Watch: US right-wingers tried to smear Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with this video of her dancing – it backfired when Twitter loved it

An attempt to humiliate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the day she was sworn in as the youngest ever US Congresswoman has backfired, prompting a huge outpouring of support for her.

On Thursday a 30-second video was posted by a Twitter user called AnonymousQ, showing Ocasio-Cortez dancing on the roof of a building while in college.

“Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,” read the post, with the user claiming it was a “high school video of ‘Sandy’ Ocasio-Cortez”.

In fact, the short clip was part of a longer video, made while she was studying at Boston University. In it, she and several other students dance on the rooftop of a university building to the song Lisztomania by Phoenix, in a mash-up of a dance from the film The Breakfast Club.

But instead of humiliating Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected to represent New York’s 14th congressional district in November, the video has bolstered her popularity, with many people on social media praising her for being joyful and having fun.

Comedian Patton Oswald joked: “She’ll never recover from the world seeing her … (watches video) … dancing adorably and having fun with her friends in high school?”

Actor Russell Crowe said the dance was “fantastic”. “The more politicians we have like AOC the sooner we’ll all be dancing,” he wrote.

Ally Sheedy, the actor who played Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club, and whose dance moves Ocasio-Cortez was imitating, said she was: “pretty happy ‘bout it”, later writing “I love this #teamAOC”.

Since her election, Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly been the target of criticism from the right, including for her clothing choices.

Ocasio-Cortez’s victory in the Democratic primary against incumbent Joe Crowley, was one of the biggest upsets of the primary season. Ocasio-Cortez ran on a platform of Medicare for All and abolishing Ice.

She is also an adept social media user and has 1.74 million followers on Twitter and 1.2 million on Instagram, and regularly engages with them, such as posting a video diary on Instagram documenting her first week in Washington.