The Story Behind How Baby Yoda Became a Deadass Meme
On this week's episode of The Dropcast, hosts Noah Thomas and Jian DeLeon welcome the new decade with Nicolas Heller, better known as NYC anthropologist New York Nico, and illustrator Naomi Otsu.
Though they've both accomplished impressive creative careers in their own respective ways, they're also low-key relationship goals in the fact that they've gotten the chance to work on some really cool projects together, whether it's campaigns around Opening Ceremony's gigantic tote bags, or one of the most deadass memes of the decade: a Baby Yoda that only a New Yorker could love. Listen to how the meme came together at (16:58).
Jian DeLeon: All right. We just got to talk about, not the elephant in the room, the green skinned meme in the room. It's definitely one of the best memes of 2019, if not the best meme of 2019 — Baby Yerr-da — if you will. Was it Desus that coined that?
Nicolas Heller: I think so.
Naomi Otsu: Yeah.
JD: It's essentially Baby Yoda wearing a black tee, a Nuptse jacket, Yankees fitted AirPods, and Timbs. Who gave you the biggest bag out of all those brands? North Face, Timberland?
Noah Thomas: Because literally, that's a bag from Apple.
NH: I wish. We didn't play it right.
NO: We didn't make a dime off of Baby Yoda.
JD:To be honest, I'm kind of off Baby Yoda after watching The Rise of Skywalker, and I'm on team Babu Frik.
NH: Wow.
JD: I mean, Babu Frik is fire.
NT: I can't even lie and act like I know what they're talking about.
JD: Look up Babu Frik. He's one of the standout characters in Rise of Skywalker. He's about the size of a GoPro camera on a tripod. So he's a maybe seven, eight-inch tall alien mechanic.
NT: Bobby Frick?
JD: Not Bobby Frick, Babu Frik, B. A. B. U. F. R. I. K.
NH: Oh wait, I'm going to be honest. Babu Frik looks pretty cool, he's so compact.
NT: I want a friend that's that tall. I want a little kind of pocket homie.
Check out new episodes of The Dropcast every Friday on Highsnobiety.