Temple, Penn State take the Mannequin Challenge

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Planking, Tebowing, and Juju on that Beat can move aside, while Americans stand still for the newest viral trend - the Mannequin Challenge.

The challenge - which has nothing to do with the 1980s Andrew McCarthy-Kim Catrell movie - involves everyone striking a pose as a camera roams around capturing the static scene for a good amount of time. You better choose a pose you can freeze for a while or else you'll mess up the whole video.

The videos are usually accompanied by the song "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd, but not always.

So far high schools and college sport teams are leading the charge to this stagnant sensation.

Temple University's football team posted their version of the challenge to Twitter on Sunday.



Action News spoke to Owls linebacker Avery Williams about the making of the video.

"It took about three takes because guys couldn't stay still. The last one we did OT Leon [Johnson] forgot to press the play button (laughs)," Avery said.

Williams said it began with him yelling 'freeze' and everyone just stopped what they were doing - and he meant everyone.

"I thought our athletic trainers and one of our strength coaches weren't going to freeze, but they did," Avery said.

Not to be outdone, Penn State's football team declared themselves the winner of the challenge when they posted their take.



Our sister station ESPN, who is covering a lot of these videos, decided to make a few of their own.





And College GameDay came so close to perfection...



On Monday, the Action News morning team joined in on the fun.



So now that the Mannequin Challenge is underway, what's next?

"I have no idea," Avery said, adding with a laugh, "It's amazing what people can come up with when they're bored."