Female Napoleon Dynamite Has Moves: Thank You, Internet [Video]

She’s been called the female Napoleon Dynamite, and when you see the sick moves she’s capable of laying down you’ll understand why.

Her name is Paula Shires. She was 14 years old when the video was shot for the Chmielewski Fun Time television program. The fact this is just now going viral, making the front page of Reddit on Friday, should serve as proof that no matter how far in the past you think the past is, it’s always one upload away from potentially turning your life upside down.

It’s unknown if Ms. Shires, who would probably be in her forties or fifties now, is feeling any increased fame wherever she is, but these viral videos have a tendency of growing one into a celebrity, wanted or not. In any case, Shires, a native Minnesotan, deserves respect for getting up there and shaking her groove thing for an audience of white-haired people to the tune of Kool and the Gang’s “Ladies Night.”

It’s a bizarre contrast that must have been tense at the time despite the polite claps that punctuated her act. I’ll let you all have a look now, so you can decide if the “female Napoleon Dynamite” moniker is deserved.

(Incidentally, that’s not me being a jerk; that’s the descriptor Reddit used to take this video to the front page.)

Upon second viewing, it does seem somewhat accurate. Commenters on Reddit are in love with this piece of performance art.

One individual requested finding Paula Shires for a Reddit AskMeAnything (AMA).

“I’d be blessed just to share the same dance floor as this girl, who would probably be an older lady now,” says another commenter. “I wonder how refined those sweet moves have become? Ellen should track her down she is good at that… and she likes dancing.”

Other comments follow.

“That foxy lady can bust a move.”

“Those moves…..they’re friggin sweet”

“So did they model the movie dance moves after this? Is pretty darn similar.”

“It is so weird to watch a single person dance to some grooving music, and see a bunch of old white people to the side watching, not even bobbing their heads.”

And then there was this gem of a side-by-side comparison. This comes with a disclaimer to mute the right video, and change the speed of the left to 1.25X. Even if you can’t figure it out, it’s hilarious seeing the female Napoleon Dynamite and the real one going head-to-head.