Want to bond with your kids over YouTube?
Search for "police lip synch challenge," and get ready to have some fun. It's the latest viral-video challenge trend and, while I prefer to avoid these things, I just cannot resist these lip-synching cops.
My 10-year-old was initially reluctant to turn away from "squishy school supplies" (it's a thing) and "summer pranks gone bad," but her love of music and flair for the dramatic kicked in, and I think she was thoroughly impressed, too.
I loved how much fun the cops appeared to be having, and how much creativity they put into it. Their pride showed, as did their respect for neighboring departments, often in the form of direct challenges.
Besides a little family entertainment, you could make a geography lesson out of it. The challenge originally was circulating mostly in smaller departments, places you might need to look up. Apple Valley? (Minnesota.) Flower Mound? (Texas.) I stumbled upon a lot from those two states. I don't know if that's a pattern of just a fluke.
In addition, it could be fodder for a discussion about the work of police, the fact that they're "real people" just like you and me, with personalities and families and talents outside police work. There are impressive videos from both New York and Boston, for instance, in which the officers are not lip-synching but singing a cappella. Two Boston cops sang "God Bless America" on July 4, and two NYPD officers responded a few days later with their version of Katy Perry's "Firework." Wow to both.
From what I can tell, the team to beat is the Norfolk, Va., police and fire squads' version of "Uptown Funk." It was so well choreographed, with more personnel and new surprises around every turn.
And they put out the challenge to Seattle.
Update: Seattle PD has released its lip-synch to the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis hit "Downtown," and it's quite a production, featuring dancing in the streets, most of the major Seattle landmarks, celebrity cameos, sports-team mascots and (no longer interim) Police Chief Carmen Best. Check it out!
