BEYONCÉ, continued

As YouTube fanatics immediately knew, the clip was inspired by the popular 2007 viral video ''Walk It Out Fosse,'' which features a goofy Bob Fosse dance routine set to a booming rap track. Gatson and Beyoncé were so taken with it that they decided to pay tribute. When the Fosse video's creator, a writer named Judi Cutrone, first saw the homage, she was thrilled: ''I was excited by the thought of Beyoncé at a computer, watching my [work].''Now ''Single Ladies'' is a phenomenon in its own right. It has spawned a flurry of parodies, including ''big girl'' and ''single man'' versions. ''I was at a club the other night and when the song came on, three girls got on stage and performed the whole dance,'' says Gatson. ''I was like, This is almost like 'Thriller'!'' —Margeaux Watson