Daler Mehndi Tunaks his way into World of Warcraft

Yes, you read that correctly.

For those of you who have jobs and actual social lives and consequently do not spend an inordinate amount of time playing or reading about video games, World of Warcraft (WoW) is an online video game with around 9 million subscribers. The storyline for the game is somewhat similar to Lord of the Rings (a true WoW fan would butcher me for saying that), wherein you have a number of different races (namely the Elves, Humans, Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Blood Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves and Dranei) inhabiting an imaginary planet.

The premise for the game is that each player gets to select and create a character or 'avatar' from one of the races. The player then traverses the imaginary world completing missions, accumulating gold and experience, and interacting with the other 9.3 million players. The avatars can fight, cast spells, learn skills within the game, and most importantly do a dance when instructed. The dance each avatar does is particular to his/her race.

I cannot overstate how huge this game is. With its 9.3 million subscribers, in 2007 the World of Warcraft generated estimated revenues of $1.1 billion, with operating margins of over 40% and approximately $520 million of operating profit.

Your probably wondering what the hell Daler Mehndi has to do with any of this. The answer is simply that somewhere during the course of recent history and unbeknown to me, due to his goofy bhangra moves in 'Tunak Tunak' Daler Mehdndi has aqquired some ridiculous cult status in the US (kind of like 'Rage Boy'). As a tribute to Mr. Mehndi, the producers of the World of Warcraft decided to endow one of their newly introduced 'Jin' like race (known as the Draenei) with his dancing abilities. Beyond that, I cannot explain. Please see the video below.

And there you have it. Daler Mehndi joins the ranks of John Travolta, (the hotness that is) Alizee, Napoleon Dynamite, MC Hammer, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and the racist tap dancing frog from Bugs Bunny cartoons. And just so no one is in doubt as to the extent of Mr Mehndi's status, below is a video of a bunch of very white people doing the 'Tunak'.

Arif Lohar, we had high hopes for you. Daler Mehndi has farted in your face once again.