Though the throngs of horrified bystanders in the video may have begged to differ, Hoffman’s prank is hard to watch without cracking a smile. Clad in a mask that makes him look like an old man, he takes one group after another by surprise as they try to pass him on the sidewalk. At best, they clutch their chests in shock; at worst they take off in the opposite direction as if they’ve just witnessed the start of the zombie apocalypse. (Or perhaps that is really the best…) The more erratic his dance moves, the bigger the reaction he gets. Seriously, who knew people found old men dancing this scary? Hoffman succeeds in his goal of making us laugh—several times over, in fact. Still, he’s probably lucky that he didn’t get punched, but that may actually be how he came up with his website’s name, PunchRobert.com.
Also according to his YouTube bio, he’s in need of a prom date, which is ridiculous, mostly because we don’t believe he’s actually in high school, but also because he so clearly knows his way around a Michael Jackson song. Were he truly attending the high school event, we hope he’d find a more receptive audience. Anyone at prom should be less freaked out by dancing, so we’d expect a lot less screaming—and presumably he’d leave the old man mask behind.
