Jazz Emu and the Power Flip
There are many things connected in the world of British comedy. The Stath Lets Flats universe is connected to the BBC Ghosts universe. Richard Ayoade's appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is connected to the IT Crowd. Here's another one for you.
If you have ever watched a Jazz Emu music video, long or short, you'll notice some very high production value. This is because Hunter Allen, who works on video editing and production for Taskmaster, produces and edits Jazz's videos. Hunter has helped Jazz Emu's vision come to beautiful life in videos like The Stratkhaf Combo and Romanticize. Those of us drawn to the Emu Empire wish and hope for the day that Jazz will be on Taskmaster. It seems incredibly likely because, you know, Hunter. But the world
In the Jazz Emu film Ego Death, Alex Horne has a cameo in the song A La Mode. He plays a fashion designer named Qwæsian who makes scarves from the flesh from his shins. This is precisely the type of comedy you'd expect from Archie Henderson, and Alex looks magnificent in blue. He's got a good strut.
How did Alex Horne end up in a Jazz Emu music video? Most people who do guest cameo work with Alex are guests with his band, or his podcast, or on Taskmaster. Alex doesn't really do guest appearances on TV shows. Most people, even the mighty Jason Mantzoukas, have to come to Alex.
Archie wrote an email. It said, hi, I'm Jazz Emu, we are making a music video, would you like to be in it? He sent it out to lots of people. And Alex said yes.
Jazz Emu flipped the power narrative on Little Alex Horne. He worked with Alex without doing any of the mentally debasing stuff. As far as I can tell, this seems to be a unique circumstance. But it does mean that Jazz got to skip all the humiliation and gets to put Alex in the credits reel.
I'm not saying Jazz Emu has powers of raw magnetism (although he does, which makes finding his car keys easy) or powers of hypnotism where the magnetism fails. But I am saying, this is a comedy judo flip, and it's worth pausing to admire. This is the power of Jazz.