Return of the (s)mack

Are we being ritually humiliated again?

The finely choreographed moves of emergency room nurses grooving to the South African hit song, ‘Jerusalema’ should be permanently seared into your COVID-era brain.

Don’t you remember?

Hospitals were supposedly slammed with patients. Body bags were stacking up. And entire hospital campuses were so biohazardous, the need for personal protective equipment was akin to alien autopsy protocols.

Yet somehow, some way, hospital staffers in scrubs practiced and performed polished dance routines to what became the pandemic’s global anthem. The team at Collapse Life can’t listen to that song now without cringing; it’s probably the same for you.

The official line about dancing nurses on rooftops and in hospital wards was “morale boost,” a way to humanize the frontline heroes.

But as David A. Hughes has noted, the performances had a far darker undertone. Hughes correctly analyzed them as a form of mockery, a humiliation ritual designed to demoralize people by forcing them to witness, participate in, or accept something absurd, contradictory, degrading, or tone-deaf as a form of psychological control or display of power.

Now that we know what to look for, we’re starting to wonder whether a new form of psyop is emerging from this guy: Swisher3x. He’s the one who rolls into Walmarts across the country, cranks Mark Morrison’s ‘Return of the Mack,’ or some disco tune, and instantly sparks flash-mob dance parties in the aisles.

Random shoppers of all ages and backgrounds drop everything to join in, with big smiles and “Walmart vibes” everywhere. In one video, reminiscent of a 1980s televangelist schtick, one guy gets up from his mobility scooter to join in the dancing! The videos are blowing up on TikTok and Instagram, with some nearing 12 million views at last check.

We can’t help but wonder: Is someone funding and coordinating this? Or is it a Walmart skunkworks advertising and marketing effort?

If the dancing nurses were a way to humiliate the public by forcing them to watch joyful dancing while being told to panic and isolate, Swisher’s Walmart videos are humiliation ritual version 2.0… for the age of inflation. (Or maybe hyperinflation, if things keep going.)

Sky-high prices? Economic squeeze? Come on! Let’s groove in the aisles and have a good time! Look at the community joy and spontaneous happiness! Keep vibing, keep filling those carts. Rollback on aisle 8!

It’s the same “performative positivity during crisis” energy as the nurses, just with shopping carts swapped in for face shields and masks.

@swisher3xWALMART VIBES 🌟✨ Follow Me On Instagram @Swisher3x Before The Ban To Enjoy More Vibes ! #fyp #viral #returnofthemack #orlando #walmart

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We applaud anyone who can spread joy in these difficult times. Who can argue with a “life goes on, don’t dwell on the pain” outlook?

The thing is, when you know about ‘revelation of the method’, you can’t help but be on the lookout for it. Just have a read of some of the lyrics of ‘Return of the Mack,’ the song most often used in these ‘vibe videos’.

”I had to come again
And show you that I’d win
So, I’m back up in the game
Running things to keep my swing
Letting all the people know
That I’m back to run the show.”

In the end, these viral dances reveal a strangely efficient formula for turning everyday spaces into stages of manufactured uplift, whether amid health scares or exploding grocery bills. The ritual, if that’s what it is, keeps evolving, always one beat ahead of the latest collective headache, inviting the rest of us to groove along or at least wonder what the encore might look like.

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