in Backyard Football.
  • Balacera Brothers have the titular characters performing a happy tap-dance at the end of each stage after killing a boss. They do the same dance in the end credits screen as well.
  • Farron of Conquest of the Crystal Palace will do a little jig and flash the V-Sign after defeating a boss. If his dog Zap is alive at the end of the battle, he'll run around his master before stopping to do the same.
  • Crash Bandicoot in some of his games when he gets a gem or relic. In the N. Sane Trilogy remake, Coco now does the dance as well.
  • Donkey Kong Country:
    • Donkey and Diddy Kong will do a short dance whenever the player completes a level in the first game (SNES version only).
    • Then the two of them, along with three other Kongs, do a dance whenever the player beats a mini game or gets a Golden Banana in Donkey Kong 64.
  • Dragon Age: Origins: One of Oghren's random battle quotes at the end of a successful battle. (He doesn't actually dance though.)
  • A Hollow Man in Fable II yearned to have one of these but got instead the "Hollow Dance of Ur'Cyrandorandorander". Even he can't pronounce it right.
  • Haunting Starring Polterguy: Whenever poltergeist Polterguy collects all ectoplasm in the underworld, he does a short dance to celebrate. It is more of a punk dance however.
  • Some Final Fantasy games had this upon winning a battle, especially the older ones.
  • Multiple exist in the Jak and Daxter series:
    • In Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy the titular heroes do an elaborate victory dance after they've defeated the Big Bad. Daxter will do various dances (including the robot, pirouettes and a butt-waggle) after they've collected a powercell.
    • In Jak II: Renegade Daxter starts to do one after they've completed their first mission, but is interrupted when the place crumbles.
    • At the end of Jak 3: Wastelander Daxter does another one when he finds out that he's a Precursor.
  • Kirby does one of these at least once per game when he accomplished something (and often temporarily spawns duplicates during the dance).
    • In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, and even Meta Knight will join in on the dance if they're present when it happens.
    • Kirby Star Allies has many more joining, from all the helpers made from copy abilities to several others, such as Rick, Gooey and even Marx. Later updates added more Dream Friends, so now Dark Meta Knight, Susie and even the game's dragons, The Three Mage Sisters can do the happy dance.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Man-Eating Plant, a game where you're the titular Man-Eating Plant, will have you performing a happy jig at the end of each level after devouring enough onscreen targets. By twisting your stalks, waving your leaves and shaking your gigantic plant maw side-by-side as confetti fills the screen.
  • Mario Party: Bowser has a happy dance in the first three games, commonly used just as he is done screwing the poor player out of money and/or stars as a way to twist the knife.
  • Moshi Monsters:
    • Playable monsters would dance on various happy occasions, like when eating their first food, when levelling up, or just because.
    • The song "Super Moshi March" references "stomp your feet in celebration".
  • M.U.G.E.N: SCP-999 "fights" by using moves that fill a happiness meter above the opponent instead of dealing damage. Once this fills up, the opponent is forced into dancing for the rest of the round while "Happy Happy Joy Joy" plays, which counts as a KO.
  • Ninjala: The emote "Spirits High" makes the player's avatar bounce up and down with their arms in the air as confetti falls onto them.
  • In Orcs Must Die! and it's sequels, the protagonists will let out a victory dance upon completing a map, with a special one for getting a perfect rank.
  • Playstation All Stars Battle Royale.
    • It features the Minions, whose job it is to dance like this for the player if they can land more than 2 kills at once or very close together. They happen to be Super-Deformed PlayStation characters, tied to someone on the roster.
    • Left in the Idle Animation long enough, Jak and Daxter will perform the dance seen at the end of the first Jak and Daxter, mentioned above.
  • In Pokémon X and Y, numerous Pokemon will do a brief one as an idle animation and/or happy animation in Pokemon Amie. It's not just the cute ones, either, as Garchomp and Hydreigon among others will demonstrate (But especially Hydreigon).
  • Raz of Psychonauts has one in which he "walks like an Egyptian" while bobbing his head all the while singing a little tune. He got it off a bully, with the first time he does the dance being when he knocks said bully off grind rails. It returns in Psychonauts 2 via an equippable pin.
  • Rockman 4 Minus ∞: Mega Man does one when he defeats Omega in The TRUE Arena.
  • Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: After completing a world in Jammies Mode, Shantae will dance in place on the teleport pad before being teleported.
  • SkiFree: A villianous example, as the Yeti hops up and down in glee upon catching and devouring your skier.
  • In Sonic Adventure, the Chao combine a Happy Dance with some G-Rated Sex.
  • In Super Catboy, the villain Dr. Engefug performs an improvised happy tapdance after you're defeated in a Hopeless Boss Fight. Then your partner Weapongirl interrupts his dance by busting in.
  • Whenever your captain in Spore: Galactic Adventures completes an adventure succesfully, this is what he'll do. He sometimes even moonwalks. As anyone can create an adventure, this has been lampshaded more than once in adventures that have been made.
  • Super Mario Bros.: Luigi is known far more than Mario for his Happy Dance, especially in the Mario & Luigi series where it reaches hilarious levels of Narm Charm.
  • Tales of Legendia: Moses Happy Dance! YEEEHAW!
    • Also:
    Moses: Victory Dance! Come On!!!
    Senel and Chloe: (in stereo) Shut up Moses.
  • Riki, Xenoblade Chronicles 1's resident Ridiculously Cute Critter, has a ridiculously cute happy dance to go with it. He not only talks about it in some of his dialogue, but it's both his Idle Animation and one of his battle aura moves.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: Jane is doing a happy dance — mainly waving her arms — when she tells her viewers that she's got a reply from a prospective employer, Grace Poole. See it here.
  • Doctor Steel jauntily dances at the end of Episode 1 of The Dr. Steel Show. There is also a section on his website where you can make him do several dance moves to some old-timey music. In Caleb Allen's Fan Vid of "Lament for a Toy Factory", the actor playing Dr. Steel breaks into these dance moves as the helicopter spotlight hits him - and the music from the website begins to play.
  • Dragon Ball Z Abridged's Captain Ginyu not only has the aforementioned "Dance of Joy", under orders from King Cold to perform after every successful mission, but also the "Daddy's Little Princess Dance", under Cooler's orders because he's a prick, the "Dance of Cheering You Up" for when Frieza's attempt to use the Dragon Balls fails, and finally, the "Dance of Solitude" for being alone (and it's done to Vogue, of all things)!
  • Epic Rap Battles of History: Ivan the Terrible does this after killing both Alexander the Great and Frederick the Great.
  • The online community Nerdfighters has a signature happy dance, actually called, "the happy dance." See it here.
  • The Nostalgia Chick does this too after she decides she enjoys doing movies other than girly ones, and hers is the "frolicking in a field" variety.
  • On a Donation Drive video, The Nostalgia Critic gleefully victory dances after he got Christopher Lloyd to say "I was frozen today". It's ridiculously adorable.
  • Twisted Translations: In the video about cooking dinner, Malinda does a goofy dance on the line "Happy happy happy".
  • Both John and Hank Green of the VlogBrothers have their own happy dances. They are generally performed when good things happen, as is to be expected.

    Western Animation 
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Bolbi.
    Bolbi: Slap slap slap, clap clap clap! Slap slap slap, clap clap clap!
  • The Boondocks: Riley's "celebratory booty dance".
    Riley: Booty dance, unh, booty dance! Booty dance, unh, booty dance!
    Huey: Granddad, Riley's doing the celebratory booty dance.
  • In "The Fairy Bean Adventure!" from Butterbean's Cafe, when Ms. Marmalady overhears Butterbean saying that she doesn't have anymore fairy beans and without them can't do a fairy finish, she does a happy dance with a song to go with it. "No more fairy finish. No more fairy finish. No more fairy finish. No more fairy finish!"
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog: Eustace does one in "Courage Meets Bigfoot" when he finds out that there will be a reward for capturing Bigfoot.
  • Dora the Explorer:
    • Most, if not all, episodes, end with characters singing, "We did it! We did it! We did it! Yay! note  We did it!" and doing a little dance.
    • Whenever the Grumpy Old Troll feels thankful (which is rare because he's, well, grumpy) he does what he calls his "thank-you dance".
  • Family Guy:
    • In "Peter's Two Dads", Peter finds out his father has died and Lois and Brian calmly walk outside and break into a quick Happy Dance before coming back inside to console him.
    • In "Peter Peter Caviar Eater", Lois' (insanely rich) aunt died, and when he finds out they were left something in her will, Peter pulls her corpse out of the casket and ballrooms with it.
  • Gravity Falls: In "Boyz Crazy", Mabel barges into the Mystery Shack gift shop and starts doing a dance when she learns her favorite boy band, Sev'ral Timez, is going to be playing a show at the Gravity Falls Civic Center. Dipper initially thinks she got into the Smile Dip again, and when he and Wendy start mocking boy bands Mabel complains "You're making my dance sad."
  • In I Am Weasel, I.R Baboon used to have a victory dance before it got phased out. It was used regularly in the opening titles.
  • Kaeloo: Kaeloo sometimes does the "booty dance" when she is happy.
    • When Kaeloo and Stumpy beat Olaf at baseball by cheating in the Baseball Episode, they both do a weird dance by stretching their arms back and forth and walking on the spot.
  • On Llama Llama, Llama Llama does one on the sofa in "Mama Llama's Mother's Day" after Mama Llama agrees to some of his big Mother's Day plans that he had originally scrapped after overhearing her say she would be okay with a nice, quiet Mother's Day.
  • The Loud House:
    • Whenever Lynn is proud of something, she does a butt-shaking dance.
    • In "Come Sale Away", Lincoln does a little dance to celebrate selling the most stuff at a garage sale.
    • In "The Waiting Game", Lincoln and Clyde both dance to celebrate being invited to the birthday party of their classmate Chandler.
    • In "No Such Luck", Lincoln does a dance to celebrate getting time to himself.
  • Andy mimics the Snoopy dance at the end of one Mission Hill episode after Ron's car rolls off a bridge.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", Twilight Sparkle does a silly little jump-in-a-circle dance after realizing she's earned her cutie mark. Cut back to the present day, and we see Twilight Sparkle has gotten a little too caught up in her story and is doing the same dance in the middle of Ponyville.
    • In "Three's a Crowd", Discord does one, complete with cheering and chanting, when he learns Twilight Sparkle is willing to stick her neck out for him, actually proving that their friendship is genuine, if not a little caustic.
    • In "A Friend in Deed", the townsponies, led by Pinkie Pie, do a dance while singing about smiling.
  • In the Phineas and Ferb episode, "The Mom Attractor", Candace does a victory dance while declaring that she's awesome. Phineas and Ferb join in on the dance as well.
  • Ready Jet Go!: Mitchell does a little happy dance upon uncovering the treasure in "Treasure Map".
  • Ren & Stimpy danced to "The Happy Happy Joy Joy Song" in an early episode.
  • The Simpsons:
    • In "The Sweetest Apu", Manjula went to see a divorce lawyer who danced happily on his desk after she told him she had eight kids.
    • In "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", sport stars discovered that Homer had talent for inventing the craziest of dancing routines. They kept paying him for ideas because it was magnet for attention.
  • The Green Goblin in The Spectacular Spider-Man threatened to do one, but very unfortunately he didn't actually go that far.
    Green Goblin: I might just do my happy dance!
  • Spongebob Squarepants:
    • When Spongebob's pineapple house was eaten by nematodes in "Home Sweet Pineapple", he has to move back with his parents. Squidward was dancing happily on the ground where his house use to be, but then a new one grows from the seed Spongebob planted and lands on Squidward.
    • In the episode "Band Geeks", Spongebob dances excitedly right before performing at the Bubble Bowl, wearing an expression Squidward describes as "his eager face."
  • Total Drama:
    • Leshawna gives the Screaming Gophers' victory party in "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2" some flair with a victory dance and cheer. Noah and Owen join her.
    • When the alliance consisting of Tyler, Cody, Owen, and DJ get its hands on the suitcase containing a million dollars in "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", each member does a happy dance. Tyler jumps up and down like a grasshopper, while the others dance more conventionally with Owen holding on to the case.
    • During Bridgette's performance begging Geoff for forgiveness in "Aftermath I: Bridgette Over Troubled Waters", she sings that if he'll give her "one more chance", she'll do her "happy, happy dance". At these lyrics, she does a silly jig, which almost wins Geoff over for how cute it is until he reminds himself that she kissed Alejandro.
    • DJ does a little joyous dance in "Can't Help Falling in Louvre" when he thinks he's lost the challenge, singing that now that he's going home, no more animals will get hurt. Too bad for him that he actually wins the challenge.
    • In "Three Zones and a Baby", Sugar does a victory dance in her own honor when the Wâneyihtam Maskwak make it past the lions and snakes. It comes to an end when Shawn points out she lost her baby amidst the carnivores.

    Real Life 
  • Rabbits do a happy dance called a binky. They jump into the air, and kick out their legs while in the air, with or without a butt waggle.
  • "Sparking" - repeated and sudden vertical jumps, performed out of sheer enthusiasm - is a good sign that young mice are happy.
  • Guinea pigs are known to do something similar called "popcorning."
  • Ferrets do an adorable dance when excited. Fans have dubbed this the "Weasel War Dance", after a line from a Dilbert comic. They also use it to disorient prey while hunting.
  • Most owners of Pembroke Welsh corgis (the tail-less kind) could probably tell you all about the happy corgi butt wiggle dance.
  • George Takei. Oh my.
  • Adolf Hitler supposedly danced a jig in celebration of the surrender of France, but it was actually Allied propaganda created by looping footage of him stamping his foot.
  • QVC host David Venable of In The Kitchen With David does a happy dance when he tastes good food. It consists of him throwing his hands in the air and dancing in a circle while exclaiming, "HAPPY DANCE! HAPPY DANCE!" He often provides warnings to his co-hosts so they can get out of the way. HAPPY DANCE!


Alternative Title(s): Victory Dance

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