Alfonso Ribeiro stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night, where the America’s Funniest Home Videos host opened up — probably not for the first time, and probably not for the last — about people asking him to do the “Carlton dance.”
As many are probably aware, the 50-year-old actor starred as Will Smith’s peppy, conservative cousin Carlton Banks for six seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and the famous dance became the character’s trademark. And although the NBC series ended its run over 25 years ago, Ribeiro still hasn’t managed to escape the notoriety.
Long story short — if you happen to encounter Ribeiro in the wild, please don’t ask him to do the Carlton dance.
“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna ask you to do the dance or any of that stuff,” host Jimmy Kimmel said, greeting his guest out on stage. “You must want to kill people when they ask you to do that, right?”
“I won’t say kill, but you know, I don’t have a love for it like they do,” Ribeiro answered amicably. “I mean, I typically get asked to do the dance pretty much every of my life if I go outside.”
“Yeah, if I go anywhere, it’s like I just randomly hear people — ‘Do the dance!'” he explained. “And you’re like, ‘I’m not dancing for you. I’m a Black guy, I’m just not dancing for you. It’s not gonna happen.'”
“The weird part for me is that I’m trying to understand what’s happening in their head, like what makes you think that you’re gonna ask a random person to dance for you,” Ribeiro continued. “And they’re gonna be like [does flattered voice] ‘Oh my god, I’ve been waiting for you to ask — hold on a second, let me get into character.’ Like, I don’t get it, it’s not gonna happen.”
Well, we guess it could be worse, at least people aren’t shaking him down in these streets for AFV nut shots.