Viral ‘Bloomberg Ad’ Mocking Awkward Buttigeig Dance Revealed As Parody

A viral campaign ad for Mike Bloomberg mocking Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigeig’s cringe-factory ‘dance’ phenomenon was revealed to be a hoax – but not before several prominent influencers took the bait.

On Thursday night, a pair of Los Angeles comedians uploaded a video purporting to be Bloomberg supporters performing an awkward dance routine to Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.”

Comedian Nick Ciarelli – who became internet famous for spoofing major brands with his buddy Brad Evans, changed his Twitter bio to “communications intern” for Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign, before posting the video with the caption “Mike Bloomberg rally in Beverly Hills.”

The video has over 5 million views less than 48 hours later.

Look out #TeamPete because us Bloomberg Heads have our own dance! Taken at the Mike Bloomberg rally in Beverly Hills. #Bloomberg2020 #MovesLikeBloomberg pic.twitter.com/UCNo0fRZcE

— Nick Ciarelli (@nickciarelli) December 13, 2019

For comparison, here’s Team Buttigeig’s completely serious dance routine, complete with “Boot Edge Edge” pronunciation guide poster in the background so that people will stop calling him “Booty Judge.”

Team @PeteButtigieg showing off their dance moves early this morning ahead of today’s #SteakFry in Iowa. pic.twitter.com/ZyCEehrz9A

— Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) September 21, 2019

The Bloomberg campaign took the parody in stride, tweeting “To clarify, @NickCiarelli is not an intern for our campaign. And he does not have moves like Bloomberg,” before offering him a job.

Nick, still in character, tweets back “Wait are you firing me?”

Wait are you firing me?

— Nick Ciarelli (@nickciarelli) December 13, 2019

Given the lengths Democratic candidates have gone to emulate Trump’s charisma and his social media team’s command of meme magic, it’s easy to see the genius behind Ciarelli and Evans’ Bloomberg hoax; it’s believable.

One can picture Bloomberg’s team resorting to such a stunt to compete with Buttigeig’s viral dance, or that Mayor killjoy would pay a bunch of idiots to film that. After all, the 77-year-old billionaire is trying desperately to appear ‘regular’ amid sagging polls.