Desus

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About

Desus (better known by his Twitter handle @DesusNice) is the professional pseudonym of Daniel Baker, an American comedian most well-known for his humorous commentaries on Twitter, as well as co-hosting the weekly podcast series Desus vs. Mero and starring in numerous TV shows along with fellow entertainer The Kid Mero.

History

Desus created his Twitter account in April 2008^[1] while working as a columnist for a business news magazine geared towards black readers. According to an interview with Rolling Stone^[6], Desus garnered his early fame on the microblogging platform by sharing his personal grievances about day-to-day struggles at work, and later on, commentaries on hot-button issues and current events in popular culture, sports and hip hop music, which proved to be relatable and comical to many of his readers.

Media Coverage

As early as in 2012, Desus' tweets started getting mentioned in listicles and round-up articles that highlight the best examples of social media reactions to various happenings in the news media, including Newser's article about American news anchor Ann Curry's awkward on-air farewell in June and The Urban Daily's round-up of "7 Best Tweets About Joe Budden’s Oakland Struggle Show" in November that same year. In 2013, Desus continued to draw mass exposure on Twitter and elsewhere in the blogosphere by regularly chiming in on trending hashtags that cover a wide range of current events and pop culture gossips, from the trial of George Zimmerman and Paula Deen's racism scandal to album releases by hip hop artists like Kanye West and Kendric Lamar, among others. By December 2013, Desus had accrued more than 13,000 followers on Twitter and become known as an influential early adopter of Black Twitter, as mentioned in Complex's "Black Twitter's 2013 All-Stars" article. By November 2014, Desus' audience on Twitter had nearly quadrupled to more than 50,000 followers.^[7]

Desus vs. Mero

During this time, Desus also began crafting his signature brand of comedy after re-connecting and collaborating with fellow Bronx native The Kid Mero, whom he had first met during his childhood at a summer camp, via Twitter.^[2] On December 18th, 2013, the duo debuted their first episode of Desus vs. Mero on Complex Magazine.^[3] The pair received critical acclaim for the podcast, which released a new episode every week for 46 weeks until December 30th, 2014.

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Joking Off

Following the successful run of Desus vs. Mero, Desus and The Kid Mero continued to make regular TV appearances as cast members on a number of MTV shows, including Guy Code, Joking Off and Uncommon Sense.

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DesusGate

On April 2nd, 2014, The Kid Mero tweeted a photograph of himself with a white man, who he identified as being Desus.^[8] Many of the fans of the podcast felt betrayed, as they had believed that Desus was black. However, the next day Complex debuted episode 21 of Desus vs. Mero, which was the first episode to be filmed as well as recorded as an audio podcast; fans realized that The Kid Mero's tweet had been a prank, and that Desus was, as they had originally assumed, a black man.^[9]

Bodega Boys

On September 11th, 2015, The Kid Mero and Desus launched a new podcast entitled "Bodega Boys", and recorded at New York City's Red Bull Studios. The first episode received over 109,000 plays via Soundcloud; as of February 23rd, 2016 there have been 15 episodes of the podcast.^[10]

Online Presence

With over 115,000 followers on Twitter^[1] (as of February 2016), Desus has often been cited as an influential social media commentator and Internet comedian, particularly within the rapidly emerging world of Black Twitter. In addition to his well-known presence on Twitter, Desus also runs a Tumblr^[4] blog and an Instagram account, where he has over 15,000 followers (as of February 2016).^[11]

Highlights

As of February 23rd, Desus's most popular tweet references a Kidz Bop-style cover of Fetty Wap's hit song Trap Queen.

fetty aint lose an eye for this pic.twitter.com/ul8DKjAcdD
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) September 15, 2015

Personal Life

Born on May 18th, 1983, Daniel Baker was raised by Jamaican immigrant parents and spent his childhood and early adulthood in Bronx, New York City. Baker has a degree in literature at the College of Mount St. Vincent, which is located in the Bronx.