Dancing Toothless became a widely remixed meme in late 2023 and early 2024: a short animation of the dragon dancing, usually to “Driftveil City” from Pokémon: Black & White. The clip came from animator Cas van de Pol’s December 9, 2023 recap cartoon. It was not a new trend in 2026; the evidence documents an earlier breakout, not current cross-platform popularity.
What is the Dancing Toothless meme?
It is a brief 2D clip of Toothless dancing, often shared as a reaction or placed into a different scene. Green-screen versions make that second use easy: editors can put the dragon over another video without having to remove a background themselves. The format is commonly paired with “Driftveil City,” though some edits use different audio.
Toothless is the Night Fury dragon befriended by Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon. The Directors Guild of America’s June 22, 2025 Q&A with director Dean DeBlois discusses the character in the live-action film; it is franchise context, not a source for the meme’s origin.
Where did the dancing clip come from?
The Toothless animation appears in Cas van de Pol’s The Ultimate “How To Train Your Dragon” Recap Cartoon, published December 9, 2023. The dance is around the 1:30 mark. Know Your Meme and The Daily Dot’s May 15, 2024 account both connect the clip to the ensuing meme. They reported that the full recap passed 4 million views in two weeks; that is a historical snapshot, not a current view count.
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How does it connect to the Dancing Lizard meme?
Toothless did not introduce the dance format. The clip follows the earlier Dancing Lizard meme, whose recognizable movement had already been paired with “Driftveil City.” The lizard format dates to around 2018, and a 2019 version used the same track, according to Know Your Meme’s history and The Daily Dot’s retrospective.
| Version | What changes | What carries over |
|---|---|---|
| Dancing Lizard | The lizard is the dancing character in the earlier meme format. | The dance and, in a 2019 version, “Driftveil City.” |
| Dancing Toothless | Toothless replaces the lizard in the later animation from van de Pol’s recap. | The recognizable dance, commonly paired with the same Pokémon track. |
That character swap is why the meme works as a remix of a remix: the familiar movement and sound remain, while a new character gives users a fresh figure to drop into other scenes.
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How did it spread?
Early TikTok edits helped turn a moment in a recap cartoon into a reusable template. Know Your Meme records a December 13, 2023 side-by-side edit by @uwaa.w showing Toothless with the original lizard; it received over 2.6 million views in two weeks. The Daily Dot also reports that two-week figure. A green-screen edit posted December 22 received over 6 million views in five days, according to Know Your Meme. Each figure describes a specific post over its stated time window, not the meme’s total reach.
The green-screen format broadened the joke’s possibilities: rather than only replaying the dance, users could insert Toothless into a new setting. The Daily Dot’s May 2024 retrospective describes this scene-swapping use. Know Your Meme characterizes posts as conveying joy, excitement, or chaotic energy; the meaning depends on the individual edit, and not every post uses the clip the same way.
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What was the League of Legends adaptation discussion?
On January 11, 2024, the League of Legends UK account posted a traced adaptation of the dance featuring a different dragon, according to Know Your Meme. The account captioned it, “he’s just a happy lil’ guy 🐲”. Cas van de Pol responded on X, “who do i invoice for this ? @riotgames”. The post prompted viewers to discuss credit or payment. These are the lines as reproduced by Know Your Meme; they do not establish a broader legal conclusion about the adaptation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is Dancing Toothless still a major trend?
The strongest documented breakout is historical: the recap and early edits spread in December 2023 and early 2024, with a May 2024 retrospective describing the wave. Those records do not measure current popularity across platforms, so they cannot establish that the meme is trending now. A later explainer from Meme.com claims the recap had passed 20 million YouTube views by February 2026, but a single video’s view total does not show that the meme remains broadly popular across social platforms.
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