Louis Theroux Discusses His Viral TikTok Rap “Jiggle Jiggle”

Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Amazon Prime Video

Louis Theroux Discusses His Viral TikTok Rap “Jiggle Jiggle”

Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Amazon Prime Video

Another decades-old song from a British person is challenging Kate Bush for Song Of The Summer status, and this one is significantly goofier. Louis Theroux — the British-American documentary filmmaker, son of author Paul Theroux, and cousin to The Leftovers star Justin Theroux — has watched a remix of a jokey rap song he made for a TV show 22 years ago become a viral hit.

In 2000, Theroux was hosting a TV series for BBC Two called Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends, in which he jokingly delved into various subcultures. During the third and final season, he visited New Orleans to confab with rappers like Master P in an attempt “to make it as the first white middle class gansta rapper.” With the help of the duo Reese & Bigalow, he crafted some bars, including the opening line “My money don’t jiggle jiggle/ It folds/ I’d like to see you wiggle wiggle/ For sure.” He filmed himself performing “Jiggle Jiggle” on New Orleans rap radio station Q93, footage that appeared in the show. Here’s the episode:

In 2016, the series made its way to Netflix UK, and the rap episode became a viewer favorite, which led to interviewers routinely asking Theroux about “Jiggle Jiggle.” It came up again this past February when Theroux was promoting his new show Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America on Amelia Dimoldenberg’s online talk show Chicken Shop Date. He agreed to rap a bit of the song in his “slightly po-faced and dry English delivery.” The DJ-producer duo Duke & Jones set the recording of this recitation to a chill lo-fi hip-hop beat and uploaded it to YouTube, where it now has more than 12 million views.

“Jiggle Jiggle” then took off on TikTok thanks to a dance routine by Jess Qualter and Brooke Blewitt:

@jessqualter

my money don’t jiggle jiggle.

♬ Jiggle Jiggle – Duke & Jones & Louis Theroux

Which was subsequently recreated by a number of regular folks and celebrities, including Shakira on The Tonight Show:

There’s also this Anthony Hopkins clip:

@anthonyhopkins

A senior’s version 😎

♬ original sound – Anthony Hopkins

“This was all going on without me knowing about it,” Theroux explains in an interview with the New York Times. “I got an email: ‘Hey, a remix of the rap you did on Chicken Shop Date is going viral and doing extraordinary things on TikTok.’ I’m, like, ‘Well, that’s funny and weird.'” He says his 14-year-old son is annoyed that his “cringe” father is all over TikTok: “I’ve left my stank all over his timeline. I think it’s made him very confused and slightly resentful.”

At Duke & Jones’ request, Theroux re-did his vocals so that the track could be released on digital service providers. Although Theroux has turned down all performance requests because “I am not trying to make it as a rapper,” he does intend to profit off the surprise hit. “I sincerely hope we can all make some jiggle jiggle out of the phenomenon. Or maybe some fold,” he told the NYT. “So far, it’s been more on the jiggle end.”

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