What Is the Smalltown Boy Dance Trend? The Wailing Cats, Explained

TL;DR — The Smalltown Boy dance trend is an October 2026 AI video meme. Two characters at a red fence take turns wailing up close to the camera to Bronski Beat's 1984 song "Smalltown Boy", and they trade places on a hard cut at 7 seconds. It started with a 21-second video of two cats posted on TikTok on October 2, 2026, and it had 11.1 million views by October 27. Remakes followed with dogs, couples and cartoon characters, and you can make your own on Seadanse's Smalltown Boy AI.

You open TikTok and two cats are standing on their hind legs at a dark-red fence. The top comments under the original video show people playing along that the animals are real.

One viewer wrote "Es real gente, era mi gato con el amigo." (Spanish for "It's real, people, it was my cat with his friend."). Another joked, "Not ai, my cats do this at 3 am every night on the dot." Meanwhile, a comment asking "es real o IA?" (Spanish for "is it real or AI?") collected 366 likes.

Bronski Beat's 1984 song "Smalltown Boy" came out over 40 years ago, so why's the track suddenly taking over your feed?

We've looked at the numbers, watched the clips frame by frame, and tracked how the format spread. Here's where the Smalltown Boy dance trend came from, what happens in it second by second, and how you can join it.

What Is the Smalltown Boy Dance Trend?

The Smalltown Boy dance trend is an AI video format where two dancers take turns wailing into a phone camera at a red fence while the other dances behind. It's set to the 1984 recording of "Smalltown Boy".

The visual style is easy to spot once you've seen it once. Here's what every version has:

• The set: a tall fence of dark-red vertical wooden planks with a band of ivy, over grey asphalt, in soft daylight.
• The wail: one dancer is right up against a phone camera with a wide lens, from the waist up. Both hands are pressed to the head, eyes shut, mouth wide open as if wailing along with the falsetto, then both palms push at the lens.
• The trade: on a hard cut at about 7 seconds the two swap places: the one who was dancing small at the back is now the one wailing up close.
• The song: the 1984 recording of "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat.

The whole routine is built on the track's opening synth hook and its high falsetto wails, which kick in about 30 seconds into the track.

You don't need any editing skills to hop into the trend yourself. Add a photo to our Smalltown Boy AI generator and you're the one wailing up close.

Who Started the Smalltown Boy Dance Trend?

The Smalltown Boy dance trend started with a 21-second AI video posted on TikTok by @bellvtrix.ai on October 2, 2026.

The clip showed two cats standing upright on grey asphalt: a ginger-and-white longhair right against the lens and a grey shorthair dancing behind it.

The video took off across the platform. We've checked the numbers on October 27, 2026, and here's what they show:

• Views: 11.1 million views shows how fast the clip jumped out of niche feeds and reached the mainstream.
• Likes: 1.2 million likes means roughly one out of every nine people who watched the clip tapped the screen.
• Comments: 17,100 comments kept the post circulating as viewers debated whether the animals were real.
• Shares: 757,400 shares means people weren't just watching, they were sending it on to their friends.

The account @bellvtrix.ai regularly shares motion transfer videos (an AI copies a real person's dance onto new characters). That original post went live with no caption at all.

The trend's TikTok sound was created three minutes after the video went live. It's the 1984 recording itself, starting right around the 30-second mark.

What Happens in the Smalltown Boy Dance, Second by Second

The original Smalltown Boy dance runs 21 seconds in four parts.

You'll see the clip moves at a quick pace that keeps you watching until the final second. Here's how the dance plays out:

• Wail one (0 to 7 seconds): the ginger cat wails up close with its paws on its head. Then it pushes its paws at the lens, while the grey cat dances behind.
• Wail two (7 to 14 seconds): after the cut, the grey cat is up close clutching the top of its head and wailing, and the ginger cat dances behind.
• Side by side (14 to 20 seconds): both cats dance the same 80s routine next to each other, with a low camera looking up at them.
• The lunge (20 to 21 seconds): both lunge at the camera.

The trade at 7 seconds is the joke, because the one dancing small at the back suddenly fills the screen. You're watching the background dancer groove quietly, and then a hard cut throws that character directly into your face.

CapCut's templates and most remakes keep the first two parts, the two close-ups and the trade, which is the stretch people know. That 14-second core captures the funniest part of the routine, so it doesn't drag out the clip.

Is the Smalltown Boy Cat Dance Real or AI?

The Smalltown Boy cat dance is AI, not a real video of cats: the whole picture, fur and paws included, is generated.

You can tell by looking at the surroundings. Every remake features a different fence and yard, because each video's generated completely from scratch.

On October 2, 2026, an AI account on X wrote about the cats: "That's a dancer under there." It meant a real person's dance gave the cats their moves.

The top comments under the TikTok upload love to play along with the gag. One viewer wrote "Es real gente, era mi gato con el amigo." (Spanish for "It's real, people, it was my cat with his friend."), pulling in 26,976 likes.

Another viewer commented, "Not ai, my cats do this at 3 am every night on the dot.", which gained 16,874 likes.

Other viewers weren't quite sure what they were looking at. The comment "es real o IA?" (Spanish for "is it real or AI?") drew 366 likes and 119 replies from curious viewers.

We ran our own search on October 27, 2026, to see who the human dancer is. The first video's poster has never named the dancer whose moves the AI copied.

Why Bronski Beat's 1984 Song Came Back for the Smalltown Boy Dance Trend

The song "Smalltown Boy" is Bronski Beat's 1984 single, sung in falsetto by Jimmy Somerville.

The synth-pop track had already reappeared in people's feeds before the cats ever showed up.

In September 2026, a dance scene set to the song "Smalltown Boy" in Netflix's Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story spread as clips across social feeds.

A popular upload of the dance scene on YouTube went up on September 20, 2026. Viewers picked up on the routine. On September 22, 2026, a Reddit user posted "Everybody dances like Aileen Wournos at the end of the Lizzie Borden Monster series."

That scene's dance is different from the cat routine. The Netflix sequence takes place in a dark room with wide shots, featuring no close-ups and no trade of places. That scene brought back the song, while the cats brought the dance.

How the Smalltown Boy Dance Trend Spread to Dogs, Couples and Characters

The Smalltown Boy dance trend spread from the two cats to almost any pair you can picture within two weeks.

Creators didn't stop at felines. On October 10, 2026, a user discussed the spread on Reddit, noting: "There's a meme going around of people dancing to Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat which then became hundreds of cat versions. Now it's been inundated with film and tv characters, historical figures, etc."

Here's how it spread:

• Pigeons and pets: creators posted a pigeon version on October 3, followed by a white cat and a wolf-like dog dancing the full 21 seconds for 125,000 views.
• CapCut templates: users started publishing custom templates on October 3, where "Ai" by Future301 gathered 80,653 uses and "SmallTown Boy" by FEadie logged 59,864 uses.
• Characters: creators shared made-up pairs like a Spider-Man and Mary Jane version with 1.6 million views, alongside two Tudor queens, pirates, Freddy and Jason, and Naruto and Sasuke.
• Couples and friends: people put pictures of themselves and their partners into the template to see who gets the opening wail.
• Search interest: Google Trends data worldwide showed trend queries sat at zero until October 13, 2026, before rising sharply with "smalltown boy ai" leading the pack.

You have to watch out for certain templates on CapCut, though. The most popular option on the app, "Silly Cat Meme" with 132,136 uses, doesn't animate you at all. It pastes the original cats over your photo, as we explain in our breakdown of the Smalltown Boy CapCut template that only pastes cats.

How to Join the Smalltown Boy Dance Trend With Your Own Photo

You can join the Smalltown Boy dance trend by adding one photo, or two, to Seadanse's Smalltown Boy AI page and pressing Create.

Our page makes the whole video right in your browser. Here's what you get:

• The wail: your first photo wails up close for the first 7 seconds while the second dances behind.
• The trade: on the cut at 7 seconds they swap, and your second photo takes the close-up.
• The partner: with one photo, the page makes a matching partner. That's another animal of the same kind for a pet, a character in the same drawing style for a character, or an adult friend for a person.
• The file: 480p, 720p or 1080p, no watermark on exported video, made in your browser.

People, pets, cartoon and game characters all work on the page. If you use a pet, your animal stays a real animal of its own breed, standing on its hind legs and dancing.

You'll find that faces, hair and outfits all come directly from the photos you submit.

The export delivers a vertical 9:16 MP4 of about 14 seconds at a red wooden fence with the 1984 recording of "Smalltown Boy" under it from the first second.

One 720p video costs $9.90, paid once, with no sign-up.

You can walk through each step in our guide on how to make a Smalltown Boy AI video.

If you'd like to see how different apps handle the format, take a look at our review of every Smalltown Boy AI generator compared.

Smalltown Boy Dance Trend FAQ

What is the Smalltown Boy dance trend called on TikTok?

People call the Smalltown Boy dance trend by three main names on TikTok: the Smalltown Boy dance trend, the Smalltown Boy cat dance, or the Smalltown Boy dance filter. You'll see creators and commenters using all three terms across video captions and search bars.

Why is the Smalltown Boy dance so popular?

The Smalltown Boy dance trend blew up because of the wail, the trade at 7 seconds, the cats, and a song that was already back in feeds. Viewers loved the contrast between the calm background dancer and the sudden close-up swap, driving the first video to 11.1 million views.

Is the Smalltown Boy cat video real?

The Smalltown Boy cat video isn't real, because the whole picture is generated by AI. The motion comes from a human dancer whose performance was mapped onto AI-made cats standing on asphalt in front of a red fence.

What song is in the Smalltown Boy dance trend?

The track in the Smalltown Boy dance trend is the original 1984 recording of "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat. It starts about 30 seconds into the song, with the synth hook and the falsetto wails. The question "song title?" was asked at least six times under the trend videos we read.

Who made the original Smalltown Boy cat dance?

The TikTok account @bellvtrix.ai made the original Smalltown Boy cat dance, uploading the 21-second video on October 2, 2026. The account posted the clip without a caption, so it's just the dancing cats on screen.

Can I make a Smalltown Boy AI video with my own cat or dog?

You can make a Smalltown Boy AI video of your own pet using our Smalltown Boy AI video maker. When you upload a picture, your pet stays a real animal of its breed standing on its hind legs, and uploading one photo generates a matching partner automatically.

Make Your Own Smalltown Boy Dance Video

The Smalltown Boy dance trend started with two cats at a red wooden fence in October 2026, but you don't have to stay on the sidelines. You can turn your own pets, friends or favorite characters into dancers who wail and trade places on the beat.

Take a moment to make a Smalltown Boy AI video on Seadanse for $9.90 at 720p.

Written by The Seadanse Team, the team that built the Smalltown Boy AI page.

Related Articles

• How to Make a Smalltown Boy AI Video From 1 or 2 Photos (4 Steps) — the four steps, who wails first, and the photos that work best.
• Smalltown Boy CapCut Template: Which One Is Real and Why It Fails — the six templates, the green-screen one, and the fixes.
• Best Smalltown Boy AI Generators (2026): 10 Ways Compared — the sites and apps that make this video, side by side on photos, length, sound and price.
• Smalltown Boy AI Prompt (Copy-Ready): Both Close-Ups and the Trade — a full prompt for the two shots, to use in a video tool yourself.