This image was lost some time after publication.

Crowd-pleasing dances used to be the domain of the debonair and funky: Fred Astaire, John Travolta, Michael Jackson. But like everything else in mainstream culture, hot dancing has gotten geekified. Shimmy along with the ten best geeky dance videos of all time.*

This gallery was inspired by the silly dances of the geeks from Gaia Online, an online game/community that's like MySpace with dress-up dolls.

1. Numa Numa
Let's start with the granddaddy of them all, the Numa Numa dance. This video demonstrates one of the core values of geek dance: unabashed joy in the moment. Even creator Gary Brolsma couldn't reproduce that feeling for his disappointing follow-up, New Numa.



2. Evolution of Dance
Another heavyweight, the most-watched YouTube clip of all time. "Evolution of Dance" tips medium on the geek scale, but its reliance on the wow factor puts it right in our sights.



3. WoW Gay Bar
Girl! Let's start a war! Let's start a nuclear war! In World of Warcraft! There are many great WoW dances, but this is the most satisfying — afterward, you'll feel sore.



4. Steve Ballmer Hop
What would it look like if a Lord of the Rings orc danced? It'd look like Microsoft's brutish CEO doing this foot-stomp on the stage of a developer conference. Bonus fact: "Come on, give it up for me!" is what he says to his wife when he gets into bed.



5. Robot Dance
The pop-and-lock is as mystifying as the moonwalk — how do they make their bodies do that — and ten times as nerdy, based on robotic movement.



6. How to Dance Properly
The legend of designer-entertainer Ze Frank begins with this party invitation that, in the parlance of our times, went viral.

This image was lost some time after publication, but you can still view it here.



7. Dual DDR
Dance Dance Revolution inspires many tricks in both at home and at the arcade. It's impressive to watch the game performed by a one-legged man or a 5-year-old. But the most visually stunning is this tag team, with their beautifully unnecessary choreography.



8. Napoleon Dynamite Dance Scene
It's a sign of pop culture's overgeekdom that including this video makes me feel like a sell-out.



9. Tunak Tunak
From a time before YouTube, there was Daler Mehndi, Punjabi star and inspiration to many imitators.



10. Where the Hell is Matt?
Where indeed? Matt has many travelogues. This — again, a pure expression of joy in the moment as Matt jigs in foreign lands — is the one we know and love.



Click to view* "All time" here means "Since the late 90s."

Nick Douglas writes for Valleywag, Too Much Nick, and Look Shiny. He has three left feet.