Turn The Lights Off: put yourself in Jon Hamm's club dance

What is the Turn The Lights Off trend?

Jon Hamm, still Don Draper from Mad Men to many, sways alone in a crowded nightclub, eyes shut, face washed in blue light, as if nobody else were there. People search for it as the Jon Hamm club dance, the Jon Hamm dancing meme or just "Turn The Lights Off". Online it means dancing through the pain: shut your eyes and let the music take over. The AI version swaps the dancer, and that is the joke: your calmest friend, lost in the beat.

Where does the original video come from?

The footage is from Your Friends & Neighbors, the Apple TV+ series created by Jonathan Tropper that premiered in April 2025: season 1, episode 8, "When Did We Become These People?". Hamm plays Andrew "Coop" Cooper, a wealthy financier who loses his job and starts stealing from his neighbors. After his friend Nick punches him, Coop goes out with Nick and Barney and ends up dancing alone, the cut from the punch still on his nose. In the episode the scene plays to another track, "Sentient System" by Joseph William Morgan.

According to Know Your Meme, Russian-speaking TikTok and Reels turned the clip into a meme in October 2025, and by December it had reached English-speaking feeds, set to "Turn the Lights Off" by the Danish DJ Kato featuring Jon Nørgaard. The meme sent that 2010 track back into the charts, as far as the US Billboard Hot 100. By late December 2025 people were using AI to put other characters, pets and themselves in Hamm's place.

Who and what is in it?

One person to replace: the dancer, Jon Hamm as Coop, in a dark shirt and jacket. In 18 seconds:

• Close-up. His face fills the screen: eyes closed, head tilting back, blue and green light on his skin.
• Dark seconds. The light drops and his face almost disappears as he turns his head.
• Crowd. Medium shots, with dancers crossing in front of the camera.
• Wide shot. The camera pulls back: he stands in the middle of a packed dance floor, hands raised all around him, red and green lights above.

How to make the Jon Hamm club dance with AI

1. Open the Turn The Lights Off trend and sign in with Telegram. There is no password.
2. The dancer is already found: give his card one photo (JPEG, PNG or WebP).
3. Decide on "Keep the original look". On, you keep Coop's shirt and jacket and only face and hair change; off, the look comes from your photo.
4. Press "Make the free preview" to see about 5 seconds at 480p with a small "vswp.app" mark; every new user gets one.
5. Press "Create the full video". The price in Telegram Stars is shown first, and the Stars come back if a render fails or is canceled.
6. Download the MP4 (480p or 720p) with the original sound, typically ready in minutes.

More on cost and consent is in the Turn The Lights Off guide.

Which photo for the dancer?

• A clear face first. The opening close-up shows your face from very near: use a sharp, front-facing photo with nothing covering the face.
• Plain light. The scene already tints everything blue, so a daylight photo works better than a club selfie under colored lights.
• Full body for your own outfit. In the wide shot the dancer is small, so silhouette and clothes carry the likeness. A full-body photo of you alone carries them best; turn "Keep the original look" off to wear your own clothes.

Generative AI finds the dark seconds and crossing arms hard, so they can need another take. More in which photos work best for an AI video swap.