Straight outta the Nawfside bando, the dab has spread across the world over the past couple of years, as it was performed by many superstar athletes, including Cam Newton, and even politicians, including presidential runner-up Hillary Clinton. One guy who somehow missed the viral dance trend (though it's so much more than that to its originators) is a leading Republican, the current Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
Ryan's first encounter with an attempted dab came yesterday when he was swearing in new Congressman Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas. Ryan was getting Marshall's family ready for a photo with him and a book, presumably the Constitution, when he noticed that one of Marshall's sons -- the boy holding the book -- was employing a peculiar pose. A clear, but nonetheless failed, attempt at a dab was underway, as the boy, whose name is Cal, had his left arm raised toward his face and had his nose leaning toward his elbow, as if he was about to sneeze.
"You alright?" Ryan first asked, before saying, "You wanna put your hand down?" and then pushing the boy's arm down himself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Cal giggled in response.
"Were you gonna sneeze, is that it?" Ryan then asked, to which Cal responded affirmatively. "He's sneezin'," confirmed Rep Marshall.
"Don't worry about it," Ryan told the dabbing prankster after the photos were taken.
The Speaker must have been told later that he was the target of an attempted dab attack. "Still don't get what dabbing is," he wrote in a tweet about a successful day of swearing in new members and meeting their families.
As for Marshall, he was not pleased with his son's effort to pull a fast one on his new superior. In response to an article about his son's dab, he confirmed to Speaker Ryan that Cal has been grounded. Ah, the price of viral success.
During his confinement, Cal would do well to learn that the dab is not, in fact, a sneeze, as the Migos famously reiterated on "Plan B."
