「黑人抬棺」是什么梗？
最近，号称是2020年最受欢迎的“男子团体”火爆网络。
据维基百科，这个黑人抬棺专业团队（Dancing Pallbearers）是一支来自非洲加纳共和国（Ghana）阿散蒂地区的护柩者团队。2020年4月，其抬棺舞（Dancing Coffin）在全球网络爆红。
无注释原文：
The sudden rise of the coronavirus grim reaper: Ghana’s dancing pallbearers
Washington Post
You may have seen them on the Internet: six men in black suits, sunglasses and patent leather shoes grooving to a techno beat while carrying a coffin.
They are Ghana’s dancing pallbearers, a crew of funeral performers who have long sought to make mourners grin through grief. But as the coronavirus pandemic rages, they’ve become the accidental faces of a stay-at-home movement — comedic grim reapers edited into footage of risky behavior as a warning.
Reopening a mall when cases are mounting? Cue the dancing pallbearers. Protesting a lockdown in a covid-19 hot spot? Cue the dancing pallbearers. Forget to wash your hands before eating? Cue the dancing pallbearers.
People in China, Brazil and the United States have shared video after video since the outbreak began, garnering millions of clicks and an international fan base for the pallbearers.
Benjamin Aidoo, who leads the group, isn’t sure how it happened. He woke up one March morning and saw his signature moves everywhere.
“It’s a bit scary, but it’s funny, too,” said Aidoo, 32, who lives in Accra, the capital of Ghana. “People are saying, ‘I’d rather stay home than have these guys bury me.’ ”
Colombian police mimicked his footwork this month as they shouldered a coffin through the city of Quibdó, urging residents through loudspeakers to remain indoors. Pictures of Aidoo’s guys have emerged with warnings in French and Portuguese: “Stay at home or dance with us.”
One fan drew the pallbearers as comic-book superheroes. Another re-created them as eggs balancing a Twinkie. Another styled them as Legos. A Hong Kong shop molded them into plastic figurines.
At a time when mortality is on everyone’s minds, morbid humor seems to be a popular coping mechanism.
English-speaking Twitter users have mentioned “dancing pallbearers” at least 60,000 times this month, said Yasuko Quinn, a spokeswoman for the platform. (That’s more than “in the previous history of Twitter” altogether, she added.)
A Washington Post search for their online admirers turned up a few theories as to why.
Richmond Lee, a video game artist in Chiang Mai, Thailand, described them as “THE meme of 2020” to his 13,200 followers.
“I’ve seen it used in Thai, Chinese and Japanese memes,” said Lee, 36. “These are cultures where it’s much more taboo to talk about death directly. The pallbearers lighten the mood.”
They regularly crack up Kevin Mboya, a 25-year-old social media manager in Nairobi, who posted a reggae version.
Life is tense, he said. The pallbearers offer a fun twist on doom. “But most importantly,” he said, “they remind me and my friends to stay at home and stop the spread.”
Shandhi Sayogo, a 24-year-old graphic artist in Bandung, Indonesia, said the meme brought some joy to his quarantine, so he turned Aidoo’s team into a pixelated animation.
They gave him, he said, “positive thoughts and energy.”
- ◆ -
含注释全文：
The sudden rise of the coronavirus grim reaper: Ghana’s dancing pallbearers
Washington Post
You may have seen them on the Internet: six men in black suits, sunglasses and patent leather shoes grooving to a techno beat while carrying a coffin.
Grim Reaper
表示“狰狞的收割者，指骷髅状死神（身披斗篷，手持长柄大镰刀）”，英文解释为“an imaginary figure who represents death. It looks like a skeleton , wears a long cloak and carries a scythe.”
据百度百科，这是西方的一个典故，Grim reaper就是死神的代称，形象穿黑斗篷的骷髅，手持镰刀。
pallbearer
pallbearer /ˈpɔːlˌbɛərə/ 表示“抬棺者；扶灵者”，英文解释为“At a funeral, a pallbearer is a person who helps to carry the coffin or who walks beside it.”
patent leather
表示“漆革；漆皮”，英文解释为“Patent leather is leather that has a shiny surface. It is used to make shoes, bags, and belts.”举个🌰：
He wore patent leather shoes.
他穿着漆革鞋。
groove
groove /ɡruːv/ 1）作动词，表示“感动愉快；十分享受”，英文解释为“to enjoy oneself intensely. To take great pleasure or satisfaction;”
2）作动词，表示“跟着流行乐（或爵士乐）跳舞”，英文解释为“dance or listen to popular or jazz music, especially that with an insistent rhythm”。
3）和音乐有关的，本身也可以作名词，表示“（某种）音乐节奏”（a particular type of musical rhythm），如：a jazz groove 爵士乐节奏。
补充：
be (stuck) in a groove短语表示「墨守成规；照惯例行事；感到单调乏味」，英文解释为：to be unable to change sth that you have been doing the same way for a long time and that has become boring. 举个🌰：
We never do anything exciting any more - we seem to be stuck in a groove.
我们做的事情再也让人感觉不到有意思了——我们似乎太墨守成规了。
techno
techno /ˈtɛknəʊ/ 表示“高科技舞曲；泰克诺音乐（一种利用电子技术演奏的节奏鲜明的舞曲）”，英文解释为“a style of modern popular music with a regular rhythm for dancing, that makes use of technology to produce the sound.”
coffin
coffin /ˈkɒfɪn/表示“棺材；棺椁；棺木”，英文解释为“a box in which a dead body is buried or cremated”。
They are Ghana’s dancing pallbearers, a crew of funeral performers who have long sought to make mourners grin through grief. But as the coronavirus pandemic rages, they’ve become the accidental faces of a stay-at-home movement — comedic grim reapers edited into footage of risky behavior as a warning.
mourner
表示“送葬者；哀悼者”，英文解释为“A mourner is a person who attends a funeral, especially as a relative or friend of the dead person.”举个🌰：
Weeks after his death, mourners still gather outside the house.
他死后几个星期，哀悼者仍然聚集在屋外。
rage
表示“肆虐；迅速蔓延；快速扩散”，英文解释为“You say that something powerful or unpleasant rages when it continues with great force or violence.”举个🌰：
Train service was halted as the fire raged for more than four hours.
火车停运了，因为大火肆虐了四个多小时。
Reopening a mall when cases are mounting? Cue the dancing pallbearers. Protesting a lockdown in a covid-19 hot spot? Cue the dancing pallbearers. Forget to wash your hands before eating? Cue the dancing pallbearers.
People in China, Brazil and the United States have shared video after video since the outbreak began, garnering millions of clicks and an international fan base for the pallbearers.
garner
garner /ˈɡɑːnə/ 表示“获得；收集”，英文解释为“If someone has garnered something useful or valuable, they have gained it or collected it.”举个🌰：
He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.
他为他的提议赢得了广泛的支持。
Benjamin Aidoo, who leads the group, isn’t sure how it happened. He woke up one March morning and saw his signature moves everywhere.
“It’s a bit scary, but it’s funny, too,” said Aidoo, 32, who lives in Accra, the capital of Ghana. “People are saying, ‘I’d rather stay home than have these guys bury me.’ ”
Colombian police mimicked his footwork this month as they shouldered a coffin through the city of Quibdó, urging residents through loudspeakers to remain indoors. Pictures of Aidoo’s guys have emerged with warnings in French and Portuguese: “Stay at home or dance with us.”
mimic
1）表示“模仿（人的言行举止）；（尤指）做滑稽模仿”，英文解释为“to copy the way sb speaks, moves, behaves, etc., especially in order to make other people laugh”举个🌰：
She's always mimicking the teachers.
她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
2）表示“（外表或行为举止）像，似”，英文解释为“to look or behave like sth else”举个🌰：
The robot was programmed to mimic a series of human movements.
机器人可按程序设计模仿人的各种动作。
loudspeaker
表示“扬声器；扩音器；喇叭”，英文解释为“a piece of equipment that changes electrical signals into sound, used in public places for announcing things, playing music, etc.”举个🌰：
Their names were called over the loudspeaker.
喇叭里叫着他们的名字。
One fan drew the pallbearers as comic-book superheroes. Another re-created them as eggs balancing a Twinkie. Another styled them as Legos. A Hong Kong shop molded them into plastic figurines.
Twinkie
表示“特温奇（软夹心）小蛋糕”，英文解释为“a small, sweet yellow cake with a soft mixture like cream in the middle.”
Lego
表示“乐高；塑料拼装玩具品牌”，英文解释为“a construction toy consisting of plastic bricks and other standardized components that fit together with studs.”
figurine
figurine /ˌfɪɡəˈriːn/ 表示“（人、动物的）小雕像，小塑像”，英文解释为“a small statue of a person or an animal used as a decorative object.”
At a time when mortality is on everyone’s minds, morbid humor seems to be a popular coping mechanism.
morbid
morbid /ˈmɔːbɪd/ 表示“病态的”，英文解释为“If you describe a person or their interest in something as morbid, you mean that they are very interested in unpleasant things, especially death, and you think this is strange.”举个🌰：
Some people have a morbid fascination with crime.
有些人对犯罪有种病态的迷恋。
English-speaking Twitter users have mentioned “dancing pallbearers” at least 60,000 times this month, said Yasuko Quinn, a spokeswoman for the platform. (That’s more than “in the previous history of Twitter” altogether, she added.)
A Washington Post search for their online admirers turned up a few theories as to why.
turn up
表示“找到；发现”，英文解释为“If you turn something up or if it turns up, you find, discover, or notice it.”举个🌰：
Investigations have never turned up any evidence.
调查从未发现过任何证据。
Richmond Lee, a video game artist in Chiang Mai, Thailand, described them as “THE meme of 2020” to his 13,200 followers.
meme
meme (/ˈmiːm/ )是指在同一个文化氛围中，人与人之间传播的思想、行为或者风格，音译为媒母、米姆、谜米、弥母，又名模因、拟子等。
其实「meme」指的就是在网上迅速传播，流行起来的一些概念（或图像、视频等）等东西，可以直接解释成我们常说「梗」或者说「段子」，词典中定义为：a type of behaviour that is passed from one member of a group to another, not in the genesbut by another means such as people copying it；举个🌰：
Take a look at the top ten internet memes for this past year.
看一下去年互联网上的十大梗。
“I’ve seen it used in Thai, Chinese and Japanese memes,” said Lee, 36. “These are cultures where it’s much more taboo to talk about death directly. The pallbearers lighten the mood.”
taboo
taboo /təˈbuː/ 表示“禁忌”，英文解释为“A taboo against a subject or activity is a social custom to avoid doing that activity or talking about that subject, because people find them embarrassing or offensive”举个🌰：
The topic of addiction remains something of a taboo in our family.
毒瘾在我们家依然是个有些忌讳的话题。
lighten
表示“（使）感到不那么悲伤（或担忧、严肃）；缓和”，英文解释为“to feel or make sb feel less sad, worried or serious”举个🌰：
She told a joke to lighten the atmosphere.
她讲了个笑话以缓和气氛。
They regularly crack up Kevin Mboya, a 25-year-old social media manager in Nairobi, who posted a reggae version.
crack up
1）表示“哈哈大笑；使…哈哈大笑”，英文解释为“If you crack up or if someone or something cracks you up, you laugh a lot.”举个🌰：
She told stories that cracked me up.
她讲了些让我哈哈大笑的故事。
2）表示“得精神病”，英文解释为“If someone cracks up, they are under such a lot of emotional strain that they become mentally ill.”举个🌰：
She would have cracked up if she hadn't allowed herself some fun.
要不是她允许自己享受一些乐趣，她早就得精神病了。
reggae
reggae /ˈrɛɡeɪ/ 表示“雷鬼音乐（西印度群岛的一种节奏强劲的流行音乐）”，英文解释为“Reggae is a kind of West Indian popular music with a very strong beat.”举个🌰：
Many people will remember Bob Marley for giving them their first taste of reggae music.
许多人将会记住鲍勃·马利，因为正是他让他们第一次体验雷鬼音乐。
Life is tense, he said. The pallbearers offer a fun twist on doom. “But most importantly,” he said, “they remind me and my friends to stay at home and stop the spread.”
twist
1）表示“（故事或情况的）转折，转变，突然变化”，英文解释为“an unexpected change or development in a story or situation”举个🌰：
The story has taken another twist.
故事情节再一次变化。
2）表示“扭摆舞（盛行于20世纪60年代）”，英文解释为“a fast dance that was popular in the 1960s, in which you twist from side to side.”
doom
表示“死亡；毁灭；厄运；劫数”，英文解释为“death or destruction; any terrible event that you cannot avoid”举个🌰：
She had a sense of impending doom (= felt that sth very bad was going to happen).
她预感到厄运已经逼近。
Shandhi Sayogo, a 24-year-old graphic artist in Bandung, Indonesia, said the meme brought some joy to his quarantine, so he turned Aidoo’s team into a pixelated animation. They gave him, he said, “positive thoughts and energy.”
pixelated
表示“（图像）由像素构成的”，英文解释为“A pixelated image is made up of pixels.”
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LearnAndRecord
2015年2月8日
2020年4月27日
第1906天
每天持续行动学外语