Gandhi spoke of three monkeys, each with a hand on its mouth, eye and ear, signifying, say no wrong, see no wrong and hear no wrong, respectively. Probably Gandhi did not know that human species would evolve to become the fourth monkey, doing the Dele Alli challenge, signifying that anything can become viral on the internet, however stupid and ridiculous.
Dele Alli is an English football player. The 22-year-old for the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur. Last week, he garnered some attention for doing a weird celebration sign, after scoring a goal against the Newcastle United. The sign that he flashed become more popular because it bordered on an optical illusion.
Initially, it confused his teammates, football fans, and pretty much everyone else on social media, including his manager Mauricio Pochettino. But soon the weird celebration sign was trending on Twitter, and then followers took it up heavily on Instagram.
And now, the world over, people are trying the Dele Alli challenge. It is basically an upside-down “ok” sign made with your index finger and thumb, with with the middle, ring and pinky fingers resting against your forehead. But some people have become so rhapsodized with it, that they are taking the internet by storm.
The move is intentionally tricky, and the hordes of people who have wracked their brains trying to master it, naturally documented their efforts on social media, giving birth to the #DeleAlliChallenge.
It became more popular when other celebrities gave it a go. Dele’s teammates, Georges-Kévin N’Koudou and Fernado Llorente have given it a go as well as X-Factor’s Olly Murs and Sam Bailey.
England teammate Jesse Lingard has even claimed Dele stole the weird hand gesture from him and has since shown celebrities how it’s done in an Instagram video.
This is not the first time that sportspersons have started a new trend. Nor is this the first time that people have taken up something weird for the sake of it. So, if you have some extra time with nothing to do, give it a go.
