The 'Dance' emote, also commonly known as 'SourPls', is a popular animated emote featuring a green stick figure performing a dancing motion. This emote is used to express excitement, celebration, or to participate in chat during musical segments of streams. The simplistic green stick figure design makes it highly recognizable in fast-moving Twitch chats.
Origin
The 'Dance' or 'SourPls' emote originated from a YouTube video posted on April 17, 2007, by a user named SourNotHardcore. The emote wasn't natively supported by Twitch initially but became popular through third-party extensions like Better Twitch TV (BTTV). One of the earliest online mentions of this emote dates back to January 28, 2014, when Twitter user @HiredHelp commented on how excessive use of the emote could make chat difficult to read. The emote was officially defined on Urban Dictionary on March 19, 2015, as 'An animated Twitch emote of somebody dancing, that only works with the Better Twitch TV plugin'.
When to use
This emote is typically used in the following contexts:
- During musical segments or when a streamer plays music - To celebrate exciting moments or victories in gameplay - When viewers want to create a sense of hype or energy in the chat - During stream transitions or breaks when viewers want to keep the chat active - As part of emote 'spam' waves where multiple viewers post the same emote in succession to create a visual effect in chat
