Jordindian: From Ocean to Ocean
The duo always entertains us without hurting anybody’s religious sentiments. Such an awesome team they are! True entertainers who put a smile on our faces if it’s comedy and make us dance if it’s their music.
Jordindian is an Indian sketch comedy and YouTube sensation that consists of Naser Al Azzeh and the bespectacled Vineeth “Beep” Kumar. While Naser is from Jordan, Vineeth is from India, south India if you really want to know. Vineeth has interviewed the likes of Shahrukh Khan, A. R. Rahman, Salman Khan, Mika, to name a few, for his former stint as a 9XE tuber, as an associate of the music channel 9XE. The common thread between the two entertainers: the need to make people laugh.
The duo who can crack you up with their comedy, first achieved fame with their 2018 music video Smoke Shisha Play FIFA. Though they released four subsequent music videos trending widely on YouTube, they have primarily focused on producing comedy sketches which are based on youth culture in India, highlighting the differences between their respective cultures.
On 27 May 2019, they uploaded their second music video Fasting And Furious that got 400,000 views within three hours, and their Types Of Doctors video earned 1,000,000 views in the first day itself. Their sketches are mostly centered on South Indian life and their style is a fusion of modern Indian, Jordanian, and Western cultures. They released their third song Exam Time in April 2020 and even through the nationwide lockdown, they released a song called Locked Up In The Lockdown and in late last year they released Eat Sleep Binge Repeat.
Their names today are one of the most recognizable ones on the Indian YouTube creators’ landscape racking up millions of views on every video. They have put together their love for films, pop culture and hip-hop for the videos they created, and take inspiration from conversations and situations in their day-to-day lives. Their devoted fan following grows daily as they are seen in live shows and make appearances all over the country. VERUS FERREIRA spoke to them to know about what really gets them that insane number of views and makes them so popular.
You were college buddies, how did each plan the way to go into comedy and of course how did you guys meet and form Jordindian?
Vineeth: Nas was sharing a Russel Peters joke with one of his friends, and I was eavesdropping on them. “I said: yeah, I’ve heard that joke and that was how we got to talking to each other. We rode back on the same bus that evening and realized that we are really neighbours!”
Tell us something about what you did before starting Jordindian.
Nas: I was into break dancing and was the founder of a break dance group Black Ice Crew. I was doing a course in HR management; Vineeth was into hip-hop beat boxing and was working in television production. One day, we decided to try making a video together, just to see if it would work. Vineeth was skeptical about whether the idea Jordindian would take off.
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Verus Ferreira is a music journalist for over three decades. He is the author of The Great Music Quiz Book and The Great Rock Music Quiz Book and the founder of Musicunplugged.in