How a parody video in the style of 1990s Europop turned its creators into viral stars — and their joke into a hit song
How a parody video in the style of 1990s Europop turned its creators into viral stars and their joke into a hit song
Andrew Lloyd
The TikTokers were invited to perform in front of thousands of fans after their parody track went hugely viral.TikTok: @jonasbrothers, @kylegordonisgreat, Kyle Gordon, @squidbender
Comedian Kyle Gordon created the character DJ Crazy Times back in 2013.
A decade later he released "Planet of the Bass," a parody song by the fictional musician
He's been posting on the app since 2020, often incorporating music elements into his skits, and created a recurringpersonality he named DJ Crazy Times, a European disc jockey from 1999 with a loose grasp of English grammar and an overwhelming enthusiasm for fist-pumping music.
Gordon wrote in a 2020 video caption that DJ Crazy Times was a character he'd been playing since 2013.
A decade after its creation, the fictitious musician has skyrocketed to internet fame thanks to his latest song, racking up well over 200 million views across social media, and ultimately performing live in front of thousands of fans.
DJ Crazy Times made a huge splash with a catchy music parody.
On August 1, an account called @PopCulture2000s, which posts nostalgic content about music, TV, and movies to its 1.3 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) posted that "there's no summer song this year."
The post blew up, receiving over 60 million views and 183,000 likes.
In the replies and quote-tweets, a huge number of people suggested that "Planet of the Bass" had in fact filled that gap.
Riding the success of the first video, Gordon shared a new version, but fans weren't happy.
The same thing happened again on August 7, when Gordon teased the release of the full track in a third rendition of the clip posted to X which received 39 million views, and featured another version of the back-up singer, this time performed by Sabrina Brier.
Some viewers seemedconfused by the disappearance of the original actor, but Gordon told Variety it was a running gag as a further parody of Eurodance tracks which appeared to cycle through different women in their music videos.
"The idea was always to release all three because you have the trope in Eurodance where they'll get a real singer to sing the song and then they just put models and actresses in the music video. So I thought it'd be funny to have a different actress in each video," he told the publication.
Fans eagerly awaiting the full track were finally gifted an extended version.
On August 15, Gordon dropped the official music video on his YouTube channel. The song is 3 minutes and 29 seconds long, and to date has over 1.2 million views.
Comments applauded the triumphant return of Trullinger as Ms. Biljana Electronica, wrote tributes to the song in broken English matching that of the now infamous DJ, and roleplayed in the fantasy that this was a real hit that had come out decades ago.
"August 15, 1994. i will never forget how crowded the mall was the day that this released. the smell of popcorn, the screaming. so much promise, hope. so much bass. you just had to be there," one viewer wrote.
Others were more earnest and noted how the internet had seemingly come together as one for this strangely hypnotic track.
"I love how they released this as a parody but EVERYONE unironically fell in love with these 2 and the song. You just never know what society will collectively reject or latch onto. I love them," read a comment that received over 1,000 likes.
The song hit the mainstream when the Jonas Brothers invited the duo on stage.
Gordon is set to release a full album featuring further musical parodies, later this year.
Back in July, before things blew up, Gordon shared via his YouTube channel that he would be releasing a full comedy album titled "Kyle Gordon is Great," and teased a selection of tracks that spanned the genres of 1950s rock and roll, 2000s pop country and, of course, 1990s Eurodance.
The album is due to release on November 10, via BMG.
