Intoxicated man doing ‘Fortnite Loser Dance’ in middle of road arrested: NC cops

A 911 call reporting a “suspicious person” in Asheboro, North Carolina, got weird when police found a man dancing in the street, wearing nothing but boxers and a cowboy hat.

And it wasn’t just any ol’ dance. He was “doing the Fortnite Loser Emote, aka ‘Take the L’ dance,” Asheboro police said in a March 2 news release.

It happened just before 8 p.m. Sunday on Uwharrie Street and the 18-year-old man offered no explanation, according to the responding police officer.

“When I was asking for his name, he told me he didn’t do anything wrong,” the officer recalled. “I told him he was dancing in the middle of the road in front of my car. He told me ‘I was just dancing.’ He was extremely intoxicated.”

The clownish dance is a Fortnite video game gesture, and involves making an L shape with fingers, pressing it to one’s forehead, then high kicking from side to side. However, the dance has taken on a life of its own outside the game, and is frequently performed as a taunting gesture at competitions.

The suspect, who lives in Asheboro, was arrested and charged with being “intoxicated and disruptive, and obstructing an officer,” officials said.

“If you do the Fortnite ‘Take the L’ dance in the street wearing nothing but boxers and a cowboy hat, of course you are subject to arrest,” Asheboro police wrote in a Facebook post.

Asheboro is about an 85-mile drive northeast from uptown Charlotte.

This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 9:36 AM.