Entry · catalog no. 1332
the Humpty Dance
/ /ðə ˈhʌmpti dæns/ /thuh HUMP-tee DANSS
noun phrase · Oakland, California; nationwide · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
The loose, hunched, intentionally ungraceful dance introduced by Digital Underground's 1990 record of the same name, danced bent at the waist with the arms and hips working against the beat.
“He does the Humpty Dance at every wedding and everybody pretends to be embarrassed.”
2.
The record itself, and by extension the Humpty Hump persona Shock G performed it in — the nose, the shades, the whole routine.
“That Humpty Dance bassline still empties the chairs.”
Origin & Attribution
From Digital Underground, the Oakland group led by Shock G, whose alter ego Humpty Hump — fake nose, oversized glasses — carried the record. "The Humpty Dance" appeared on Sex Packets (1990) and became the group's signature hit, built over a Parliament-Funkadelic-descended bounce. The joke in the dance is its refusal of cool: it is a Black comic dance in a long line of them, made to be done badly on purpose, and it has outlasted a great many dances that took themselves seriously.
1990
The Humpty Dance released on Sex Packets, Tommy Boy Records
1990
Reaches the top of the Billboard rap chart and crosses over to the Hot 100
2021
Shock G's death returns the record and the persona to wide circulation
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Oakland, California; nationwide · 1990s
Spoken by
Black party and club dancers; Bay Area hip-hop; standard at cookouts and receptions since
$THEHUMThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady36 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
50/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1990
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Digital Underground, The Humpty Dance, from Sex Packets, Tommy Boy Records
single · 1990
■
+ Cite a sourceDigital Underground, Sex Packets, Tommy Boy Records
album · 1990
See also