Yahoo News Amol Rajan can't get enough of "wonderful" University Challenge jungle memes
The simple phrase "we need jungle, I'm afraid" has turned Amol Rajan and University Challenge into the internet's biggest meme.
If you've been on social media at all this week, you'll have likely heard Amol Rajan saying the words "we need jungle, I'm afraid" over a soundtrack of pounding dance music. The University Challenge meme has spread all over the world.
Rajan himself is a huge fan of the memes and remixes that have sprung up around the viral moment from a recent episode of the notoriously fiendish quiz show, as he explained to Nick Robinson on The Today Podcast.
In the clip, Rajan asked the University of Aberdeen to identify the music genre that developed in the 1990s out of the rave scene and reggae sound system culture.
Aberdeen captain Emily Osborne gave drum and bass as her answer, to which Rajan replied: “I can’t accept drum and bass. We need jungle, I’m afraid."
Author Nathan Filer asked if someone could sample music over the clip and, from there, the whole thing went wild. Hundreds of remixes have arisen across Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
"It just went bonkers. It was viral for about three days and it was wonderful," said Rajan on The Today Podcast.
He added: "It reminded me of the positive power of social media, the original vision of social media, which was a lot more social and a lot less media."
“It reminded me of the positive power of social media.”
What happened after @amolrajan told a University Challenge contestant “I can’t accept drum 'n' bass, we need jungle”?
He gives @bbcnickrobinson the full story on this week’s The Today Podcast.— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 19, 2024
In an earlier blog for BBC News, Rajan explained that he had no idea of the moment's meme potential when he first recorded the episode in early 2023.
He said: "I have asked myself many times this week whether, as I read out that question and answer when the series was filmed I had an inkling it contained musical gold. I did not. I did raise an internal eyebrow, but I didn't see the potential."
The internet certainly did, though, and Rajan has found himself at the centre of a revival for one of the most '90s of music genres.
This is Amol Rajan's first series as the host of University Challenge, having taken over the question master role from long-time presenter Jeremy Paxman.
University Challenge airs every Monday on BBC Two at 8.30pm.
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