Create your own Harlem Shake videos

My guess is the whole Harlem Shake craze is just about winding down its 15 minutes of fame.

14:51...14:52...14:53...

But wait! While there's still a shred of interest left, you've got time to make your own videos. Free Android app Harlem Shake Creator Lite and iOS app Harlem Shake Creator HD (both from the same developer) make it ridiculously easy.

In case you've been off-planet for the past month or so, a Harlem Shake vid starts out with a single person, usually masked for no particular reason, doing a little jig to the eponymous song by Baauer. Other people in the scene remain oblivious to the action, until around 15 seconds in, when...well, see for yourself in this representative example. (Even CNET employees got in on the action.)

Typically, if you wanted to create a video of your own, you'd need to buy the song, shoot your video, edit that video with some kind of software, overlay the audio at just the right point, add 2 seconds of slow-mo at the end, and so on.

With Harlem Shake Creator, all that boils down to a simple point-and-shoot process, complete with simple instructions. Step one: the individual dances. Step two: everybody dances. (Or flails. Or punches a doll-baby. You get the idea.)

The app plays the music over your phone or tablet speaker during each of the two recorded segments, so you don't have to rely on people dancing to silence. And it tacks on the prerequisite slow-mo at the end, a nice touch.

Once the video has been shot by you and processed by the app (about 2 minutes, all told), you can play the video to see how it turned out and upload it directly to YouTube. If you want the option of saving it to your Camera Roll, you'll need to spend 99 cents (or a buck, in the case of the Android version) to unlock that feature.

Even if the Harlem Shake already feels played out, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the fun of making your own videos. This app takes all the work out of it, letting you focus on the more, er, creative aspects.