Paris 2024 will be remembered less for the first time breakdancing was included in the Olympic program than for one routine in particular—featuring kangaroo hops, Simpsonesque running gags, and a perfect score of zero.
Australian Rachael Gunn, better known as B-Girl Raygun, shot to internet stardom after her performance at the summer games last Friday went viral. Though her moves failed to dazzle the judges (or secure her any points at all), the university-lecturer-cum-dance-athlete has since been immortalized in countless online memes and, now, a sketch on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
In a clip of the skit, shared on X, formerly Twitter, Fallon opens by telling the audience that “breakdancing made its Olympics debut and everybody is talking about the competitor from Australia, Raygun,” before playing a sample of Gunn’s performance to peals of laughter from the audience.
“You have to wonder where Raygun is right now,” Fallon adds, just as soon joined on stage by comedian Rachel Dratch dressed in the same uniform as Gunn. In response to Fallon’s questions, Dratch then wordlessly delivers an uncanny rendition of Gunn’s routine, with Fallon quipping “oh I see, you speak through your dance moves” before joining in himself.
Gunn’s profile on LinkedIn lists her area of academic expertise as “cultural studies”, with a particular emphasis on “the cultural politics of breaking.” A former ballroom and jazz dancer, she’s reported to have taken up breakdancing in her 20s after her husband introduced her to the dance sport.
Speaking at a news conference over the weekend, Gunn said she knew she was coming into the competition as an underdog. “I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic power moves,” she said. “So I wanted to move differently. I wanted to do something artistic and creative. Because how many chances can you get in a lifetime to do that on the international stage?”
A bold strategy, and one that earned her infinitely more fans than she lost points, with Australians having dubbed her their ‘Napoleon Vegemite’—a portmanteau of the name of fellow dance icon Napoleon Dynamite and the nation’s favorite vegetable-based spread.
