Walk Like an Egyptian

They walk the line like Egyptians.

Slide your feet up the street, bend your back
Shift your arm, then you pull it back
Life's hard, you know (oh whey oh)
So, strike a pose on a Cadillac.

— The Bangles, "Walk Like an Egyptian"

A stance or style of walking meant to resemble ancient Egyptian murals. Common in animation (especially as it's hard to twist your limbs this way in Real Life), often in Knife Outline scenes.

It should be noted that real ancient Egyptians did not walk like this, it was only a centuries-long artistic style meant to show a person's body from several angles at once.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Dogs in the old King Kuts dog food commercials.

Comic Books

• Asterix:
  • In the album Asterix and Cleopatra, we see the latter discussing her latest portrait:
    Cleopatra: It's quite good, but I'm tired of being painted in profile. Can't you do it in a three-quarter view?
    Artist: Oh, you know how I feel about these modern arts...
  • When seen in other books, Egyptians keep up this style, such as when crossing the street in single file.

Films — Animation

• Seen in a few dream sequences in The Prince of Egypt. Hotep (voiced by Steve Martin) does this briefly in "Playing With the Big Boys Now". Bit of an Actor Allusion (see Saturday Night Live below).
• In the movie Asterix and Cleopatra there's a brief song and dance number that includes some of Cleopatra's maids dancing like this. And they actually manage to pull it off without looking out of place, un-serious or clumsy at all. When Cleopatra's lion does it, however...
• In Turning Red, Priya does this as a dance during Tyler's birthday party.

Films — Live-Action

• In Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, the second Asterix live movie, a common gag is to have random Egyptians in the background walking like on murals. And at the end, when Artifis loses a fight he ends up slammed into a mural in this pose. (He's still there in The Stinger.)
• A Chalk Outline gag in The Naked Gun 2½ has one of the outlines in the aftermath of a bomb explosion drawn in this style, complete with Egyptian headdress.
• Mannequin, during the Animated Credits Opening both Emmy and some animated clocks do this a few times, as she is an Ancient Egyptian princess under a curse.
• Rush Hour 2: Carter jokes about knowing a martial art that resembles this walk.

Literature

• In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout's brother, Jem, insists on walking like an Egyptian after a school assignment on them causes an Egyptian obsession. According to him, though, that's how they actually walked.
• Discworld:
  • Pyramids has a scene where the people are described as walking like this. It's noted that Djellibeybians only do so on special occasions.
  • The Art of Discworld features, of all people, Havelock Vetinari doing this in artwork for Jingo. (Note that the book itself does not describe him doing this, although Gulli, Gulli and Betti are a Shout-Out to Wilson, Keppel and Betty, below.)
• Surprisingly, the children in The Egypt Game do this at one point.

Live-Action TV

• Steve Martin did this in his classic Saturday Night Live number, "King Tut".
• Frequently seen in the Egyptian segments of Horrible Histories, especially the musical numbers.
• Pops up once on Whose Line Is It Anyway? when they do a scene as if they're ancient Egyptians.
• One episode of El Chapulín Colorado has him telling the story of Cleopatra, and one of her servants appears walking like this.

Music

• Named for the song "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles, also used as the first ending theme of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders.
• Which was covered (and translated) by Die Ärzte, probably their only well-known cover song.
• "Regyptian Strut" by Frank Zappa is an instrumental composition from Sleep Dirt (1978) and Läther (1996) which re-imagines the Egyptian strut, thus the name.
• In the dance break segment of Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" video, which is set in Ancient Egypt, Jackson and his dancers incorporate the walk along with some "tutting" to sell the vibe.
• The Wiggles: This is Dorothy the Dinosaur's signature move.
• An Italian kids' song titled "Tutanc'mon", whose lyrics are both in Arabic and Italian language, features this pose in its official video by the singer and various animated characters too.

Pro Wrestling

• CHIKARA's The Osirian Portal's ("The Funky Pharaoh" Amasis and "The Venomous Vile Serpent from the Nile" Ophidian) gimmick was based on Egyptian Mythology, they used the Trope Namer as entrance music, and, at New Star Navigation, in CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas (Tag Team Champions) Incoherence's (Delirious and Hallowicked) promo, Delirious referenced Amasis doing the dance.

Radio

• A segment on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me involved an ancient Egyptian chariot detained in American customs because it was classed as a vehicle but had no VIN. Host Peter Sagal said they finally found the VIN on the axle, consisting of eyeball, eyeball, bird, guy walking like an Egyptian...

Theatre

• The British music hall act Wilson, Keppel and Betty. As The Other Wiki puts it "The 'sand dance' that formed the highlight of their act was a parody of postures from Egyptian tomb paintings, combined with references to Arabic costume."

Video Games

• Battleborn: One of Ambra's taunt animations has her performing the Egyptian mural inspired stance. The name of said taunt, "Walk Not Unlike an Egyptian".
• The Cave: During the Adventurer's level, you can line up your three characters to that of an Egyptian mural in the background and they'll copy it, gaining the achievement "Walk Like an Adventurer".
• Half-Minute Hero: The Time Goddess' animation resembles this pose.

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Ghirahim performs a dance based on this while performing the ancient ritual to free the Imprisoned in the past era by offering Zelda's soul to it.
• Luigi's Mansion 3: The final barrier to get back to the sarcophagus room in the Tomb Suites involves Luigi imitating this pose against a graphic of himself which opens up a panel back to the chamber.
• Shantae (2002) has Shantae striking this pose in one of her dance steps. It's memorable enough for WayForward Technologies to open up the Shantae 3DS virtual console trailer and the Half-Genie Hero Kickstarter video with an 8-Bit Shantae doing it.

Web Videos

• When reviewing The Last House on the Left, The Cinema Snob takes exception to a transition going from a rather dark moment to a humorous one and vows to react with comedy the next time someone gives him bad news. When his wife tells him her great-grandmother died, he reacts by doing this trope naked on his front porch.
• The festival poster in Oedipus in my Inventory reads "WALK LIKE A THEBAN" and has a figure doing a silly walk.
• The Geography Now episode about Egypt has the host Paul's Egyptian friend who is guest starring, Mohab, doing the walk as Paul explains about Egypt's most famous tourist attractions like the Giza Pyramids and The Sphinx. With a disclaimer that it was Mohab's own idea to do it.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In the episode "Beach Mummy Party", Jimmy and his friends start dancing this way while partying in the desert.
• During an Arthur Imagine Spot to Ancient Egypt, Arthur's Mom and Dad are walking this way. Also, Arthur knocks off the Sphinx's nose.
• The Bugs Bunny cartoon "A Hare Grows in Manhattan" (1947). Bugs tries to hide from a bulldog by becoming part of an animated advertising sign with such images.
• In an Egyptian-themed ChalkZone episode (where Rudy and Penny enter ChalkZone through an ancient Egyptian artifact that happens to be a chalk surface — It Makes Sense in Context), all the Egyptian chalk drawings (and, to fit in, Rudy, Penny, and Snap) walk like this. And we only see the profiles of their faces, like on (stereo)typical carvings in Egyptian temples.
• Bender from Futurama dances this way after being Pharaoh of an Egypt-themed planet.
• In the Goof Troop opening, a photo album shows Max's family visiting Egypt and posing in this way.
• Bobby occasionally does this in his comedy routines in King of the Hill. Hank also did it in an old video of his highschool football state championship after scoring a touchdown.
  Bobby: I didn't know people walked like Egyptians back then!
• On PB&J Otter, in the first part of the "Make It Last" song from the episode "Hope Castle," Peanut, Jelly, Baby Butter, Pinch, Scootch, Flick and Munchy are seen doing this, as this part of the song involves them imagining building a Sphinx in the form of Jelly.
• In one episode of Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (2002), Simon draws some Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on his chalkboard. Later, he discovers that the hieroglyphs have manifested in the Land Of Chalk Drawings, and are compelling everyone their to start walking in this fashion.
• Super Monsters: Cleo strikes this pose when changing into her mummy form for the first two seasons.
• Total Drama World Tour features a two-part episode titled, "Walk Like an Egyptian"... During which nobody walks like one. Not even the people dressed like ancient Egyptians.
• The Simpsons: In "Simpsons Bible Stories", Pharaoh Skinner dictates a letter:
  Skinner: All right, read me back what I have so far, Mrs. Krabapatra.
  Krabappel: Bird, bird, giant eye, pyramid, bird.
  Skinner: Mmm-hmm, very good. Uh, giant eye, dead fish, cat head, cat head, cat head, guy doing this...
• Tintin: In the animated Nelvana adaptation of the album The Cigars of the Pharaoh, Professor Sarcophagus is seen walking like an Egyptian after going crazy. This is an addition of the animation crew, not Hergé.
• In the Tom and Jerry short "The Lonesome Mouse", Jerry does this dance to taunt Tom after he gets thrown out of the house and a mop lands on his head making him look like the Sphinx.
• In the prequel movie for Totally Spies!, there is a montage of Sam, Clover, and Alex doing this — to the song — while ducking the strict principal.

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