1) In 2003, Matt quit his job in Australia and backpacked around Asia, creating a website to share his travels with friends and family. 2) While in Hanoi, a friend filmed Matt dancing as a joke. Years later, the video spread online and went viral, leading to Matt becoming known as "that guy who dances on the internet." 3) The success of the first video led Stride gum to sponsor Matt to take a new trip around the world filming more dance videos, which increased his online fame.

1. By Laura Eaton and Amy Trickett

2. How the hell did it all start? In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made a site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is. A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is known as "That guy who dances on the internet.” The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

3. In 2006, Matt took a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In that time, he danced a great deal. The second video made Matt even more quasi-famous. In fact, for a brief period in July, he was semi-famous.

4. Things settled down again, and then in 2007 Matt went back to Stride with another idea. He realized his bad dancing wasn't actually all that interesting, and that other people were much better at being bad at it. He showed Stride his inbox, which was overflowing with emails from his fans all over the planet. He told them he wanted to travel around the world one more time and invite the people who'd written to him to come out and dance too. The Stride people thought that sounded like yet another very good idea, so they let him do it. And he did. And now it's done. And he hopes you like it.

5. What the hell happened after the video? The video was passed around by e-mail and eventually became viral, with his server getting 20,000 or more hits a day as it was discovered, generally country by country due to language barriers, before the launch of major video upload sites Matt has since received widespread coverage of his travel exploits in major print and broadcast media outlets. Matt's video clips have appeared on television shows including: The Screen Savers MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann Inside Edition The Ellen DeGeneres Show Rude Tube 40 Greatest Internet Celebritieson VH1 Jimmy Kimmel Live Enough Rope The Daily Show

6. Harding created a second version of the video in 2006, with additional dancing scenes from subsequent travels, called "Dancing 2008". At the request of Stride, a gum brand, he accepted sponsorship of this video, since he usually travels on a limited budget. On the stride website there is a internet page dedicated to Matt and his work and the support that Stride has given him.

7. Stride.com

8. On 11 December 2008, Matt Harding sarcastically revealed at the Entertainment Gathering that the videos were a hoax and that he is an actor, not a game designer, and the videos were made using animatronic puppets and extensive video editing.

9. A month later, during the MacWorld convention, Matt revealed the "hoax about the hoax" and joked about the fact many people took it seriously and the outrage it caused. He also made it very clear that the videos he made were indeed 100% real.

10. Where the Hell is Matt’s Girlfriend? Since Matt’s internet-fame, several others created their own versions of the viral video. This being a key role in a meme. Here is an example recreation found on youtube