The 42-Year-Old Sequel Nobody's Heard Of Invented A Phrase We All Use Today

Published Sep 20, 2026, 10:23 AM EDT Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. A 42-year-old sequel I defy anyone to say they have seen is actually the source of a phrase that is all too common in online discourse. You never know what's going to inspire a meme, a popular phrase, or an internet joke. They can come from the most popular film of the year, or a completely unknown straight-to-video movie. Whether it be Jurassic Park leading to "clever girl" GIFs in the depths of a Reddit thread or Morbius leading to the ever-relevant, "It's [x]-ing time!", a stock joke can come from a production of any quality. Sometimes, it's even better when the phrase comes from somewhere unknown. Look at the phrase appendage, "[x] 2: Electric Boogaloo", a silly popular phrase you can attach to a film, person, or even concept whenever it appears that thing is repeating itself. You may have thought that was spun out of the ether, a goofy rhyme coupling stemming from the "2" of the joke, signifying a sequel, but it's actually from a real film. Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is a real movie that came out in 1984 as a sequel to the breakdancing-themed musical Breakin' that came out just a few months earlier. While Joel Silberg handled the first film, Sam Firstenberg was in the director's chair for the sequel. There was also a third film, Rappin', but that may be even less known than the second movie. In Breakin' 2, the three break-dancers from the original film have to put their heads and dance moves together in order to stop the demolition of a community center by an evil developer who wants a shopping mall. You could not think of a more '80s plot for a movie if you tried. The Breakin' Sequel Made A Huge Contribution To Movie Culture Credit: MovieStillsDb Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is almost an unknown film, save for the three quarters of the title that are etched into the cultural lexicon. The phrase "[x] 2: Electric Boogaloo is a snowclone, a phrasal template that uses a well-known phrase or saying and substitutes a new word to express a similar idea in a new context. Think of how the line "In space, no one can hear you scream," from Alien has become a snowclone, with people replacing the word "scream" with any number of things someone may do. 2: Electric Boogaloo is usually used as a way to denote an imagined or obvious sequel that is even more absurd than the first. This doesn't even have to be a movie, and the joke has had a long shelf-life as a darkly humorous way to denote a world event that seems to be happening again. You might refer to the current war between the U.S. and Iran as "Gulf War 2: Electric Boogaloo". Electric boogaloo is a phrase that is itself borrowed, and East Coasters may know it better as electric boogie. It's a specific kind of hip-hop dance style that became a signature of the 1970s dance group, the Electric Boogaloos (via HipHopCongress). Remember the song "Electric Boogie" by Marcia Griffith, with the repeated response line, "It's electric! Boogie-woogie-woogie"? That's the electric boogaloo we're talking about. Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo Wasn't A Complete Flop Credit: MovieStillsDB Beyond inspiring a phrase heard around the world, from an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ("Chardee MacDennis 2: Electric Boogaloo") to the comment section under any Reddit news article, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo was also a successful film, all things considered. Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo ended up earning $15.1 million at the box office, three times its budget (via BoxOfficeMojo). The film has a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, but Roger Ebert called the movie "modest", "cheerful", and "refreshing", giving it three out of four stars (via RogerEbert). Not bad for a film mostly known for its title. Release Date December 21, 1984 Runtime 94 minutes Director Sam Firstenberg Writers Julie Reichert, Charles Parker, Jan Ventura, Allen DeBevoise Producers Menahem Golan, Pieter Jan Brugge