If you’re old enough to have conscious memories of the 1980s, then you probably have fond memories of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video — regardless of what you thought of the artist, either then or now. Like so many things today, it’s available (in several different versions and formats) on YouTube. Here’s a 9-minute version that you might want to look at once again, just to refresh your memory about how dramatic Jackson’s dance steps were, way back 25 years ago.

I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve thought about “Thriller”; but then an article in yesterday’s New York Times caught my attention. Titled “Dancers in the Crowd Bring Back ‘Thriller’,” it said that Sony was staging mock “zombie” scenes in various parts of the world to promote the 25th anniversary of the original album. I was intrigued, but got so caught up in my regular work that I didn’t follow up on the story until this morning … at which point, I tracked down several versions that are available on YouTube.

Here, for example, is the version that played out before a somewhat subdued and puzzled crowd on a London Underground train:

And here is the version that took place in a Copenhagen train station:

And here’s the one that was staged on a street outside the Sydney Opera House:

And here’s one that was staged in Chinatown:

But the most amazing of all is an amateur version made in a Filipino prison, in which more than a thousand inmates — dressed in bright orange prison garb — performed “Thriller” as their daily exercise. The Filipino version has been viewed more than 12.8 million times on YouTube — roughly twice as many times as Jackson’s original version on YouTube, and a million more than reported in the “Times” yesterday. Here it is:

One last version, just to show you the variety of performances: the bride, groom, and wedding party did their own version of “Thriller.” Not as smooth and professional as some of the others, but still enough to make you smile…