Punch Up the Jam is a podcast hosted by Demi Adejuyigbe and Miel Bredouw where they do a comedic close read of a song, often with a guest, and then follow it with a “punch-up” of said song. It’s something like a comedy take on Song Exploder (and they’ve even had Hrishikesh Hirway, the host of that podcast, on as a guest). It’s loose and riffy and I love it.
Demi and Miel were both Vine creators back when that was a thing. My knowledge of Vine is mostly through YouTube compilations put together after it shuttered, from which I can say the two Vines I associate with them the most are this pun from Demi and this toilet humor from Miel. This is actually not that bad of an introduction to their comic sensibilities.
What ultimately brought the podcast to my attention was Demi’s “Will Smith” end credits raps for Academy Award nominees, like this one for Arrival:
“What if Will Smith wrote a theme song for a serious movie” might strike you as a thin premise, but the attention to detail and effort spent mimicking Smith’s flow elevate it a bit. Still, it was his take on a Childish Gambino theme song for Lando in Solo: A Star Wars Movie that really made me take note.
The music and lyrics are spot-on, plus the editing in the video is super well done. After seeing that, I started paying more attention to Demi and found out about Punch Up the Jam.
Miel and Demi have such a fun rapport, each taking turns being the straight man and the wild reacher as they puzzle out odd lyrics and weird musical choices in whatever song they’re analyzing. Their guests are always game to join in with the madness as well. Sometimes they can be a little dense about things (“Don’t fact-check us” is a frequent refrain.), but this is often in the service of jokes. They don’t just rip on a song for an hour; most weeks at least one person in the studio genuinely likes the week’s subject. And then, after working their way through a whole song, they present their punch-up. Sometimes this is a “Weird” Al-style “let’s change the lyrics” parody, while other times they do something like totally change the musical style of the song. The amount of work that goes into these is often quite impressive, letting you know that behind all the goofiness these two take the podcast seriously and put in a lot of time to make it good.
I like them enough to be seeing them live at the Regent Theater next week. You might like them too! Here are some of my favorite episodes:
Crash Into Me - The two hosts seem vaguely horrified by this song, and Miel turns the general unease at the laid-back bro vibe she gets into a punch-up that reimagines the song as an awkward slam poetry performance.
Freak on a Leash and Nookie - These episodes made me realize I want to hear a podcast where someone explains nu-metal to people just slightly too young to remember it clearly, because there were some misconceptions here that I think may have been even funnier to clear up (“no, it was even weirder than that”), but it’s pretty entertaining. The guests on these episodes are great, especially Jamie Loftus on the “Nookie” episode (she’s a very funny person!). They did like the song “Nookie” more than I think is justifiable, but de gustibus non est disputandum.
What a Fool Believes - Miel’s dad is the guest on this one, which is delightful in and of itself, but the punch-up is amazing. “How you can you make this song better? More Michael McDonald.” So you get Miel turning this into an a capella rendition where every part is a Michael McDonald voice.
You Oughta Know - It’s always fun witnessing people find out for the first time that Flea and Dave Navarro were the studio musicians for this song. Ripping on Dave Coulier is somewhat obligatory when discussing this song, but Demi takes it one farther in his punch-up, a parody where the lyrics go into the mystery of which movie, exactly, was playing in the theater mentioned in the song.
I’m realizing I could go on for a bit. (I didn’t even mention the episode with Paul F. Tompkins, king of podcasts and another very funny person!) Not every episode is a winner, and I tend to skip weeks where I know I will not be able to handle the chosen song, but overall it is a reliable source of joy for me. Give it a try.