There’s a reason this video of “Silent Monks” has gone viral more than 21 million times. The iconic viral video features more than a dozen high school students dressed as monks as they perform “Hallelujah” by George Frideric Handel for their school’s talent show. Watch as these monks delight the crowd without having to say a word because they have all the words they need on the signs they are holding at their waists.
When the video begins, the silent monks are already partway through the song. The iconic “Hallelujah” chorus is playing, and the monks are participating in the music by lifting their signs in time with the song. Although the group of talented high school students is “just flipping signs,” they have it all choreographed to the inch. These participants know exactly when to lift their signs to engage perfectly with the song that is blasting through the school auditorium.
The lyrics are “For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” in addition to the iconic phrase, “Hallelulah.”
Viewers of this video shared their delight in it. They were proud of how these students were able to turn an iconic song into a performance without minimizing its greatness one bit. And they were also able to make the entire audience burst into laughter without doing anything except flipping over signs at the right moment.
Viewers of the video shared so many comments, like the following:
“This is the most hilarious video I’ve ever seen! I can only imagine the hours and hours of practice that went into this. Congratulations to these students!”
“I honestly clapped watching this! I had to stop myself: ‘You idiot! They can’t hear you! It’s YouTube.’”
“This is the most hilarious video I’ve ever seen! I can only imagine the hours and hours of practice that went into this. Congratulations to these students!”
“Have not seen this until today, but it is amazing. It also happened to be my favorite Christmas song of all, and they just made it better! Great job, guys!”
“Must admit, that was clever. It would be interesting to find out how they came up with that idea.”
The music teacher responsible for putting the performance together appeared to be Mike Allen, who added the following explanation to the video.
“I think the original idea was on a variety show in the late 60’s. I saw an early version of it done by another high school and asked permission to do it, and they were great about it. I’ve shipped our monk costumes to different states to use in their own productions. Good times. It was fun preparing it. We’ve done it a couple of times since, but there’s nothing like the original!”
One of the original actors in the performance shared a comment about it.
“It’s funny to think that almost eight years since we did this at our school holiday concert, people are still watching it and commenting on it. I’m the 3rd from the right on the bottom row.” He added that he was from the “South Kitsap High School Vocal Music Department in Port Orchard, Washington.”