Demi Adejuyigbe keeps it cool with this year's now-traditional Sept. 21 dance
It’s the 21st of September, known to many people as “Earth, Wind, And Fire Day,” in reference to the band’s 1979 track, “September.” But it’s known by a different title here at The A.V. Club (and in other corners of the online world): Happy “How The Hell Is Demi Adejuyigbe Going To Top Himself Celebrating Earth, Wind, And Fire Day This Time? Day,” folks!
Adejuyigbe (who recently popped up in a delightful cameo in the Between Two Ferns movie) is a favorite around here anyway, at least in part because of his always-wonderful riffs on the musical stylings of guys like Morrissey and Will Smith. But he’s also spent the last four years in a bizarre game of oneupsmanship with himself, creating ever-more elaborate ways of celebrating a purely arbitrary date based on a now 40-year-old song (that is, admittedly, still an absolute jam).
It’s a very strange situation for the comedian to have accidentally trapped himself in, largely by dint of getting it right, every damn year. The original video remains a classic, after all, with a pitch-perfect reveal of the back of the all-important Sept 21 T-shirt. The follow-up was a steady, artfully executed escalation, while last year’s entry upped the game by introducing a full children’s choir, and the ability to focus all this slightly-obsessive internet interest on a good cause. (The shirts are on sale right now, by the way, with funds going toward the Climate Mobilization Project.) It’s all been delightful, while also increasingly locking Adejuyigbe into a world where he has to, like, wingsuit his way through a volcano (thus simultaneously invoking all three elements of fire, wind, and earth) every September, or else risk the ire of the baying online hounds.
Shortly after midnight last night, Adejuyigbe posted what was either a) a notification that he will, in fact, be putting up something spectacular at 9:21 on 9-21, or b), a quiet plea to please, for the love of god, let this coincidental onus die. But as 9:21 a.m. (Pacific time) ticked past this morning, with no Twitter video to feast ourselves on, it was hard not to feel a trill of anxiety. Then we refreshed. Bam: Video.
And while there was no wingsuit, there was a whole lot of other stuff to feast our eyes on. Half the joy of these videos is in the surprise (the other half is in the grooves), so we won’t spoil anything here. Suffice it to say that the tradition continues, and Demi Adejuyigbe’s cheerful personal hell abides.