Sometimes you’re on the Internet, and you’re slapped awake by a thought. “Has anyone ever mashed up Neu! and New Kids on the Block?” you call into the void known as Twitter.
Somewhere in the void, Demi Adejuyigbe hears you.
Since the beginning of July, the 22-year-old Adejuyigbe—a digital producer on Comedy Central’s @Midnight—has been posting a mashup a day on Twitter, sourced from people who’ve tossed their half-formed mashup dreams into the wishing well over the last two years. Adejuyigbe says he got inspiration for the series when he found a tweet from comedian and Last Week Tonight writer Josh Gondelman.
.@joshgondelman https://t.co/q8nXsZWrsy
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) June 19, 2015
“Mashup culture taken to the Web has been a real boon not only for mashups but for comedy,” he explained. “Comedy has yet another platform to take shape. And it’s such a weird platform, because it’s not necessarily telling a joke as much as it is assuming a joke based on what you’re hearing.”
“HOOBASTANKONIA,” based on a tweet by @goth_dad_666. #twitterjamsjuly https://t.co/H5baTUoPEp https://t.co/qcFz6Mp63D
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) July 22, 2015
“Two Chainz None The Richer,” based on a tweet by @pattymo. #twitterjamsjuly https://t.co/wPfdHFJFs3 https://t.co/kEIn3aPG1A
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) July 9, 2015
“Biggie Azalea” written by @yelix. #twitterjamsjuly https://t.co/ymX0LaSJWZ https://t.co/tLe1tQkL3N
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) July 2, 2015
“Illmatic Schmillmatic,” based on a tweet by @freecialis. #twitterjamsjuly https://t.co/LvuKTLiYbS https://t.co/vegWoT7LjB
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) July 17, 2015
In March, Adejuyigbe posted a series of videos to Twitter, in which he threaded Hozier’s inescapable hit “Take Me to Church” with different songs—or sped up and slowed down the tempo—while staring into the camera like he’d “created a monster.”
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) March 18, 2015
If you’re familiar with Adejuyigbe, it might be because of Vine, though in the last few months he’s slowed down his output there. There’s a certain fatigue that must set in if you’re going to evolve as a comedian on Vine.
https://vine.co/v/MEIV562rY3V
“It’s the 15-minute thing,” he said. “You get that 15 minutes and then you keep trying to extend that 15 minutes and it’s not working as well. So people start to fall off. There’s always going to be funny people on Vine and funny people who find new ways to do what they love on Vine. But I feel like some people get stuck in the loop. ‘Oh, this is what’s funny so this is what I have to stick to.’ And that’s what kills it for me.”
Perhaps you’ve listened to Gilmore Guys, a podcast he hosts with Kevin Porter, whom he met through UCB. The two decided to start watching after Gilmore Girls hit Netflix last October, and have since been dissecting the show episode by episode twice a week. Adejuyigbe had never seen the show before they started the podcast.
“It’s this weird struggle of trying to be funny while also trying to not piss off fans of the show,” he said. “The fans are very into the show and we don’t want to upset them. So we try to do our best to cover it from an informational and analytical place, but also try to do this take like, ‘we’re not experts; we’re just two dudes talking about a TV show, so understand this is also a comedy thing.’”
Adejuyigbe excels at threading pop culture into much of what he does online. That reminds me: Is Neu! Kids on the Block a thing yet?
Photo via Twitter | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III
