Walk The Dinosaur

"Walk The Dinosaur" was written by Was (Not Was) members David Was and Don Was, and producer/songwriter Randy Jacobs. It was first released as a single in 1987, but ended up being included on their 1989 album What Up, Dog?

This song has a colorful history and an interesting path to fame. Its amusing video and insanely catchy chorus helped it gain fame in the early days of MTV and their show Liquid Television. It also got some play in the Spike & Mike festivals. But its star would have faded by now, if it hadn't been re-discovered in the 2000s and become an Internet meme.

First George Clinton (of Parliament / Funkadelic fame) covered it with altered lyrics for the theme song to the pretty forgettable Super Mario Bros. film. A year later, it was part of the soundtrack for the 1994 film of The Flintstones - at last, somebody made the right movie for it to grow legs! Finally, Queen Latifah revived it for the 2009 animated film Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, itself a sequel to the popular Ice Age franchise.

It was this last usage, coupled with the inclusion of the song in the repertoire of the animatronic shows at the Chuck E. Cheese's pizza restaurant chain in 2011, that gave it new popularity with the younger generation. And suddenly, it was all over the web! Know Your Meme has a page showing the Google search stats spiking after the release of Ice Age, then trending up again after the Chuck E. Cheese bump.

Some of the quirks of this modern dinosaur story include a "Boom, boom, acka lacka boom boom" chant (sort of like the "Oooonga Chacka"s in "Hooked On A Feeling"), a video which featured four cavewomen doing a "Walk The Dinosaur" dance (sort of like "Walk Like An Egyptian"), and a reference to the hit TV show Miami Vice, which ensured its place in '80s nostalgia. Note that in the third verse, he is no longer walking the dinosaur, he had now killed it, apparently in self defense.

Know Your Meme also remarks upon an interesting usage. It seems posting the lyrics to "Walk The Dinosaur" is a common alternative "Bel-Air-ing." Now, what does "Bel-Air-ing" mean? It's a discussion-board meme where you post some long-winded shaggy dog story that seems to be leading to a payoff ending, but abruptly ends with some variation on the lyrics to the theme song to the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. When people started to catch wise to this trick and scan to the end of long paragraphs looking for "Bel-Air," the trick was then changed to posting "Walk The Dinosaur" lyrics instead.

There's also a few animated gifs out there flying around, with either the chorus lyrics set to animation or other videos of people opening doors, falling down, dinosaurs charging out of closets, etc.

Was (Not Was) was the creation of the songwriter/producers Don Fagenson and David Weiss, who named themselves "Don Was" and "David Was" for the project. The name was inspired by Don's 18-month-old son, who would do that thing kids do where he would describe something as the opposite of what it was to get a reaction, and then correct it. So he might point to a cat, say "dog," wait for the disapproving look, then say, "not dog." Don saw something very Zen in this behavior, and became intrigued with Piaget's reversibility theory, which describes the developmental stage when a child understands that things can be undone. They morphed this into the name Was (Not Was) and took stage names after their new band name, kind of like the Ramones. This song became a hit, and the names stuck. Some other trivia about the band:

They are not a one-hit-wonder. A few months before "Walk The Dinosaur" hit the charts, they had a #16 US hit with "Spy In The House Of Love."

Don Was' career as a producer took off soon after this song was released. He produced the 1991 Bonnie Raitt album Luck of the Draw, and went on to produce Bob Seger, The Rolling Stones, Brain Wilson and Garth Brooks.

There were two singers in the band: Sweet Pea Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowens. The Was guys operated behind the scenes - Don wrote the music and played bass, David came up with lyrics and played flute.

The group appeared in the movie The Freshman.

David and Don were often asked which one of the was Was and which was Not Was.

Thanks to the success of this song's video, Was (Not Was) landed a spot on the 1989 Club MTV tour along with Paula Abdul, Tone Loc, Information Society and... Milli Vanilli.

This was the tour where Milli Vanilli's recorded track malfunctioned, exposing them for lip-synching. Lost in the furor was that the other acts augmented their sets with recorded tracks as well, except Was (Not Was), who performed live. "People aren't going to shows to be absorbed in musical values," David Weiss said, reflecting on the tour. "The kinds of audiences these bands attract don't care."