Alfonso Ribeiro Explains How Courteney Cox and Eddie Murphy Inspired the 'Carlton Dance' on 'Fresh Prince'

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a sitcom classic that gave a lot to pop culture, but ask fans what they remember most about the Will Smith series and they’ll probably say the Carlton Dance: Alfonso Ribeiro showing off his awesomely awkward moves to Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual.”

Writing for Variety, Ribeiro recalls his days on Fresh Prince and explains how the dance came about.

“The Carlton Dance was created when it said in the script: ‘Carlton dances.’ It was never even intended to be funny; it was just that he was dancing,” Ribeiro said. “The dance is ultimately Courteney Cox in the Bruce Springsteen video ‘Dancing in the Dark.’ That’s the basis. Or in Eddie Murphy’s ‘Delirious’ video, ‘The White Man Dance,’ as he called it.”

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Ribeiro continued, “And I said, ‘That is the corniest dance on the planet that I know of, so why don’t I do that?”

Ribeiro put his dance skills to even better use on the 19th season of Dancing With the Stars, where he ended up taking home the mirror ball trophy. Of course, he couldn’t let an entire season of the dance competition show go by without reprising the Carlton Dance with his partner, Witney Carson.

Watch their side-by-side Carlton dancing below.