They rely on "the magic of cinema" to turn a wheelbarrow into a Porsche, an old washing machine into a complex control panel or ice cream tubs into headphones. Reinterpreting videos that have gone viral on the networks with the most mundane objects, they have obtained montages that add up to several million views. The Ikorodu Bois have been tanned by imitating music videos by well-known Nigerian artists and Nollywood movie trailers, as the Nigerian film industry is known. When they have put in their sights the promotional video of the latest installment of the Bad Boys saga or the fourth season of La Casa de Papel , Will Smith or Alvaro Morte ("The Professor") have surrendered to the wit of these comedians Nigerian difficult to classify.
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#Moneyheisttrailer #Ikorodubois # Yourfavouritemimicker🇳🇬 @maleek_of_ikorodubois @muiz_of_ikorodubois @this_lsb @fawaz_of_ikorodubois. . Thank you 🙏🏽 @sarahtiamiyu
A shared post from Just for laughs (@ikorodu_bois) on May 9, 2020 at 7:18 p.m. PDT
“We want to show people that you cannot limit creativity, that you can be what you want to be, if you believe in what you do and you are creative. For us that is the key and we try to overcome our limits, ”explains Tunde Sanni, the older brother of two of the actors in the recreations and“ the brain behind the group ”. The three protagonists of these reconstructions are not yet 40 years old. The videos show brothers Malik and Muiz Sanni, 10 and 15 years old, respectively, and their cousin Fawas Aina, 13 years old. In the shadow is Tunde Sanni who, at 23 years old, not only mounts the videos but also manages one of the keys to the success of this initiative: social networks. The Ikorodu Bois are present on all platforms, although they have made Instagram one of their main tools, their account is close to 600,000 followers.
Ikorodu is the Nigerian city from which the group takes its name, a medium-sized town located on the shores of the Lagos lagoon. That puts it right in front of the most populous city in Nigeria and across the continent, a veritable urban black hole that absorbs Ikorodu's personality and makes it little more than an outlet for the mega-city. Tunde Sanni knows that if it were not for the visibility that social networks give them, the Ikorodu Bois phenomenon would be impossible. "We can only thank all those responsible and founders of social media platforms," confesses the eldest brother with conviction, "because they allow us to share our content, show our potential and show people what we are. If it weren't for social media, oh my god, we'd surely be wandering the streets. ”
The freshness of the proposal of these teenagers is what has first captivated Nigerian users who have been their main audience until the recognition of international artists has made them a global phenomenon. From the patio of your house, with the instruments at your fingertips, with the intentionally homemade reconstruction of the changing rooms and the characterizations, with the graphics of the videos and films reproduced on cardboard posters and with an enormous dose of ingenuity to find the comic vision, this group of humorists of the XXI century have been strengthening their own style.
They started in 2017, responding to the challenge of another successful "online humorist". "I hardly remember the first video, because a long time ago, but I do remember our first viral video," says Tunde Sanni. "We imitated a video that had become very popular", explains the leading man of the Ikorodu Bois, "in which Kanye West danced a song by a Nigerian musician", it was a scene recorded by the Nigerian musician and artist representative Bankulli in which the American rapper Kanye West spontaneously started dancing to the song Immediately by the also Nigerian Mystro, when he was in Uganda recording a music video. "People liked that Kanye West did that," continues Sanni, "especially being in Africa. He talked about the video, it was a big surprise for us and suddenly it went viral. People started calling us and the content circulated a lot on social networks. We saw that people liked that and we decided to follow that line, imitating celebrities, viral videos, music videos and movie trailers. ”
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You can only see this funny Only if you've seen the original video (Kanye West) 😭😭🤣🤣 #KANYEWESTCHALLENGE #ikorodubois # ikorodutothe🌍 pls help tag him😂🙏🖤 @tundeednut @zlatan_ibile @kanyewestt_official @baddosneh @mystroofficial @iamreminisce @ rahman_jago_ @baddyoosha @samklef @funny_african_pics @mtvbaseafrica
A shared post from Just for laughs (@ikorodu_bois) on Oct 14, 2018 at 8:45 p.m. PDT
Thus they have put themselves in the skin of very popular Nigerian artists in the country and on the international scene such as Dremo, Zlatan or Fireboy DML or as Burna Boy or Davido, but also in that of some stars in the scene of rap, hip hop or the trap, from Chris Brown to Justin Bieber or Roddy Ricch. Before the successful Bad Boys reenactment, the guys from Ikorodu had also dared with the Jumanji trailer and in the celebrity arena paid their particular tribute to Kobe Bryant. Despite the fact that the reinterpretations of the group of Nigerian teenagers have a comic touch and that they tend to replace the luxurious cars in the original videos with wheelbarrows and the ostentatious houses with half-built buildings, the eldest of the brothers insists on respect for the who face their reviews. “We do not intend to ridicule anyone”, Tunde Sanni points out, “nor the way in which each one behaves. We believe that everyone has the right to express themselves and to show the world what it is like. We use the things that we have within our reach and if we want to pass a message it is that you do not need to have great things, to make original videos. As if what you have at hand is a wheelbarrow and you can simulate a Lamborghini. But we do not intend to ridicule anyone, we just want to show our creativity. ”
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If Jumanji was shot in ikorodu, Nigeria🇳🇬😂 Pls tag @therock @ kevinhart4real @karengillanofficial @jackblack #Lowbudget # Happinessisfree❤️ #Jumanjithenextlevel # yourfavouritemimikoror_of_ik_or_of_ikod_of_ik_or_of_ikod: @maleek_of_ikod ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 🎥 @ this_lsb➖ ➖➖➖ @tundeednut @iamsmade @theellenshow @theshaderoom @feminuvo @ adesope.olajide @ pulsenigeria247 @sonypictures @ 9gag
A shared post from Just for laughs (@ikorodu_bois) on Dec 17, 2019 at 8:55 PST
One of the successes of Ikorodu Bois has been that some of the characters they have imitated have ended up recognizing their talent and helping to spread their videos and their initiative. American rapper Roddy Ricch, retweeted the recreation of the music video for his song The Box , and has placed himself in nearly five million views on Twitter. The response of the La Casa de Papel cast has helped the most recent piece of the Ikorodu Bois have quickly exceeded two and a half million views on the microblogging network. The clearest example of that support has been that of Will Smith. The American actor shared the reinterpretation of the Bad Boys trailer on his Instagram account and has been played more than 7.2 million times.
If Money Heist was shot in ikorodu🇳🇬 😂❤️. Pls retweet until @netflix @lacasadepapel sees this🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/CZwUcsuiVB
- ikorodu bois (@IkoroduB) April 23, 2020"We have received many motivational messages and some criticism," confesses Sanni. “With the Will Smith video, for example,” he continues, “we were very happy and obviously we are very grateful to him. My goodness, he showed us so much love. ” Tunde assures that other personalities have also shared their content and talked about it and that, together with the attention of some media, this has allowed them to have a large audience, although he also acknowledges that they have received criticism. "I don't think they are critical of creativity," he comments, dismissing it, "there are many people who like to criticize and there are also many people who wonder what these young people are doing, when they started, where they came from. Sometimes they criticize us because we dress like girls as boys and there are people who don't understand the reason why we do this. ”
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This is GENIUS @ikorodu_bois !!
A post shared by Will Smith (@willsmith) on Apr 2, 2020 at 3:02 PDT
Tunde Sanni "the brain behind Ikorodu Bois" shares what the group's motivation is: "Our dream is to be Hollywood actors, and with God's help, we can make the dream come true." The oldest of the group appeals to creativity over and over again, is their main argument, which completes with innovation. "I believe in perseverance, in the possibility of improvement, in confidence in what you do, that with creativity you can get to do what you set your mind to and you can attract people's attention without great means, that you can take advantage of the Internet with imagination . This is how our videos have been changing since 2017 ”, Sanni values. Beyond personal goals, the eldest of the Ikorodu Bois also considers that his experience transmits some messages: “We wanted to demonstrate what young people can do. We have used our resources and our tools to get the message across to people: even in slums there is talent. ”
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