Mannequin Challenge Arrives in Touro

In the mannequin challenge people stop whatever activity they’re engaged in— in effect, acting like mannequins—while the song “Black Beatles” play in the background. Since the craze started in October, mannequin challenges have been produced by the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dallas Cowboys and school across the country. TouroCOM Middletown and TouroCOM Harlem offered their own versions last week. The TouroCOM Middletown video was directed by OMS II Devin Howell, with the help of the Student American Academy of Osteopathy club and the Creative Arts in Medicine Club.

“With all the hype of sports teams doing the mannequin challenge, we hoped to put a medical school twist on it,” explained Howell by email. “The video was aimed to have higher participation than most of the videos we had seen, while also showcasing our OMM lab. We had numerous teaching faculty and staff participate, which shows the close partnership that they share with the students. Some students posed doing actual osteopathic treatments, while others took a more humorous approach.”

TouroCOM Harlem’s video was directed by Ali Khan, TouroCOM’s Director of Educational Media and was shot by Taylor Alexander, TouroCOM’s Videographer.​ Sasha Cole (Master's Class of 2017) and OMS I student Douglas Burns came up with the idea for the challenge. The video was edited by OMS II Winnie Chu, and included the DO Class of 2019 and 2020 and the Master’s Class of 2017, as well as faculty. 

OMS I student Akshat Patel, who helped make the TouroCOM Harlem video, explained: “We wanted to be goofy medical students in the video,” he said. “Making the video was a little break after a long day.”