While some celebrities on Dancing with the Stars are clearly interested in dance, every season has contestants whose involvement seems to be based solely on an urge to make viral videos happen. Enter Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle, who joined the Season 23 cast as someone whose career has seen him dancing in front of audiences hundreds, of not thousands, of times. And as you might have expected, the show didn't stray beyond Vanilla Ice's own discography for his first dance, as he joined partner Whitney Carson for an "Ice Ice Baby" cha-cha. Check out part of that performance below.
I'll wait to continue until everyone has finished singing the rest of the song. I know, I know. It's impossible to avoid it, as terrible as it is.
Okay, so what did you guys think? Fun to watch? Sure, just as watching animals run into glass doors is fun. But there are a lot of forehead-to-hand connections to be had during this performance, and they all start with the word "Why." Like why is this really the song that was chosen? I can understand if they would have started it and then moved into a song that is more suited for the cha-cha or any set of moves that doesn't require an entire can of hairspray.
Also, why did this "cha-cha" have to immediately devolve into stereotypical Vanilla Ice choreography, assuming such a thing does exist? This could have been an expectation-thwarting attempt to bring legitimate dance moves to a song that wouldn't automatically inspire such a thing. It happens in spurts in the clip above, but what isn't seen is everything turning into a full-on 1991 arena show. You'll see that below.
Does that make me want to get up and start doing those exact same moves? YES, for the first time, yes! But that isn't the point of this show. The point is to get the highest score and move on to the next week. Vanilla Ice and Whitney Carson did no such thing, getting only a 25 out of 40 from the judges. Not that they got the worst score, either, as that went to former governor Rick Perry and Emma Slater, whose failure isn't even worth the watch. (Sure it is.)
Tonight's Dancing with the Stars premiere was also noteworthy for contestant and disgraced Olympian Ryan Lochte getting his judgment interrupted by protesters. But nobody protested Vanilla Ice. At least outside of their homes.
Dancing with the Stars airs Monday nights on ABC, and you might see Vanilla Ice rocking the house with "Play That Funky Music" next week. To see when the rest of your favorite shows will debut, check out our fall TV schedule.
