Alfonso Ribeiro Hates Being Asked To Do The Carlton Dance: 'I'm A Black Guy, I'm Just Not Dancing For You'

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Alfonso Ribeiro said that he hates when fans ask him to do his famous Carlton dance, according to Complex. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actor shared that people ask him to do the move every day and that he’s officially over it.

After welcoming Ribeiro to the show, host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned what a great name the 50-year-old actor has. The America’s Funniest Videos host agreed and told Kimmel that he likes it much better than the name Carlton. Kimmel quickly told the actor not to worry and that he wasn’t going to ask him to do the Carlton dance, joking that Ribeiro must want to “kill” people who ask him to do so.

“You know, I won’t say kill, but I don’t have a love for it like they do, you know?” Ribeiro said, according to the clip shared on YouTube. “I typically get asked to do the dance pretty much every day of my life if I go outside. If I go anywhere, it’s like, you know, I just randomly hear people, ‘Do the dance!’ And you’re like, ‘I’m…I’m not dancing for you, I’m a Black guy, I’m just not dancing for you. It’s not gonna happen.”

The late night host noted what a “strange inclination” people must have to walk up to Ribeiro and demand he do the Carlton dance to Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual.”

“The weird part for me is trying to understand what’s happening in their head,” he said. “Like, what makes you think that you just gon’ ask a random person to dance for you, and they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been waiting for you to ask! Hold on a second, lemme get into character?’ Like, it’s not…I don’t get it, it’s not gonna happen.”

While Ribeiro is understandably frustrated with performing his memorable moves on command, the actor won Dancing With The Star’s coveted Mirror Ball trophy in 2014, Okay Player reports. According to the Page Six, Ribeiro even tried to copyright the dance in 2019, but was turned down by the U.S. Copyright Office.