What It Was: Da Butt was off a single courtesy of E.U. The main objective of said dance or "doing the butt" involved simply shaking your butt around (or according to the song putting your backfield in motion). Once you've successfully accomplished booty movement you have successfully done Da Butt.
Why It Never Caught On: To be fair people have been moving their butts around to music for hundred and thousands of years so when Da Butt came out it really wasn't that ground breaking. Also anyone can shake their ass around, so there was little to no challenge. However E.U. did pioneer ass-oriented songs leading to such classics as Rump Shaker, Shake Your Ass and Baby Got Back.
What It Was: At first listen Digital Undergrounds classic Humpty Dance appears to be simply be allusive bragging about sexual conquests, however by the middle of the song Humpty explains what the dance entails starting with "a limp to the side like my legs broken" and later notes that it should "...look like a fit or convulsion".
Why It Never Caught On: Mainly due to vagueness as Humpty later notes it could involve, "Humpin, funkin, jumpin, jig around, shake ya rump...", with no indication as to what order it should come in (I mean even the Macarena had rules to follow). Humpty even admits that, "No two people will do it the same", which ultimately means the Humpty Dance is like a snowflake and that any sort of dancing could essentially qualify as the Humpty Dance.
What It Is: On the Fresh Prince of Bel Air Will Smith introduced Dumb Dancing which incorporated any type of dance moves you could think of except there was only one rule: you had to have a serious face while you were doing it.
Why It Never Caught On: No doubt due to the name of the dance and also because it was overshadowed by the far superior The Carlton Dance.Superbowl Shuffle
What It Is: During the legendary 1985 season where the Chicago Bears would go on to dominate and win the Superbowl they came out with this rap video complete with their own dance move the Superbowl Shuffle, which involved simply shuffling back and forth to the rhythm of the music.
Why It Never Caught On: Out of all these dance moves this one did catch on like wild fire for a bit, but over time it was simply too easy. I mean it took no skill at all to do or learn. Everyone could shuffle in time: white people, old people, toddlers etc.
The Bartman
What It Is: With the introduction of The Simpsons came our brief infatuation with young hellraiser Bart Simpson which led to mass production out the yin-yang. From dolls to collectors cards to knock off Mexican Bart Simpson T-shirts from Tijuana (my father actually bought me one as a kid) it seemed like Bartmania couldn't be stopped. Hence of course having his own song/dance move that involved moving your body, "Front to back in a rock like motion" and "Moving your hips from side to side". It also instructed you to, "Shake your body turn it out if you can man".
Why It Never Caught On: Fads can be a harsh mistress. By the time The Bartman was introduced it quickly got replaced by the likes of Too Legit To Quit *(which wasn't even really a dance move, but more like a hand jive). Also after the first season The Simpsons started being less about commercialism and more about quality hilarious episodes, even making fun of The Bartman in later episodes. Finally The Bartman was pretty awful seeing as all the dance moves they suggested were generic.
*Let it be noted that the video for Too Legit To Quit is very WTF involving a fireball shooting James Brown among other things...
-Astroboy
