Toddler stages dance off after seeing animated Halloween decoration in Maryland yard

An animated Halloween decoration intended to be scary got a very different reaction from a Maryland toddler, who instead challenged the inflatable skeleton to a dance-off.

Video of the moment, shared Oct. 9 on Facebook, shows 3-year-old Orin gyrating without explanation on the sidewalk, as he tried to mimic the moves of a Jack Skellington wind puppet.

His mom, Lindsay Ball, recorded the video, which has received 22,000 shares and 5,000 reactions from people who’ve called the boy’s moves “hilarious.” Another 6,000 people have viewed it on YouTube.

“There is literally nothing more dangerous than a man that can dance,” one man wrote on Instagram.

“This little man ... may be the hero Facebook needs,” another commented on Facebook.

The dance contest broke out as mother and son were taking a walk in the Perry Hall area of northeast Baltimore, Ball said in a post shared on YouTube by ViralHog.

“Our older son is busy with virtual school, so I find myself desperate for ways to keep the little one busy and out of his way,” she said in the post.

“Our next-door neighbors had just put the Jack Skellington up in their yard, and ... he’s always been a character and a complete clown, so him imitating Jack wasn’t really a surprise or unusual,” she continued. “In fact, he had been doing it for a good while when I finally decided to pull out my phone and record it, because I thought his grandparents would get a kick out of it!”

Orin, who turned 3 years old days after the video was filmed, was described as “expressive and opinionated” in a follow up Facebook post by his mom.

“His unapologetic approach to life is something I hope he never loses,” she wrote. “The world didn’t realize what it was getting three years ago, and we’re still all just trying to keep up.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Toddler stages dance off after seeing animated Halloween decoration in Maryland yard."