New Jersey man goes viral for breakdancing through town hall tax questions

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/new-jersey-breakdancing-tax-town-hall

Thilly proceeded to ask if anyone wanted to see him perform a backspin. When no one responded, he laid on the ground, lifted his feet and spun several times. As he danced, the crowd stayed silent

151 points · 29 comments · view on lemmy.world

29 Comments

ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 358d (2 replies)

As he danced, the crowd stayed silent, with some attendees looking uncomfortable. When he finished, Thilly gestured for applause but received none.

This man is something special. A treasure to be cherished.

missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 358d (1 reply)

I would have applauded!

hemmes@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 358d

👏

zero@fek.xyz · 38 pts · 358d (1 reply)

Did it better than Raygun

PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 358d

does the kangaroo

Nasan@sopuli.xyz · 20 pts · 358d (9 replies)

Never been to New Jersey. Somehow this guy both validates and shatters my assumptions about the state.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 357d (5 replies)

NJ is a wonderful state, and all of the memes about it are from people who've likely never spent a significant amount of time there.

humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su · 1 pts · 356d (2 replies)

What about the meme about it smelling like a sewer?

xactoman@thelemmy.club · 2 pts · 356d (1 reply)

enough of this stupid shit, 9.5 mil people live there, have some respect. the nj tunpike =/= the entirety of the state ffs. there is natural beauty all over the state in many different forms if you care to look even a little bit. this 'nj is a dump' bs is hack unfunny nonsense.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 356d

Eh let them think that... More pizza for me lol

SkyezOpen@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 356d (1 reply)

likely never spent a significant amount of time there.

Correct, they haven't been there long enough for Stockholm syndrome to kick in. By the way does jersey still charge people 5 bucks to leave the state on the turnpike?

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 356d

I dunno, I've never left 😉

klemptor@startrek.website · 3 pts · 357d (2 replies)

New Jersey is legit awesome. Come visit and form your own opinions!

humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su · 0 pts · 356d (1 reply)

I visited and it smelled like shit.

I couldn't get over the fact how everyone around me accepted it as normal.

klemptor@startrek.website · 2 pts · 356d

I assure you the entirety of New Jersey does not smell like shit. There are smelly industrial areas. But they don't call us the Garden State for nothing! There's plenty of natural beauty and fresh air.

PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 358d (3 replies)

I mean... it spread the message this far.

And I'm kinda digging the back spin

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 357d (2 replies)

What message though? That he doesn't want to pay taxes toward education?

AlDente@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 356d

He's upset that wealthy corporations aren't paying their fair share and residents are being forced to pick up the tab. He's running for an elected position in his township to combat this and appears consistent on his message.

Did you know that in recent years the Township Committee under both political parties has awarded over $150 million in 30-year tax exemptions to billionaire developers at 750 Walnut and Birchwood?

We residents have to pay for this on their behalf. It's a few thousand dollars every year in extra taxes per household. In return, we receive little besides increased traffic, flooding, overcrowded schools, and overburdened infrastructure.

Also, he isn't campaigning against funding the education system. Again, he just wants developers to chip in too.

Indeed the $55 million we voted to pay for our beloved schools in the January referendum was necessary precisely because the developers are contributing nothing to our educational system. I want to be elected to stop the resident-funded overdevelopment of Cranford.

https://willthilly.com/

PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 357d

It seems like he was curious why the taxes went up as much as they did

protist@mander.xyz · 14 pts · 358d (2 replies)

"Goes viral"...

Zachariah@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 358d (1 reply)

because vaccines are illegal now

sad_detective_man@leminal.space · 5 pts · 358d

this is when we need the cdc because that man was the illest

CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 358d

That is certainly not who I pictured in my mind after reading the title.

humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su · 5 pts · 356d

It's literally impossible for any somewhat-popular news outlet to include source material in any of their articles at this point.

gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 357d (2 replies)

He then asked: “Why did our taxes go up so much?”

Thilly went on to reference a previous local referendum, questioning why the tax increase was apparently higher than anticipated. He said: “We were told the referendum was going to bring [taxes] up for an average household [by] around $400 … and mine went up like 900 bucks … We were told like that was from the schools or something? But the school referendum said it would only go up … like 400 bucks on an average assessed home … So I wanted to know why it went up, if it did that and what extra expenses were incurred by the schools that weren’t told to the public when we voted on that referendum?”

Y'know, years ago before everything that's happened I could have ignored an attack on public education and just gotten on board with celebrating an adorable weirdo like this, but after watching Musk weird his way to throwing Nazi salutes at CPAC I hope this guy's neighbors bully him back into whatever godforsaken hole he crawled out of

AlDente@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 356d

This article cherry-picked some of his words, but ultimately he is against wealthy corporations not paying their fair share through tax exeption deals. He is not against funding public education. But of course, take the corporation-backed mainstream-media message at face value and hope he gets bullied away. Then the current township leaders can continue handouts to big corporations, while increasing taxes on the residents.

Did you know that in recent years the Township Committee under both political parties has awarded over $150 million in 30-year tax exemptions to billionaire developers at 750 Walnut and Birchwood?

We residents have to pay for this on their behalf. It's a few thousand dollars every year in extra taxes per household. In return, we receive little besides increased traffic, flooding, overcrowded schools, and overburdened infrastructure.

Indeed the $55 million we voted to pay for our beloved schools in the January referendum was necessary precisely because the developers are contributing nothing to our educational system. I want to be elected to stop the resident-funded overdevelopment of Cranford.

https://willthilly.com/

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 357d

“We were told the referendum was going to bring [taxes] up for an average household [by] around $400 … and mine went up like 900 bucks

Someone doesn't understand how averages work...

Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 356d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLQQs_yohIA

Here's the whole five minute segment complete with some nicely edited music

chiliedogg@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 357d

https://www.youtube.com/live/iKwQaT2rNM4

Starts around 18:30