There's nothing that puts a damper on one's Harlem shake faster than getting busted by the cops -- as a group of Russian buddies quickly found out when performing the dance craze on top of a war memorial in their town.
The five friends filmed their performance for YouTube and carefully followed the correct procedure: One dancer grooved alone for about 30 seconds, then the rest joined in -- some of them jumping on the memorial, which is an army tank from World War II.
The troupe told local police that they chose to dance on the tank as a tribute of sorts to a pal serving in the army. Very nice, but no dice -- they were all arrested as a result.
The "Harlem Shake" dance -- which was brought to prominence 12 years ago by hip-hop artist G. Dep and repopularized this year by up-and-coming music producer Baauer -- has mostly been just a fun viral phenomenon, sparking numerous knockoffs and millions of plays online. But the Russian incident isn't the first time the dance has sparked trouble. Earlier this month, a group of Colorado college students came under fire by the Federal Aviation Administration for performing the dance on a commercial flight. And in February, four Egyptian students were arrested for Harlem shaking publicly in their underwear.