If you’ve been on TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen the silly dance craze taking over the H-F halls — the Daily Bip. It all started right here on campus, thanks to H-F sophomores Brandon Dixon and Jake Wagner.
The trend began when Dixon posted a video of himself dancing on TikTok under Chicago rapper G Ravon’s freestyle “Lady Drac.”
Dixon shared that the inspiration behind his signature dance move came at an unexpected time.
“I just was falling in the shower one time, and, like, the movement, I kept doing it for some reason,” he said.
At first, Dixon’s TikToks were of him by himself, or with one or two other friends doing his iconic move: a simple back-and-forth sway of the knees accompanied by a single finger waving in the air.
The early TikToks only averaged around 100 likes and the dance had gained the title ‘Daily Bip’ when Dixon began adding the phrase as a caption on his videos.
It wasn’t until Dixon asked his chemistry classmate Wagner to join that the dance blew up.
“We ended up [getting] 100,000 likes in one day,” boasted Dixon. “After that first video went viral, I noticed I gotta keep doing it ’cause I started to like the TikTok attention.”
Wagner was just as shocked by the success of the video.
“I was surprised,” he said. “I just kept looking at my phone to see how popular it would get.”
Dixon’s videos continue to go viral from time to time, but the majority of his viral ‘Bips’ feature Wagner.
Wagner had been catapulted into a niche internet stardom, earning him the jokingly affectionate title, “my shorty Jake.”
The dance plagued the halls of H-F like an infection. Students began to recognize Wagner, pleaded for the return of “my shorty Jake” in Dixon’s comments, featured him in their own TikToks and shouted his name in the hallways.
Teachers have even joined in. English teachers Daniel Bush and Joseph Upton as well as film teacher Matthew McLindon are all featured on Wagner’s page, doing the iconic sway and waving their pointer fingers.
The trend has spread to other schools and even to adults, with one TikTok user creating a “cubicle bip” from the desk of his office job.
The Bip has gone from a simple local trend to a viral sensation, proving that a small dance move can spark something big.
