Joanna Rohrback took the internet by storm in May when her original "Prancercise" video went viral. Her exercise routine didn't exactly take off, but the clip — demonstrating her horsey moves in spandex that left too little to the imagination — inspired amazement, admiration, and guffaws.
The video got 7.6 million views. It earned the Prancercise lady an appearance on the Today show, where she taught Al Roker to Prancercise, and got her included in John Mayer's new music video.
Now, she's back. Rohrback has released a new video, entitled "Uninhibited Fitness," to show the haters who mocked her online that she will not be laughed off the Prancercise track. And, according to a warning at the start of the clip, this video is "X-rated." Only, it's not.
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"Do not fret: The clip is not obscene or lewd, unless a fully-clothed woman frolicking through Florida greenery offends you," says Dodai Stewart at Jezebel. "Basically, she's referencing the fact that her previous video included what some call 'camel toe.' This has been remedied."
Instead of nudity, viewers are treated to more Rohrback. She greets her audience in black tights and a lime-green top, and says, "There are many imitators out there, but there's only one me!" At the end, she prances off into the sunset.
The main takeaway is that Rohrback has had her 15 minutes of fame, and she wants 15 minutes more. By labeling it X-rated, says Terrence McCoy at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, she's making it clear she's just out to grab an audience. "This places her closer to a one-trick act than ever before," McCoy says, "because she's now conscious people are watching. And that strips her of the earnestness that made her so endearing in the first place."
Still, we can't blame her for trying. In our cover story, we wondered whether Rohrback could parlay the national attention into anything sustainable. This new video, however, won't accomplish it. It's click bait, pure and simple. And if she's going to remain in the spotlight, she has to change tactics. [New Times]
It may be just a sequel, but it's still mesmerizing. Ami Angelowicz at The Frisky says the Prancercise guru has a "specialness I never questioned." Good for Rohrback for "refusing to be embarrassed by her camel toe, a term she admits she was unfamiliar with at the time her Prancercise video went viral," Angelowicz says.
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And good for the Broward-Palm Beach New Times for getting an unprecedented full-length interview with her, which includes exercise legend Richard Simmons describing Rohrback as being "like Judy Garland walking down the yellow brick road."
Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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