--- title: Principal Turns “Can’t Touch This” Into a COVID Video description: The principal created a parody of the 1990 MC Hammer classic “Can’t Touch This” to encourage students to stay healthy at school. canonical: https://time.com/5875451/u-cant-touch-this/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-08-04T14:20:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:31.146Z og:title: Principal Turns 'U Can’t Touch This' Into Everyone's Favorite New Coronavirus Awareness Bop og:description: The principal parodies the 1990 MC Hammer classic to encourage students to stay healthy at school. og:url: https://time.com/5875451/u-cant-touch-this/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte32532cd736af47f/698a10fb8fd2ee29aa3619b0/MC-Hammer.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: MC Hammer og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Principal Turns 'U Can’t Touch This' Into Everyone's Favorite New Coronavirus Awareness Bop twitter:description: The principal parodies the 1990 MC Hammer classic to encourage students to stay healthy at school. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte32532cd736af47f/698a10fb8fd2ee29aa3619b0/MC-Hammer.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alabama Principal Masterfully Turns 'U Can’t Touch This' Into Everyone's Favorite New Coronavirus Awareness Bop > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 4, 2020 2:20 PM UTC  MC Hammer performs on stage in London, 1990. MC Hammer performs on stage in London, 1990. Michael Putland—Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 4, 2020 2:20 PM UTC An Alabama high school principal created a funny video with a serious message and it has gone viral for both reasons. Dr. Quentin Lee, principal at Childersburg High School, transformed MC Hammer’s 1990 classic “U Can’t Touch This” into a [coronavirus](https://time.com/wyckoff-hospital-brooklyn-coronavirus/) awareness campaign in the hopes of encouraging students to stay safe and healthy as the school year begins. Lee wrote the rap parody himself and includes clever lyrics like, “I told you students/ You better pull that mask up!/ It’s the CDC, not me!” and “Let’s all be safe go wash your hands/ So move, back up 6 ft. You better not cough and you better not sneeze/ Sanitation! Hold on, lemme check your temp not under your arm.” The principal [told Alabama News Center](https://alabamanewscenter.com/2020/07/31/alabama-principals-viral-music-video-hammers-home-covid-19-guidelines/) that he wrote the lyrics in just 15 minutes. He then called film director Jaylen Mitchell of City Vizualz to record it, recruiting student and teacher volunteers for the video. The result is an entertaining video that features Lee dancing his way around the high school, [sanitizing](https://time.com/5869130/covid-19-test-delays/) a classroom, popping up from behind a vending machine to spray it down, and doing a Hammer dance to remind students about proper social distancing and to put their masks on. He stops to blurt out, “Stop! Sanitize!” to the tune of “Stop! Hammer Time!” MC Hammer himself weighed in to give his seal of approval to the endeavor: > [](https://twitter.com/MCHammer/status/1290458836625694720) While it’s a funny video, the school knows [returning to school](https://time.com/5870132/schools-coronavirus/) in the middle of a pandemic is a critical issue. “We take [COVID-19](https://time.com/5870481/coronavirus-origins/) very seriously but wanted to bring some comic relief to a tough situation,” the high school said in [a statement on its website](https://www.tcboe.org/Page/17). “We can’t wait to have our students back on campus.” This isn’t the first time the principal has tried to express his feelings about the pandemic in song. “Doing silly stuff is something I really enjoy,” Lee told [Alabama News Center](https://www.alabamanewscenter.com/2020/07/31/alabama-principals-viral-music-video-hammers-home-covid-19-guidelines/). In a video released in April, he [shared another song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnQ6i%5F0UDes&feature=youtu.be) he wrote “that lets you know how \[he has\] been feeling in this COVID pandemic.” He begins playing music on a keyboard and promptly begins screaming. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5875451/u-cant-touch-this/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5875451/u-cant-touch-this/"},"headline":"Alabama Principal Masterfully Turns 'U Can’t Touch This' Into Everyone's Favorite New Coronavirus Awareness Bop","datePublished":"2020-08-04T14:20:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:31.146Z","description":"The principal parodies the 1990 MC Hammer classic to encourage students to stay healthy at school.","url":"https://time.com/5875451/u-cant-touch-this/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Brief","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte32532cd736af47f/698a10fb8fd2ee29aa3619b0/MC-Hammer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte32532cd736af47f/698a10fb8fd2ee29aa3619b0/MC-Hammer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MC Hammer","caption":"MC Hammer","creditText":"Michael Putland—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5875451/u-cant-touch-this/","name":"Alabama Principal Masterfully Turns 'U Can’t Touch This' Into Everyone's Favorite New Coronavirus Awareness Bop"}}]}] ```