The dancers from the musical “Cats” would do well to get in on the latest TikTok dance trend.
Donald Trump’s now infamous “Ty’re eating the pets” comments from last week’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris have already inspired songs. Now, in true internet style, they have their own TikTok dance too.
The dance, a fusion of jazz and hip hop, involves gestures that mimic spooning something into the mouth, then putting both hands above the head to form dog ears and opening, then extending the palms toward the out like a cat’s claws – a move that would make dancers from Cats proud. There are hip isolations, jump turns, and the all-around joyous silliness that generally results when TikTokers engage in a viral moment.
“I love our generation for this,” one user commented on a video of a highly polished performance performed by a trio led by Los Angeles professional dancer Marlon Davila Avalos. As of this writing, it has been viewed 4 million times.
The dance harkens back to last Tuesday’s segment of the debate, when Republican candidate Trump repeated an unsubstantiated viral claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating local pets. The remarks quickly turned into a frenzy of memes and jokes that are still proliferating nearly a week after the debate. Trump’s claim, however, had very serious repercussions in Springfield, where the mayor attributed the bomb threats to right-wing conspiracy theory.
“In Springfield, they eat the dogs, the people who came in. They eat cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people who live there,” Trump said during a debate on immigration policy. In doing so, the Republican candidate sought to underline one of the central tenets of his platform, that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to America.
The day before the debate, the claim about Springfield’s unusual eating habits gained traction when Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, repeated it on X. Ohio running mate and Ohio senator JD Vance defended his false claims about Haitian immigrants in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
TikTok, a hub for viral dances
That the strange idea of edible pets has sparked a TikTok dance shouldn’t come as much of a surprise — TikTok is, after all, known for spawning countless viral dance trends. But these latest social media twists and turns could very well be the first to come from a presidential candidate.
The video-sharing app did not immediately respond to a request for comment about who choreographed the “They’re eating the dogs” dance that’s currently gaining traction, though it appeared to start with this video by dancer Sebastian Gonzalez Molina which has garnered more than 18 million views. The moves prove so irresistible a dancer with a broken leg couldn’t resist taking them on.
Julian Plunkett, who is based in London and has appeared in musicals from Mamma Mia to Heather and Kind of applehe dances “They’reating the dogs” sitting in a chair, throwing his entire upper body into it with the abandon you’d expect from a musical theater professional. I can’t wait to see Plunkett’s performance once the limb heals.
