Lovingly known as “the number one show in late night,” Desus & Mero has served as the good mood pill to a stressful society. After their success with Complex TV’s Desus vs. Mero, Desus & Mero debuted on Viceland on October 17, 2016. Hosted by viral internet comedians-turned-hometown heroes and burgeoning celebrities Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, Desus & Mero brought a fresh spin on pop culture commentary, trending topics, celebrity interviews and political punditry.
In mid-June, Showtime officially announced a weekly half-hour late-night series from the charismatic duo, set to premiere in 2019. Following their fabulous new deal announcement, the two opened up about the days leading up to their final episode and why they had such an abrupt ending.
The finale broadcast on June 28, 2018. However, much like Wakanda, Desus & Mero is forever, ballbags. And anyone who disagrees can suck Mero’s happy place from the back. The best duo since hot sauce and chicken are leveling up toward a new chapter, but it’s difficult not to reminisce over their best moments — the Top 5, in fact. Of course, with content like theirs, it’s hard to narrow it to five, so we’ll try our best.
Grab you a chopped cheese from the bodega and get comfy. It’s time to visit the Bodega Hive.
1. The DJ Envy Beef
YERRRRRRR! That moment when you thought their previous beef with DJ Akademiks was the spiciest moment of 2018, and then the Beige Rage enters the ring. DJ Envy opened up Power 105’s The Breakfast Club with his routine, “Moooorning everyone, it’s DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha God…” and next thing you know, he’s disparaging Desus and Mero. Seriously. As a backstory, the partners-in-crime chatted about the time Envy and his wife, Gia, appeared on The Real to discuss finding a marital resolution following Envy’s affair. Desus made an offhand comment about Gia forgiving and loving her husband’s checks, and Envy, in response, went off. The pair’s appearance on The Breakfast Club to promote their tour turned into an ambush by Envy, which snowballed into a back-and-forth on Twitter, which blew up into Black Twitter doing its thing. It all culminated in Desus and Mero offering commentary on a beef that started because of their commentary offering. So meta.
2. The One Chip Challenge
Y’all know that solitary Carolina Reaper tortilla that had everyone on their knees in pain? Well, Desus and Mero decided to take on the challenge, especially after roasting a few news anchors who couldn’t handle it. They also invited several Viceland staff members to join in on the fiery fun. The show’s associate producer, Noah Weitzman, had a particularly special reaction to the challenge, and it was hilarious. As everyone — including the show’s stars — expressed just how hot that devil chip was by drinking milk and scarfing down bread, Weitzman’s slow torture was severely evident in this teary, red eyes. Three whole hours after the challenge began, he was shown behind-the-scenes doubled over a trash can as he whimpered about “shivering without goosebumps.”
3. The Wheel of Failure
One of the funniest occasions throughout the show is when Mero bursts into the uproarious laughter that has him yelling, “Yoooooo!” at the end of it. Mero’s chortle is the epitome of contagious. His best laughter usually ends in a dramatic slide off the chair. One particular series of clips, known as “The Wheel of Failure,” was so goofy, even Desus ended up on the floor. And it was everything. Shoutout to homeboy from Indiana University who had a trifecta of fails including mispronouncing “Achilles,” replacing “man” with “car” even though the category was “person” and making up an entire word. Yes, this all happened within one episode of the game show.
4. Yacubian Phenomenons
One of the best contributions to the English language is the term, “Yacoubian,” which is Mero’s pet name for white folks derived from the scientist some in The Nation of Islam and its offshoot, The Five Percenters, believe to have created white people, Mr. Yakub. Because there are so many great moments that make you shake your head and say “… white people,” it’s easier to wrap them all into one. Whether it’s the whitest privilege activity to ever happen in the history of mayo (a 30-year-old man refusing to leave his parents’ house even after they gave him assistance funds) or chomping on Tide Pods, white people be white people-ing. Let’s not forget the violent-for-no-reason cheese roll and cooking food with your mouth. The purest Yacoubian happening has to go to “figuring,” (a peculiar dance consisting of spastic vibrating, profiled by The New York Times) though. Because… what??
5. “What Do You Want Your Rainbow To Say?”
From Diddy to Neil Degrasse Tyson and Whoopi Goldberg to Erykah Badu, Desus & Mero has featured some epic interviewees with equally epic moments. “Nothing but illustrious guests,” as they say. However, each interview always concludes with the best part: subjects captioning a rainbow. Much like the Yacoubian entry, an amalgamation of clips should serve as one moment. In fact, Desus and Mero curated a “Most Illustrious Rainbows” video featuring their favorite rainbow moments for their series finale. But, the most epic one has to go to Hannibal Buress because that joint went on like the song that never ends. His (second) rainbow said, “Hey, what’s up, it’s me again, y’aaaaaal know what it is, heh heh heehhhhhh, aw man just killin’ it aw man, you know what? Stop drinking. Sober now, ’bout to go to Thailand, learn kickboxing, gonna come back to America, kick drunk people in the face, don’t try me, fam! Hah, I’m on that bulls**t, yeaaaaaaaah.” Impressive.
Their budget may have been small (which, was part of their charm), but the memories they provided were enriched with wealth. As we look forward to Desus and Mero’s next chapter, we only have one question: Is Juicebox, the Timbs-wearing bear, coming, too?
