Did “Friends” Invent the Mannequin Challenge 13 Years Ago?

The 'Mannequin Challenge' might be older than you think.  And it might have gotten its start with one of my favorite shows --  "Friends"!

There's a deleted scene from Season 8 where Rachel is trying to get her baby Emma to crawl, but she won't.  Rachel decides that Emma might be too distracted by what everyone else is doing, so she has everyone freeze.

A moment later, Phoebe walks in ... sees everyone standing still.  So she grabs a bowl, freezes, and says, quote, "Who's painting us?"  That's it.

It isn't exactly the same thing, but hey, the Mannequin Challenge is just people standing still.  And that isn't exactly revolutionary human behavior.  The 'new' part is that we're suddenly FASCINATED by seeing people post videos of it online!

That's 2016, folks.