Caramelldansen Lights

Submission 37,996

Part of a series on Caramelldansen. [View Related Entries]

About

Caramelldansen Lights refer to a series of humorous edits which are accompanied by the song Caramelldansen, usually muffled, and feature a certain object, such as a window or a person's face, rapidly flashing rainbow colors in sync with the beat. The format is also known as Parties Too Hard and Dies due to a number of memes imagining SpongeBob and other characters dead due to partying to Caramelldansen too hard.

Origin

On May 19th, 2008, the official video for Caramelldansen was uploaded to YouTube,^[1] gaining over 7.9 million in twelve years. In the video, three-anime style girls performed the eponymous dance, with the dancefloor flashing with rainbow colors (remastered Swedish version shown below).

On March 31st, 2019, TikTok user @ZombieKisses24 posted a video recording of a lonely lit window rapidly flashing with rainbow colors. The video was accompanied by the muffled song Caramelldansen, creating the impression that the person in the apartment was watching the music video at a loud volume. The TikTok^[2] received over 67,500 likes and 406,900 views in one year (shown below)

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6674504875927145733

Precursors

Prior to the @ZombieKisses' post, several notable examples of the lights being used in memes were posted online, including September 8th, 2018,^[3] and December 27th, 2018,^[4]^[5] Wojak Trying to Sleep memes (December 27th, 2018, meme shown below, left), and a February 2019 video^[6] of a man in Spider-Man costume and an Ahegao Hoodie watching Caramelldancen in a dark room (author unknown; reupload shown below, right).

Spread

Starting in late May 2019, @ZombieKisses' video received spread on YouTube and Twitter. On May 29th, 2019, YouTube^[7] user Сет reuploaded the video, which received over 633,000 views on the platform in one year. On June 14th, 2019, Twitter^[8] user @HotGamerSex reuploaded the video. with the clip garnering over 2.8 million views on Twitter in one year.

Prior to February 22nd, 2019,^[18] an unknown user uploaded a Wojak Trying to Sleep meme reimagined as Fallout 4 character Elder Maxson trying to ignore Caramelldansen party in The Castle. On July 11th YouTube^[17] user Сет reuploaded the edit, with a July 17th, iFunny^[9] reupload gaining over 58,500 smiles in one year (shown below).

The format did not see further spread until prior to February 1st, 2020, an unknown user posted a video of Staring Cat accompanied by the song and flashing rainbow colors (reupload shown below). The video received viral spread online in early February 2020.^[14]^[15]^[16]

On February 7th, 2020, YouTube^[10] and Instagram^[11] user buzz_lighthole posted a SpongeBob SquarePants edit in which SpongeBob was shown dead as a result of to partying to Caramelldancen too hard. The edit received over 261,400 views on YouTube and over 66,300 views on Instagram in six weeks (Instagram upload shown below, left). The format received another boost following a February 22nd, 2020, post by Twitter^[12] and Instagram^[13] blnnko that received over 10.7 million views on Twitter in one month (Instagram upload shown below, right)

In the following weeks, the format in which a certain object flashed rainbow colors in sync with Caramelldancen saw significant spread online, with multiple memes posted on Twitter, YouTube, Coub and other platforms. In a number of memes following the format, various characters were imagined dead due to partying too hard, with the format also becoming known as Parties Too Hard and Dies.