Mememaker Spotlight: Jejkobbb

The adoptive father of Tiny Shrek and one of the top experts on 3D memery, Jejkobbb is a content creator whose name is well-known in the OC crowd. Mastering 3D software to create truly next level memes is what earned Jejkobbb a place among the selected few in this category, and also landed him the ultimate job as a professional mememaker.

Jejkobbb started his video meme career on YouTube in 2016, when the platform was yet to be dethroned as a number one source of OC video memes by Instagram. But before going into the video business, Jejkobb (back then with only two B's to his name) started his mememaking journey with posting reaction GIFs on Imgur in September 2014.

When my friend forgets to pick me up from the store. oc

Jejkobbb first became interested in video editing in 2011 after he started watching YouTubers such as MysteryGuitarMan, Corridor Digital and RocketJump. Around that time, Jejkobbb started experimenting with using VFX in short skits.

Jejkobbb: The skits never took off, but the skills I learned during that time has helped me a ton in the future.

It all changed in October 2016, when Jejkobbb posted his first meme edit on YouTube. Starring Gordon Ramsey, his first post took off after Jejkobbb posted it in the /r/youtubehaiku subreddit, the number one destination for short video sketches and memes on Reddit. The video skyrocketed to the hot posts list, and Jejkobbb's mememaking career received a nice boost right from the get-go.

Today, he is best known for his Tiny Shrek saga, with his most popular video, "Raising Shrek," sitting at a whopping 15 million views, making it one of the most viewed memes in YouTube history. But not everybody knows that it wasn't Jejkobbb, but rather a fellow mememaker Chanbanhi who came up with Tiny Shrek.

Jejkobbb: When I first saw Chanbanhi's Tiny Shrek, I thought it was genius. At that stage there were few people in the meme community who used 3D in their memes, so I felt I had to learn it to get ahead. I ended up messaging Chanbanhi, and he helped me get started with Cinema4D, which was a HUGE help. I felt like Tiny Shrek had so much potential so I wanted to make my own version, telling the story of how he came to be with Raising Shrek.

The video became an overnight success, instantly reaching YouTube recommendations and hitting one million views in two days, and then doubling that, while Jejkobbb's sub count was rising by hundreds of new subscribers per hour.

I worked on that meme for almost 2 weeks during my first ever work vacation, my mom was one of the first people that watched it. She didn't like that Shrek had to crash but she laughed and that made me happy.

Despite being known for Tiny Shrek videos, Jejkobbb isn't the biggest Shrek fan there is: he admits that he only watched each Shrek movie once. Although the first Shrek was the first ever movie that Jejkobbb saw in cinema. He also doesn't use his signature meme for his profile picture – instead it's a drawing of a dog inspired by the wrinkly Pikachu. Although some people think that it's a cat, Jejkobbb admits.

Jejkobbb interest in making memes lies as much in the technical challenge as in the humor. To make his videos, he uses a large set of tools, including After Effects (with Element3D application), Adobe Premier Pro, Blender and Cinema4D.

Jejkobbb: I really enjoy the 3D part of making memes, it's really fun to do modeling and combining real life with the models. I've had an obsession with 3D tracking since 2011, so that being part of my meme channel is really enjoyable. I also enjoy doing the Tiny Shrek memes cause it really is my kind of humor. I don’t get a lot of the meme trends to be completely honest, but Tiny Shrek really resonated with me.

After releasing "Raising Shrek," Jejkobbb never stopped honing his 3D skills. The video he takes most pride in is "Shrek Goes on a Date," released seven months after his first meme about the tiny ogre. Not only because it took nearly him three weekends to complete, but also because it proved that there was always more to achieve as a creator.

I often experience this fear of never being able to top my most popular videos, as if I'm never going to make anything as popular again. I think "Shrek Goes on a Date" proved that I can do better, and that meant a lot to me personally.

Jejkobbb's dedication to perfecting the art of the meme not only brought him major success on social media, where he currently has nearly 300,000 followers across YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, but also landed him a job as a professional mememaker. A year ago, Jejkobbb started out as a curator at Neverthink, the "TV of the Internet" app that broadcasts selected content from original creators. Today, Jejkobbb works as its Head of Original Content, producing memes together with fellow mememaker Jonkarip.

Jejkobbb: I can officially say that I make memes for a living.

In addition to his job and creating content for his own channel, Jejkobbb maintains another popular project: the @MemeExplore bot on Twitter. The bot posts the most popular videos from YouTube… but from seven years ago.

Most trending video right now! (2012-12-22) pic.twitter.com/LCbSKfr5pp

— Memeternet Explorer (@MemeExplore) December 22, 2019

Speaking about more recent memes, Jejkobbb names the Among Us fad that followed the massive popularity of the indie game among his favorites. His all-time personal classics? Watch them below.

You can find more of Jejkobbb's memes on his YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, as well as on Neverthink's YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.