How Louis Theroux Became A Jiggle Jiggle At The Age Of 52

Four or five times a week these days, an old friend would call Louis Theroux and tell him, “My daughter keeps going home singing your rap” or “My wife did your rap in her class. Pilates ». Going through an elementary school, Theroux has the feeling that he is being watched, a feeling that is confirmed when he hears a child shouting behind him: “My money is not rocking”. His agent has submitted dozens of requests for personal appearances and invitations to perform. Theroux, a 52-year-old British-American documentary writer with a biblical, somewhat anxious demeanor, dismissed them all because, as he put it in a video interview from his London home, “I’m not trying to be a rapper.” But in a way, it already has it: Theroux is the man behind “Jiggle Jiggle”, a sensation on TikTok and YouTube, which has been broadcast hundreds of millions of times. He delivers rap with a restrained voice that bears traces of his Oxford education, giving a fun glow to the lines “My money does not sway, it folds / I would love to see you sway, sway, for sure”. Subscribe to The Morning Newsletter from the New York Times For Theroux, a son of American writer Paul Theroux and a cousin of actor Justin Theroux, the whole episode was weird and a little disturbing. “I’m glad people enjoy rap,” he said. “At the same time, there is a part of me that has a degree of mixed feelings. It is a bittersweet thing to experience a pioneering moment of virality through something that, at first glance, seems so expendable and so incompatible with what I actually do in my job. But here we are. “ The story of how this middle-aged father of three has grasped youth culture with an innovative rap is “a confusing example of the 21st century of the very strangeness of the world we live in,” Theroux said. “Jiggle Jiggle” was pregnant for years before all the rage. It started in 2000, when Theroux hosted “Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends”, a BBC Two series in which it delves into various subcultures. For an episode in the third and final season, he traveled to South America, where he met several rappers, including Master P. As part of the series, he decided to rap himself, but had only a few lines: “Jiggle Jiggle / I like it when rocking / Makes me want to dribble / Want a violin? “ The story goes on He hired Reese & Bigalow, a rap duo in Jackson, Mississippi, to help him make it. Bigalow cleared the opening lines and linked the word “jiggle” to the word “jingle” to indicate the sound of coins in your pocket. Reese asked him what kind of car he was driving. His response – Fiat Tipo – led to the lines, “Riding my Fiat / You really have to see it / 6 feet-2 in solid / No slack, but luckily the seats are back”. “Reese & Bigalow blew rap with a genuine quality,” said Theroux. “The elements that make it special, I could never have written them myself. At the risk of over-analyzing it, his genius part, in my mind, was saying, “My money is not swaying, it is folding.” “There was something very satisfying about the rhythm of those words.” He turned himself into performing the song live on the New Orleans hip hop station Q93, and BBC viewers saw his rap debut when the episode aired in the fall of 2000. That may have been the end of “Jiggle Jiggle” – but “Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends” took on a new lease of life in 2016, when Netflix licensed the show and began airing on Netflix UK. they inevitably asked him about his hip-hop raid. In February of this year, while promoting a new show, “Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America”, Theroux sat down for an interview on the popular online talk show “Chicken Shop Date”, hosted by London comedian Amelia Dimoldenberg. “Can you remember any of the rap you did?” Dimoldenberg asked, urging Theroux to begin his rhymes with what he described as “my slightly noisy and dry English tradition”. “What happened next is the most shocking part,” he added. Luke Conibear and Isaac McKelvey, a pair of DJ producers in Manchester, England, known as Duke & Jones, picked up the sound from “Chicken Shop Date” and put it on a backing track at a leisurely pace. They then uploaded the song to their YouTube account, where it has 12 million views and counts. But “Jiggle Jiggle” became a phenomenon mainly thanks to Jess Qualter and Brooke Blewitt, 21-year-old graduates of Laine Theater Arts, a college of performing arts in Surrey, England. In April, the two friends were making pasta in their shared apartment when they heard the song and hastily choreographed movements appropriate for the track – basketball dribbling, turning the wheel – and the “Jiggle Jiggle” dance was born. Wearing a hooded sweatshirt and shades (an outfit chosen because they did not wear makeup, the women said in an interview), Qualter and Blewitt made a 27-second video of themselves performing the routine. It exploded shortly after it was published by Qualter on TikTok. Copycat videos soon appeared on TikTok users around the world. “It all happened without me knowing it,” Theroux said. I got an email: “Hi, a remix of the rap you did on ‘Chicken Shop Date’ goes viral and does amazing things on TikTok.” I’m saying, ‘Well, that’ s funny and weird. ‘ It erupted from TikTok and hit the mainstream last month when Shakira performed “Jiggle Jiggle” on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Snoop Dogg, Megan Thee Stallion and Rita Ora have been posted dancing. The Downton Abbey cast chuckled during a red carpet event. “Anthony Hopkins just did something yesterday,” Therou said. “It would be too much to call it a dance. It is more of a contraction. But it does do something. “ The whole episode was weird for his three kids, especially his 14-year-old son, who is growing up on TikTok. “Why is my dad, the creepiest guy in the universe, everywhere on TikTok?” said Therou giving his voice to his son’s reaction. “I have left my perfume throughout its schedule,” he continued. “I think it made him very confused and slightly indignant.” Qualter and Blewitt find it equally surreal to see Shakira and others dancing in their movements. “I almost forget we made it,” Culter said. “It does not seem to have happened. It has over 60 million views. “We see the number on the screen, but I can not understand that there are people behind it.” After Duke & Jones’ original remix went viral – that is, the one with the vocals from “Chicken Shop Date” – the DJ producer duo asked Theroux to do his vocals again in a recording studio. That way, instead of just being another TikTok earworm, “Jiggle Jiggle” could be made available on Spotify, iTunes and other platforms, and its makers could gain some exposure and profit from it. In addition to Theroux, five composers are credited with the official release: Duke & Jones; Reese & Bigalow; and 81-year-old hitmaker Neil Diamond. Diamond joined the crew when representatives signed “Jiggle Jiggle”, which echoes the 1967 song “Red Red Wine” where Theroux’s Auto-tuned voice sings “red, red wine”. The song reached the Spotify viral charts worldwide last month. So that means real money? “I sincerely hope we can all make a little giggle from the phenomenon. “Or maybe a fold,” said Therou. “So far, so good in the jiggle end.” In his career as a documentary filmmaker, Theroux has explored the world of male porn stars, the Church of Scientology, right-wing militias and opioid addicts. In his new BBC series, Forbidden America, Theroux examines the impact of social media on the entertainment industry and politics. Years before Netflix had a successful show centered on Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as The King of the Tiger, Theroux made a film about him. American documentary John Wilson, creator and star of HBO’s “How To With John Wilson”, cited him as an influence. Now his work has been overshadowed, at least temporarily, by “Jiggle Jiggle”. And like many going viral, Theroux is trying to figure out what just happened and figure out what it’s supposed to do with this newly discovered cultural capital. “It’s not like I have a catalog and, like, now I can release all my other innovative rap tracks,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. “Come and see Mr. Jiggle himself.” It would be a 20-second concert. “ © 2022 The New York Times Company