The first is a commercial for T-Mobile that aired on UK television. The second is a publicity stunt / viral video that was made to promote a Belgian reality TV show centered around a production of The Sound of Music.

The T-Mobile video came first; it was released in January. Of course there have been many flash mobs and Improv Everywhere-style events staged in London’s Liverpool Street Station, long before T-Mobile. The Belgian video was released in March, hot on the heels of T-Mobile’s success. The videos are pretty similar to each other, but what I found really hilarious was how brazenly the Belgian team ripped off the T-Mobile behind-the-scenes video. Check them out side-by-side:

Both videos are very well made and are no doubt entertaining. Of course it helps that they both had a big corporate budget and permits to use the train stations. Like I said, we weren’t going to post them since they are huge commercial ventures and not the work of the independent pranksters and artists we love to feature, but after getting 100 tips about them emailed to us, why the hell not.

Jericho Comedy, UC Berkeley’s improv prank squad, asked the timeless question, “How did they dance?” in classrooms across their campus.

Banditos Misteriosos sent word that they’re organizing a “Monster Mashup” dance tomorrow in Boston. It looks like a costumed Mp3 Experiment of sorts. They’ll be posting the mp3 and revealing the exact location of the event sometime today on their site. Check it out if you’re in Beantown.

If years of Halloween-themed TV specials and music videos have taught us anything, it’s that come late October, monsters and ghouls love to get together and dance. Thus, it is with pride, that Banditos Misteriosos announces our very own Monster Mash-up!

Consider this a Halloween Dance Party but with all your fellow dancers dressed as ghosts! But, to give this dance another dimension, we will be your choreographers.

We’ve gotten word of a huge project that is attempting to throw a series of parties and dance mobs to celebrate the upcoming 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Check out their site if you want to get involved or help them organize.

This video is a couple of years old, but it was recently brought to our attention recently by one of the participants, Jad Taylor. He writes:

I just graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina and two Decembers ago we organized a synchronized dance on the library bridge (focal point of campus) in order to cheer people up during the pre-Exam week suckiness. We had so much fun we did it again this year.

This video is incredible. One guy dances a silly dance with people all over the world.

via Laughing Squid:

In 2006 video game developer Matt Harding took a 6 month trip traveling to 39 countries and made a video of himself dancing at various locations along the way. In 2008 Matt went on a follow-up trip, dancing his way through 42 countries in 14 months, this time inviting people to dance with him. Both of Matt’s trips around the world were sponsored by Stride Gum.

Scene Diego put a giant button in a park labeled “Do Not Push.” The planted agents began to dance whenever the button was pushed.

They write:

Agent Gallakanokuss dropped the box, and plugged it in to our planted audio cable. Agent Poohead was hiding on the other side of the bushes, controlling the audio with an iPod. As soon as a few unsuspecting people walked by and couldn’t resist the “button” they pressed it only to find out they were the “life of the party” or a “freakin’ rockstar” as the button called them. Our Agents promptly jumped up and danced all around them. As soon as the song was over, they sat back down like nothing had happened.