Matt Harding confesses

Some of you may remember a video that circulated last year and was even featured here at Giant Midgets and also at Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men: Matt Harding, a computer programmer, quit his job and travelled around the world, filming himself dancing and random people he met dancing, an expression of the joy and beauty of being human.

Turns out it was a hoax. A cruel, horrible hoax. A cruel horrible hoax perpetrated with Photoshop™. Photoshop™ and robots.

Here's Mr. Harding confessing to his sick, cruel, heartless, evil dancing-robot scam:

I feel abused. Horribly, horribly abused. "Bearded French Guy Doing Some Kind Of Weird Jig" was one of my favorite parts of the video, and to discover it was nothing more than an unbelievably-sophisticated animatronic device sporting cutting-edge fake skin and ultra-realistic hair carefully inserted using top-of-the-line video editing techniques--I'm at a loss of words, frankly. Anybody can spend millions of dollars on computer graphics and expensive humanoid simulacra all for the venal purpose of selling an obscure chewing gum brand. Traveling around on a shoestring budget with nothing more than a video camera and a big grin, infecting people with a sense of optimism and joy--I should have known that was completely impossible.

My heart is broken.

If only there was a short video I could watch to restore my hope and faith in humanity.