Mr. Fantasy Breaks Down the Secret to His Thanksgiving Parade Gyrating

Mr. Fantasy’s hips don’t lie — and the singer is sharing the secrets of his viral Thanksgiving Day Parade dancing with Us.

“To move the hips, it’s very simple,” the singer told Us Weekly exclusively on Tuesday, December 2. “You need to stand in front of a mirror and absorb that who is you… Get a yoyo and distract yourself while you do it.”

Demonstrating his dance moves for Us, Mr. Fantasy added: “It starts with just a thrust. It’s a very, very primal move.”

The singer took the internet by storm after his 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance on Thursday, November 27, during which he performed his new single, “Catapult,” on the Jolly Polly Pirate Ship alongside a group of children dressed like pirates.

“I was a pirate on the ship with all my companions, who are about eight years old. Brilliant, brilliant little children,” Mr. Fantasy told Us of the performance. “We all had so much fun, and I was thinking, America is a great place. New York City is a great place. Very, very amazing, very resilient in the face of adversity, and that’s why I love Thanksgiving.”

Mr. Fantasy burst onto the music scene when he released his self-titled debut single in September. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the singer quickly gained traction on TikTok with his quirky videos, unfiltered ramblings and surprisingly catchy songs.

Fans were quick to speculate that Mr. Fantasy is Riverdale actor KJ Apa in disguise — though the singer has asserted that he’s unfamiliar with the actor.

While Riverdale stars like Lili Reinhart have commented on Mr. Fantasy’s videos, he previously said that he wasn’t familiar with her either — until now.

“The actress right?” He confirmed when Us asked about Reinhart, 29. “She’s absolutely stunning. Isn’t she absolutely stunning?”

Mr Fantasy continued: “I’ve seen the comments [online], and she gets quite a lot of attention, doesn’t she? There’s a lot of people who know who she is. Well, if you’re out there, Lili, I happen to think that you are absolutely stunning. If I can say so myself, she also seems like a wonderful person. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.”

According to Mr. Fantasy, he grew up in the English town Harrogate (“Clearly, I lost it on purpose,” the singer says of his lack of a Harrogate accent”), and he was raised by his “Nan” after his parents “took off.”

“She passed away last year, and she always encouraged me to pursue my dreams,” he said of his Nan. “She’s only passed on, and I still talk to her every day… That’s really the thing about death, one thing dies, something else arises and some of the most beautiful things come from our most devastating losses. That’s the beauty of life, isn’t it?”

Just over a million fans — or “friends,” as he calls them — follow along with Mr. Fantasy’s journey on TikTok, but the singer has some notable friends of his own.

For one, he shared a video alongside Taylor Lautner on November 24, ahead of the release of “Catapult.”

Confirming that he’s “Team Jacob,” Mr. Fantasy described Lautner, 33, as “brilliant” and “sexy.”

“Taylor [is] full of a lot of really, really juicy vibes,” he told Us of the Twilight alum. “That I don’t think he gets the opportunity to leak every so often. I’d like to see him leak. I want to see you leak, Taylor, if you’re out there. I want to see the juice come out of your body… Interpret [that] the way that you want.”

Mr. Fantasy also met Dancing With the Stars judge Derek Hough and season 34 champion Robert Irwin while attending the show’s semifinals on November 18.

“I got to meet a lot of cool people who know how to wiggle their bodies quite well and quite sexually,” he told Us of the experience, noting that a highlight of the visit was connecting with Irwin, 22. “What a beautiful guy he is.”

Of Irwin, the “Wayuwanna” singer added: “Such a humongous heart, and he’s pure, and that’s why people gravitate toward Robert, because it’s men like him who are examples for generations of what it means to be a man with integrity, who leads with kindness, who is unjudgmental, who is resilient and creative. … He’s fearless.”

As for Hough?

“He’s a ball of light,” Mr. Fantasy said. “He’s got that radiant smile, those radiant eyes. I just think whoever’s married to him is very, very lucky because he is a sexy guy and very talented and clearly knows what he’s doing when it comes to the D floor.”

At the end of the day though, followers of Mr. Fantasy know that his true love is James Franco. After shouting the actor’s name at any available opportunity, Mr. Fantasy finally got to meet his idol last month, sharing a video of their exchange via Instagram on November 13.

“It starts with the smile. Doesn’t it? With the teeth and the eyes that are just popping,” Mr Fantasy told Us of the draw of Franco, 47. “After that, I would say it’s the charisma of a monkey that he has that I’m drawn to. The unpredictable quality of a monkey is the same thing that James Franco possesses.”

He continued: “James Franco’s brilliant, and I love his work. I think he’s a brilliant guy who’s made a lot of brilliant things. … He inspires me. He inspires me as an artist. There are artists who define generations, and I think that is him.”