| 1 | [[quoteright:297:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadmau5_8483.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:297:Heads N Stuff]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"So am I living a dream? Or enduring a nightmare? I still can't decide... because the last thing I want, or anyone else wants, is to just fade out into obscurity over a period of time and then end up shit on by the people who are near me now. That's why i have 'fail' tattooed on the inside of my wrist... has a very profound meaning to me. Well, this is the short of it... another day approaches, and the pressure is more prevalent then it was the other day... I'm trying my best."'' |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), better known as deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse") is a Canadian ElectronicMusic producer and DJ, and easily one of the most popular artists in the genre today. He is best known for songs including "Faxing Berlin", "I Remember", "Ghosts 'n' Stuff", "Strobe", "Sofi Needs a Ladder", and "Raise Your Weapon", as well as the epony[[{{Pun}} mau5]] [[CoolHelmet mau5head]] that he wears during live performances. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | His stage name comes from an incident in which he found a [[TitleDrop dead mouse]] in his computer while replacing his video card. On the IRC channel he frequented, he became known as "that dead mouse guy" after recounting the incident, and decided to change his username to "deadmau5" as a joke. The name is spelled as is because of the character limit for names on certain IRC servers (you can only fit eight and "deadmouse" is nine), [[Letters2Numbers with the "s" on the end replaced with a "5"]] because [[RuleOfCool it's cool]]. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Zimmerman was raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario (though he considers his current city of residence, UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, his hometown). As a child, he had a hobby of tearing apart household electronics to figure out how they worked, which carried over to his later fascination with electronic music production. As opposed to solely using plugins and software to make his sounds (which he has derisively called "laptop music"), [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D26U26fFojw he uses huge racks of analog modular CV equipment]] to produce them. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | After dropping out of high school, doing many odd jobs over the years (including being contracted for an IT job for two years using only his own self-taught computer programming skills), and starting a design business on the side, all while producing music in his free time as a hobby, Zimmerman found himself being paid to do music for advertising until he got discovered by DJ Chris Lake. This and the appearance of his first hit as deadmau5, "Faxing Berlin", on Pete Tong's radio show led to him being signed onto Ultra Records, later creating his own label, mau5trap, and thus becoming a hit electronic artist doing music full-time. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | While known for his music and his mau5head image, he is also known for being one of the [[JustForFun/OneOfUs nerdiest musicians]] to ever exist, being extremely open with his fans, and causing controversy, usually by speaking what is ''exactly'' on his mind, PR and sugarcoating be damned. These, combined with his [[SirSwearsALot constant cursing]], his [[{{Troll}} sense of humor]], his [[IJustWantToBeNormal personal problems]], and the tendency for people to take anything he says out of context result in a rather ''interesting'' individual. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | In 2022, deadmau5 and Kaskade, who have collaborated sporadically since 2008, officially formed a duo named [=Kx5=]. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | !!Discography: |
| 19 | * ''Get Scraped'' (2006) |
| 20 | * ''Vexillology'' (2006) |
| 21 | * ''Random Album Title'' (2008) |
| 22 | * ''For Lack of a Better Name'' (2009) |
| 23 | * ''4x4=12'' (2010) |
| 24 | * ''> album title goes here <'' (2012) |
| 25 | * ''while(1<2)'' (2014) |
| 26 | * ''W:/2016ALBUM/'' (2016) |
| 27 | * ''Stuff I Used to Do'' (2017) |
| 28 | * ''Where's The Drop?'' (2018) |
| 29 | * ''Here's The Drop!'' (2019) |
| 30 | ---- |
| 31 | !!Tropes related to deadmau5: |
| 32 | |
| 33 | * AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: |
| 34 | ** The lyrics in "Sofi Needs a Ladder" start out with "Let's play MU-si-CAL-chairs, one of my favorite gaaaaames". |
| 35 | ** This trope also applies to him when he's actually speaking. Occasionally he'll pronounce a word oddly, such as "epitome" ("epi-tohm" instead of "ee-pi-toh-mee"). |
| 36 | * AchievementsInIgnorance: He doesn't actually know how to play ''a single musical instrument'', and creates his songs through pure brute force, dragging each note into place one by one on his program. He's expressed some regret that he'd be able to work much faster if he could just hook his system up to a keyboard. |
| 37 | * AlliterativeName: His nickname for his tour manager is "Pretty Princess" Paul. |
| 38 | * ArcWords: "United We Fail", the name of his now-deleted Tumblr blog is the name of his [[WhatCouldHaveBeen potential]] graphic novel project. What does it mean, and what significance does it have in the graphic novel's story? We have no idea, and he's not talking. |
| 39 | * ArtShift: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2LFI6abQI4 The video to "Telemiscommunications"]] regularly shifts through 19 drastically different artstyles, some featuring hand-drawn animation, some Flash animation, various types of 3D, and even stop motion. The video was born out of a contest where animators would follow a base set of choreographed frames, with the final video stitching them all together to form a single narrative. |
| 40 | * AscendedMeme: |
| 41 | ** The phrase "go to bed", usually used by fans as a response against one of his trolling attempts, was championed by him as a response to any hate tweets he got about his outburst at Music/{{Madonna}}. |
| 42 | ** "[=Breadmau5=] - Toast N Stuff" is thought to have been given a ''massive'' shout-out in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mz8sQSEUGn4 this video]], in which he waits for a while for [[ItMakesSenseInContext toast to pop out of his battery-powered toaster]]. |
| 43 | * AudienceParticipationSong: "Raise Your Weapon" gets [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0MD4ilQ3wE very enthusiastic fan participation]] at his live shows. |
| 44 | * {{Autotune}}: A rare electronic artist ''subversion''. While he has several songs featuring vocals, the only vocals he's ever autotuned are his own, because he thinks that he can't sing. |
| 45 | ** Even autotuning his own vocals is occasionally subverted: his vocals in "Edit Your Friends" are only autotuned in the last thirty seconds of the song, and only the "Getting Warmer" mix for the unreleased song "Sleeping Beauty Pills" has his vocals autotuned. |
| 46 | * BerserkButton: Several. |
| 47 | ** [=DJs=], both calling him one and the ''subject'' alone. It's actually become more of an amusing RunningGag over time, rather than an outright BerserkButton now, merely being a subject for tamer {{Take That}}s ("[[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/14297842208/hi-i-want-to-be-a-dj-too-tips 'Hi. I want to be a DJ too. Tips?' get disc. hit play. profit!]]") as opposed to the controversial insults (the "All [=DJs=] are cunts" fiasco) earlier in his career. This could either be due to him getting bored with it or because of his general [[CharacterDevelopment mellowing out over the years]]. |
| 48 | ** Telling him how to live his life or work his career is a ''big'' one. There are fewer ways to piss him off faster than to [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2011/04/fanmail.html insinuate that he's "doing it wrong"]]. |
| 49 | ** Marijuana also seems to be a huge one for him (as Rusko learned the hard way), even though his [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/09/psa-15-stuffs-you-may-or-may-not-have.html official stance on drugs is that he doesn't care]]. This [[WildMassGuessing may or may not be]] related to an incident he cited on the Joe Rogen podcast in which he tried it once and his body reacted ''very badly'' to it. Of course, it could also be related to the [[ProperlyParanoid very real and practical fear]] of being deported back to Canada if he's found with people who use it. |
| 50 | ** Fun fact: attempting to steal his hat will result in an epic takedown from the mau5 himself. [[https://twitter.com/lornmurray/status/215190016253624322/photo/1 Case in point]] -- [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass he put the guy in the hospital.]] |
| 51 | ** [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And lastly]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr0ZnZEt9nQ spraying his gear with champagne]]. Also cited by deadmau5 himself as "[[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/10/ed-hardly.html reason #32 for not giving [him] a microphone]]". |
| 52 | ---> "HEY, frickin' douchebag! Hey, Ed Hardly, go fuck yourself, you fucking idiot! Take your ''Series/JerseyShore'' and get the fuck out of the door!" |
| 53 | * BigEater: Implied by several of his tweets and Facebook posts. Best part is, the guy is still insanely thin. |
| 54 | * BookDumb: "Barely" got through high school (he finished it later after he dropped out), but is ''incredibly'' tech-savvy and started his own design business before starting his full-time music career. |
| 55 | * BookEnds: |
| 56 | ** One of his old songs, "You Need a Ladder", starts and ends with 8-bit Zelda overworld music. |
| 57 | ** "Raise Your Weapon" starts and ends with the same solemn piano chords. |
| 58 | ** "Seeya" starts and ends with the same muffled pitter-patter rhythm. |
| 59 | * BoundAndGagged: In one of the [[http://www.clubglow.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1.jpg promotional artworks]] for the [[HostileShowTakeover Meowingtons Hax Tour]]. [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext By his cat]]. |
| 60 | * BreadEggsBreadedEggs: "[[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/get-in-the-october-cart-pig Get in the October Cart Pig]]", a combination of the then-unreleased songs "Get in the Cart, Pig" (now "Fn Pig") and "October". Mainly invoked by what he posted on Twitter about it: |
| 61 | --> "like October? Like get in the cart pig? im kinda making headway on both... at the same time...." |
| 62 | * BuffySpeak: While teasing Music/{{Skrillex}} about driving and [[ExpectingSomeoneTaller how short he is]]: "[[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/167141951517360128 @skrillex but... like... how do reach the pedally things? :D]]" |
| 63 | ** Also doubles as HypocriticalHumor, as deadmau5 himself couldn't drive at the time. |
| 64 | * ButtMonkey: |
| 65 | ** Skrillex is often the [[StealthPun butt]] of deadmau5's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhRbpMspDsw jokes]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHeuAp0Tll8 pranks]]. |
| 66 | ** Zedd is also a big one to him too. |
| 67 | * TheCameo: Tends to randomly show up at performances of people he's friends with. |
| 68 | ** Has appeared several times at Skrillex's shows, sometimes in his ghost costume from "Ghosts 'n' Stuff". In one instance, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ziWYIX5r4Y he came onstage]] to help Skrillex smash his Mac. |
| 69 | ** He also has a random cameo in the middle of the tour music video for Skrillex's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOofWzI3flA Rock and Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)]]. |
| 70 | ** And he shows up at [[http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/new-and-hot/tommy-lee-dj-aero-live-duo-gear-up-for-new-years-eve-cruise-20111111#ixzz1e22MDMwR Tommy Lee's shows, too]]. |
| 71 | ** He has made a cameo at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtP5KbxDXS0 beginning of a CSI episode]], though that's not his gear (he doesn't use turntables). |
| 72 | ** He's also shown up on two episodes of WebVideo/EpicMealTime. |
| 73 | ** In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' 's [[CouchGag main menu splash]], one of the possible sayings is "[[FirstNameBasis Joel]] is neat!". |
| 74 | *** And in the 1.2 Minecraft release, three kinds of tamed cats were introduced, one of which looks ''suspiciously'' like deadmau5's cat, Professor Meowingtons. This is pretty much confirmed by a Mojang staff member's tweet to deadmau5 about it: |
| 75 | --> "@deadmau5 u can play with your cat in the latest snapshot of minecraft :)" |
| 76 | ** Appears in ''VideoGame/DJHero 2'' as a playable character. Like the CSI example, he uses turntables, but unlike that example, it's more of a case of being required in gameplay as opposed to not doing the research. |
| 77 | ** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' features an amulet named [[http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/halcyons-ascent "Halcyon's Ascent"]], which is entirely based on him. The name is a reference to his old [=Halcyon441=] name, the icon looks like a mau5head, and its special affix makes enemies jump, which references the reaction his song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0MD4ilQ3wE "Raise Your Weapon"]] produces on fans upon live shows (the lore for the amulet even quotes the song). |
| 78 | * CatapultNightmare: As he comes back to life at the end of the "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" music video. |
| 79 | * CelebrityIsOverrated: His general idea about his "celebrity" status. See IJustWantToBeNormal and LonelyAtTheTop below. |
| 80 | * {{Chiptune}}: He first started making music by making chiptune tracks as a teenager. He still uses chiptunes in a few of his songs, such as the unreleased "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqdHyinGj4U Meowingtons Enables Hax]]". |
| 81 | * ClusterFBomb: ''[[SirSwearsALot Often]]''. Demonstrated aptly in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLm1WptpkSM this video]], which is just a ''small fraction'' of the number of times he's dropped it. It even applies to his text posts! |
| 82 | ** A glorious illustration of this trope applying to [[http://www.facebook.com/deadmau5/posts/10150636761541806 one of his text posts]]: |
| 83 | ---> "seriously, i giveth not a fucking single FUCK for slating on Music/{{Madonna}} for reaching an entirely NEW level of idiocy ... i can appriciate her meteoric career, and all good deeds done, but [[WhatTheHellHero WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT]]? That's your big contribution to EDM? Thats your big message to ultra attendies? hipsterspeak for looking for drugs? [[ClusterFBomb fuck off you fucking IDIOT. fuck.]]" |
| 84 | ** Also used in one of his [=Halcyon441=] songs, "How To Flame". |
| 85 | ** Another came when Music/ArcadeFire mocked electronic artists at Coachella. |
| 86 | ** As of the March 13th 2012 stream, he's actually trying to scale this back a bit, at the request of the mother of a fan who watches his livestreams. |
| 87 | * CountryMatters: Yes, "cunt" is in his repitoire of cuss words. It only shows up when he is ''absolutely enraged''. |
| 88 | ** There's also the song "See Ya Next Tuesday" (later reworked into "Seeya"), a slight variation of the phrase "'''C''' '''U''' '''N'''ext '''T'''uesday". |
| 89 | * CrapsackWorld: The lyrics to "Professional Griefers" seem to describe one. |
| 90 | * CurseCutShort: On the 4/9/2012 livestream: |
| 91 | -->'''Twitter Comment''': "You should handle situations better!" |
| 92 | -->'''deadmau5''': "Fuck you! You should handle my--" *pauses, smiles at the camera* |
| 93 | * DarkerAndEdgier: ''while(1<2)'' is definitely a lot more introspective and darker than the good majority of his older songs. Since then, his has moved more towards creating a more personal, somber, Music/NineInchNails-inspired sound, and even his dance music is still moody and atmospheric. |
| 94 | * DeadpanSnarker: Not always deadpan, but very snarky at ALL hours. |
| 95 | * DigitalPiracyIsOkay: When he released the compilation ''Stuff i used to do'', he made the first 13 tracks available for free download on [=WeTransfer=] for one week following its release. |
| 96 | * {{Dystopia}}: Some themes of this can be found in the WordSaladLyrics of "Professional Griefers", what with lines of "[[MagicVersusScience We got machines but the kids got Jesus]]", "[[GodIsDead God can't hear you,]] [[BigBrotherIsWatching they will fight you]], [[RobotMe Watch them build a friend just like you]]", and "Carbon-lacing, spent-shell casing, [[InternalRetcon photographs that I'm erasing]]" to name a few. |
| 97 | * EarlyBirdCameo: |
| 98 | ** The opening synth line for "Ryleh's Lament" first appeared in the 2010 video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqMKelSpgNM my cat hates my fans]]". |
| 99 | ** An early version of "Failbait" can be heard in an old video, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX1pWJMVlE4 here's what i think.]]" |
| 100 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Get Scraped'' is entirely different from the rest of his albums, consisting of songs spanning far more genres and sounds than his later ones. ''Vexillology'', the next album released, also sounds different from his modern sound, though it at least has a consistent one. It isn't until ''Random Album Title'' that he finally establishes his signature sound and feel. The bio on his website doesn't even mention ''Get Scraped'' or ''Vexillology'', instead just starting at ''Random Album Title''. |
| 101 | * ElectronicMusic: Of course. His music actually spans several sub-genres of EDM, mainly because he prefers not to stick with one style and just dabbles in whatever he feels like doing at the time. |
| 102 | ** Drum & Bass: Some of his ''really'' old stuff (mainly made before he was deadmau5). A major example of this is the original 2001 edit of "Aural Psynapse", which has far more emphasis on percussion than the final 2011 version. "Edit Your Friends" leans towards this, too. |
| 103 | ** {{Dubstep}}: A few officially released songs, such as "Raise Your Weapon" and "One Trick Pony", with several experimental demos up on his [=SoundCloud=]. Later mentioned he had no interest in making anything more. |
| 104 | ** {{House|Music}}: Easily the subgenre he's most prolific in, as well as the one he's best known for. Includes Electro House, Progressive House, and Tech House, and contains FAR too many songs to list here; a few well-known examples are "Faxing Berlin", "Ghosts 'n' Stuff", and "Strobe". |
| 105 | *** He has a demo on his [=SoundCloud=] titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKjy_isyd-Y today, im french]]", which is his one and only outright foray into French House music (he explained in a livestream that it never was released properly because he'd get accused of stealing from Music/DaftPunk.) The unreleased song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdDEtj79DyU Swinged]]" is also really European-House-ish, if not outright French House. |
| 106 | ** Minimal: A few, though not officially listed. Examples include "Complications", "The Reward is Cheese", and "LimitBreak", with "Cthulhu Sleeps" leaning more towards this genre (but listed officially as Electro House). |
| 107 | ** Techno: A few, but mostly obscure. Some examples are "Subvert", "Full Bloom", and "Secondary Complications". |
| 108 | ** Trance: While no songs are officially listed in this genre, several of his songs have "trance-y" overtones, such as "I Remember", "[=HR8938=] Cephei", and "Faxing Berlin". |
| 109 | ** {{Trap|Music}}: He experimented with it for a few now-deleted Soundcloud tracks in 2016, and "ebortS" is a properly released trap instrumental, which also includes portions of "Strobe". |
| 110 | * ElephantGraveyard: In the video for "The Veldt". |
| 111 | * EpicRocking: The majority of his music is around and usually longer than five minutes. |
| 112 | ** His collaboration with Kaskade, "I Remember", is 9 minutes and 54 seconds. |
| 113 | ** "Cthulhu Sleeps" is 10 min and 34 sec long. |
| 114 | ** "Strobe" is only one second shorter. |
| 115 | ** "HR 8938 Cephei" is 10 minutes and 52 seconds long. |
| 116 | ** His cover of "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary" (better known as the theme for ''Film/AClockworkOrange'') is 11 minutes and 14 seconds long. |
| 117 | ** "Hiatus Fantasy", an early remix of his of the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' prologue theme, clocks in at an astounding 13 minutes and 10 seconds. |
| 118 | ** Early versions of "Stay" ranged from 13:31 to 16 minutes and 43 seconds! |
| 119 | ** "Hit Save" is an impressive 16 minutes and 4 seconds long. |
| 120 | * EverythingIsAnInstrument: Listen to "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNQr3jg_iTU catbread]]". You hear that noisy bassline that sounds like an engine revving up? That's not a distorted synth, nor is it a sample of a real engine; it's a sample of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHBZERkrAwQ a doorstopper]]''. |
| 121 | * ExactWords: Often, likely related to LiteralMinded and PungeonMaster below. |
| 122 | ** When asked by a fan to take a picture of a pixel with his new camera lens during a livestream, he decides to take a picture of the word "pixel" instead. |
| 123 | ** "How's United We Fail going?" "It's not ''going'' anywhere!" |
| 124 | ** The video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwPf8KGj0kU Musical Chairs]]. |
| 125 | * TheFaceless: Surprisingly averted for someone rather known for wearing a mask while performing. He rarely does interviews wearing the helmet, he never wears it during his livestreams, and he doesn't even wear it during his entire performance unless it's a really short one, because he gets too hot inside the head. |
| 126 | ** However, he stated in an interview on ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' that he briefly toyed with the idea of always being TheFaceless, but decided against it after realizing that, no matter how hard he tried, people would eventually see his face. |
| 127 | * FadingIntoTheNextSong: |
| 128 | ** Invoked with the continuous mix version of ''Random Album Title''. |
| 129 | ** From ''For Lack of a Better Name'', "FML" fades into "Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff". |
| 130 | ** And from ''4x4=12'', "Raise Your Weapon" fades into "One Trick Pony", though this is not present in the version of the song released as a single. |
| 131 | * {{Fanservice}}: Entirely unintentional on his part, but the entire series of livestreams where he's moving cables and plugging in equipment had him bending over a lot, which naturally led to a massive flood of fangirls...''[[UnusualEuphemism admiring]]'' him. He's stated before that he finds the [[FemaleGaze female fanbase's]] obsession with his butt a little unnerving. |
| 132 | * FirstNameBasis: Prefers being referred to by his first name (Joel), both in real life and on the internet. |
| 133 | * {{Flatline}}: Sampled near the end of "Sometimes Things Get, Whatever" and throughout "Complications". |
| 134 | * FluffyTheTerrible: [[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FUoSJBrED His Diablo III characters]]. His Witch Doctor is named Wiggles, his Demon Hunter is named [=MissNyanCat=], and his Barbarian is named ''Mittens''. |
| 135 | * FreezeFrameBonus: |
| 136 | ** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_XtHebsOQ Vegas residency video]], each of the job applications getting stamped with "Fail!" have different, and totally hilarious, things filled in for them. |
| 137 | ** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsNJ0w0ypmc music video]] for "I Remember", there are a bunch of little references to deadmau5 sprinkled throughout - such as the car the protagonists use having mau5-themed license plate numbers. |
| 138 | ** The bottom text scrolls in the broadcast portions of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr2Bc5qMhE4 "Professional Griefers"]] contain a plethora of [[FunnyBackgroundEvent funny headlines]], including "Mars colonists visiting Canada upset that they had to interact with strangers rather than shoot them" and "[[Film/PulpFiction Zed's dead]]. Service to be held in San Francisco this Wednesday". |
| 139 | * FunWithAcronyms: |
| 140 | ** One of his songs released under his BSOD alias is..."[[ShapedLikeItself BSOD]]". The alias actually stands for "Blue Screen of Death", while the song title means "Better Sounding On Drugs" (which is constantly said throughout the song). |
| 141 | ** "Seeya Next Tuesday" could be an example of "[[CountryMatters C U Next Tuesday]]" except that the official title is shortened to just "Seeya". |
| 142 | ** On his way back from VideoGame/{{Mine|craft}}Con, he Tweeted "DELTA - Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive", after the aforementioned airline apparently lost his luggage. |
| 143 | ** Also, the album '''R'''andom '''A'''lbum '''T'''itle. |
| 144 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZgzN4hwClc In an interview with Rhapsody]], deadmau5 said that he and his friend Steve Duda had come up with an alternate acronym for [=SOFI=]: "Some Other Fucking Idiot". |
| 145 | * AGoodNameForARockBand: Joel's admitted most of his song titles are picked usually at the very last second and are based on random line-of-sight phrases. For example, [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/falling-up.html "Faxing Berlin" was apparently coined in an AIM conversation.]] |
| 146 | * GreatestHitsAlbum: ''5 Years of [=Mau5=]'', which contains some of deadmau5's best works, and remixes of those tracks by various artists, such as Botnek, Dillon Francis, and Shiba San. |
| 147 | * {{Griefer}}: Refers to himself as such. Also has a song titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxNIfVIUdU Professional Griefers]]". |
| 148 | * HatesBeingTouched: [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/09/psa-15-stuffs-you-may-or-may-not-have.html Explicitly stated]] as the reason why he doesn't like getting photos taken. |
| 149 | * HeartsAreHealth: His nearly {{memetic|Mutation}} tattoo on his left arm, which is four pixellated hearts (but are only filled in to two-and-a-half). It's a Zelda reference, though new fans often mistake it as a VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} one; he got the tattoo before Minecraft existed. |
| 150 | * HeroicRROD: In July 2010, he collapsed on stage while performing at the 9:30 Club, caused by performing shows every day and a bad diet. This resulted in his hospitalization and the cancellation of the rest of the shows on that tour. [[http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150242849007527 It's still a sore spot for him.]] |
| 151 | --> "I pass out from over exhaustion in DC. YES 2 month long tours of playing shows back to fucking back MIGHT ACTUALLY DO THAT TO A HUMAN. dear media, get off my case and move on." |
| 152 | * HiddenDepths: For someone who describes himself as a "loudmouthed, opinionated idiot", he has several moments where he displays amazing amounts of insight and intelligence. [[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/18924546282/me-my-awareness-and-my-big-mouth Case]] [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/falling-up.html in]] [[http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150609243922527 point]]. |
| 153 | ** [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/kids-today.html He loves kids]], and says that they're his favorite fans. |
| 154 | ** [[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/19570452553/collaborations-songwritting-and-the-like According to his post about musical collaborations and such]], he likes to read short stories (since he doesn't have enough time to read full-fledged novels). Given the subject matter of songs such as "[[Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu Cthulhu Sleeps]]" and "Literature/TheVeldt", he seems to enjoy reading {{Cosmic Horror Stor|y}}ies and depressing sci-fi. |
| 155 | * HostileShowTakeover: Invoked in the promotional materials for the Meowingtons Hax tour, which involve the titular cat wearing a broken mau5head and tying up the real deadmau5. |
| 156 | * HurricaneOfPuns: During the 2011 Montreal livestream, he broke into a series of squirrel puns. |
| 157 | --> "[[Music/MotleyCrue Squirrels Squirrels Squirrels]]! Who's that squirrel? Squirrels Gone Wild?" |
| 158 | * IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: Directly after tweeting about how his "tweet level" is [[Manga/DragonBall over 9000]]: "[[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/185825703370039296 Seriously, I've been waiting 4 years to tweet that.]]" |
| 159 | * IJustWantToBeNormal: His general, very vocal sentiment about his fame. He has stated many, ''many'' times that just wants to be someone who writes and performs music for his own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others, and that being famous is entirely overrated and that he doesn't care for it. He doesn't like to be looked up to or constantly praised, and [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/falling-up.html says that he'll never get used to being a "celebrity"]]. |
| 160 | -->"[[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2011/04/fanmail.html whether im globally conceived to be, or not, i don't aspire to be a role model, and i dont aspire to be a leader, prophet or all around advocate of anything other than "the silly shit i get up to when im in my element" which, ironicly enough, just so happens to be making music.]]" |
| 161 | ** This even applies to things like awards (which you'd only likely know about from looking on Wikipedia because he ''never talks about them'')...on the Christmas 2011 stream, he stated that he doesn't really care about the Grammys all that much because he "doesn't need a plastic statue to validate that I make music". |
| 162 | * IdiosyncraticCoverArt: All of his album and single covers have some kind of mau5head on them. ''Vexillology'' and ''At Play, Vol 1'' are the only aversions, and even then the former's art still has a [[VisualPun dead mouse]] on it. |
| 163 | * IgnoreTheFanservice: |
| 164 | ** [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150194381311806&set=a.10150194380116806.307482.9980651805&type=3&theater Surrounded by scantily-clad women wearing mau5heads?]] He looks like he'd rather be somewhere else. Though [=SOFI=] hugging him [[HatesBeingTouched might not help matters]]. |
| 165 | ** A pretty amusing example is when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhaKb_950ZM someone handed him a circuit-bent Speak and Spell]] and he just played with it while ignoring the girls trying to talk to him. |
| 166 | --> '''[=YouTube=] Comment''': "I love Joel. Women are trying to talk to him and he's happily ignoring them for a hacked children's toy that makes noises." |
| 167 | * InsistentTerminology: ''Hates'' being called a DJ, as "there is no jockeying of discs going on".[[note]]Technically, he is a producer since he makes his own music, but [=DJs=] his own stuff at his live shows.[[/note]] |
| 168 | * IntercourseWithYou: "Hey Baby" and "Afterhours". And possibly also "Sofi Needs a Ladder". |
| 169 | ** "Hey Baby" is basically an electro-house version of [[Music/DonnaSummer "Love To Love You Baby"]]. Made together with fellow canadian showgirl and singer Melleefresh (with which Joel did quite a lot of sex-themed electro-house songs), [[TheImmodestOrgasm it features her sexual moaning in the background at a certain point of the song.]] |
| 170 | * {{Irony}}: A house producer complaining about how obnoxiously loud his neighbors are during one livestream. For extra irony, they even play ''his own music''. |
| 171 | --> "Dude, I ''know'' they're listening to me, that's the ''sad'' part. And they...''blast'' my ''shit'' like they ''want'' me to hear it. And I don't get it...why they do that. It's so annoying." |
| 172 | * LargeHam: He normally already has a little of this in his personality (and it really comes out when he's drunk), but he brings it up to eleven when he's performing or on camera. [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150208292111806&set=a.10150208285616806.311444.9980651805&type=3&theater For]] [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150208294766806&set=a.10150208285616806.311444.9980651805&type=3&theater example]]. |
| 173 | ** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKfzd_Gq7Eo Suicide a la mau5]]" is a totally hamtastic example. |
| 174 | ** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ZSfTvhE-o deadlob5ter]]" is three minutes of prime ham. |
| 175 | * LethalChef: In one of his really, really [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oex6sjhzNM old videos]], he managed to screw up making an omelette (it somehow resulted in ''scrambled eggs''). In the 2011 Christmas Eve stream, reheating soup in a pot was considered a huge success for him ("This soup was made with magnets!"), and his caption for a picture of his [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150561919571806&set=a.10150561918441806.375354.9980651805&type=3&theater newly-renovated kitchen]] was "the kitchen, where cooking will likely never get done". He can apparently make Kraft Dinner, though. |
| 176 | * Letters2Numbers: deadmau5. It was originally going to be spelled correctly but couldn't fit the character limit for an IRC username. |
| 177 | * LineOfSightName: [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible With a tattoo rather than a name]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRGzh7h2Ugk The origin of the scissors tattoo on his left arm]]. He was hanging out with [[Music/MotleyCrue Tommy Lee]] and arbitrarily decided to get a tattoo, but didn't know what to get until he saw some packaging with the scissors-and-dotted-line symbol on it. |
| 178 | * LiteralMinded: Very much so. |
| 179 | ** One such instance is when he saw the album cover for Music/LadyGaga's ''Born This Way'': "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jB0yFPkUsI I'd hate to give birth to that motorcycle-thing, that's big.]]" See also: ExactWords above. |
| 180 | ** Likewise, he has stated that when told not to curse, he literally thinks of it as not cursing someone, as in hexes and such. |
| 181 | ** Also, he has a ''literal'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck66ML-ByrM flying fuck]]. |
| 182 | ** Reportedly, the title of "Right This Second" came from someone telling him [[ExactWords "You have to name this song right this second!"]] |
| 183 | * LonelyAtTheTop: Has an [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/09/everyone-wants-something.html entire blog post]] about being unable to have a "normal" romantic relationship because of his career. This trope is also pretty much heavily implied often with his anecdotes and streams, such as during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiT3_sQbq24 Valentines Day 2012]] ("Guess I'll be spending Valentine's Day alone.") and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9jhUGvb67k Christmas Eve 2011]] ("Why aren't you with your family?" "I am with my family, I'm with you guys. I'm by myself in my empty-ass house.") streams, not to mention several other times where he's ranted about being treated differently by others because of his fame (such as his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4piSzm4oSk rant about shopping]], brought on by a Facebook comment). |
| 184 | ** He's also mentioned struggling with depression and anxiety over the past year and is still reluctant about saying that he's "happy" when asked by fans ("...I'm getting there, but I wouldn't consider myself fucking ''blissfully happy''! In my house, all by myself, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking looking for a Coke]]!") |
| 185 | ** The blog post "[[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/falling-up.html Falling Up]]" (where the page quote is taken from) also has shades of this. |
| 186 | * LonelyPianoPiece: Has several of these. |
| 187 | ** The ''entirety'' of his EP ''7'' is this, with one piano piece for each of the 7 deadly sins. |
| 188 | ** "Creep" from ''while(1<2)'' also counts. Several of the pieces from the aformentioned EP made it onto this album as well. |
| 189 | ** From ''Get Scraped'', there is "I Forget", which appears to share some melodies with "I Remember". |
| 190 | * LongSongShortScene: Is practically a RunningGag with him. He has TONS of unfinished or just plain unreleased projects in various computers and drives at home and items up on his [=SoundCloud=], either because he simply forgot about them, got bored working on them, or thinks they are too flawed, which is a shame, because a decent amount of said songs are actually quite good. For instance, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdDEtj79DyU Swinged]]" was mentioned in a later livestream as "too busy", and he hasn't really worked on it since he first posted it. |
| 191 | ** "Meowingtons Enables Hax", "Sleeping Beauty Pills", and various Minecraft-related projects have yet to have been released or have had new versions posted. |
| 192 | ** "To Play Us Out" is never going to get an official release because of [[{{Sampling}} licensing issues]]. |
| 193 | * LyricalDissonance: "The Veldt", which at first sounds serene and hopeful with its lyrics of "A world that the children made" filled with animals and a beating sun, but is far darker when you realize [[Literature/TheVeldt the short story it's based on]] is about how they lured their parents into a virtual-reality device to be eaten alive by lions. |
| 194 | * MamaBear: His mother. |
| 195 | --> "[[http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2861405 You know what? Never, ever, ever tell me I can't talk to my son.]]" |
| 196 | * MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: Implied in the "Professional Griefers" video, the ending of which may make a lot more sense when you notice the very first news headline on the bottom scroll reading "[[AIIsACrapshoot Meowtingtons Corp issues massive recall on robotic cats due to faulty logic chip]]". |
| 197 | * MoodWhiplash: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jDbxG5mDA Careless]]" is a complete mastery of this trope. When the piano originally comes in, it sounds mournful, before a break happens and it proceeds to sound hopeful for the rest of the song. Each set of vocal verses start out sounding like it's about a guy loving someone regardless of their flaws before going into lines that reveal that it's actually about him being too apathetic to break up with them or even ''care'' about said person. |
| 198 | * MustHaveNicotine: A good way to tell during livestreams if he's stressed out or depressed is to watch how many cigarettes he smokes in a given time period. The worse his emotional state (even if [[TheStoic he doesn't outwardly show it]]), the more he'll smoke. |
| 199 | * NerdsAreSexy: He has legions of female fans professing their love to him on Facebook and Tumblr, porn stars and models who gladly talk to (and flirt with!) him on Twitter, and an ex-girlfriend who's a Magazine/{{Playboy}} model. ''He qualifies.'' |
| 200 | * NoIndoorVoice: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKqziMnvnTA When he's absolutely drunk]]. |
| 201 | * NothingIsScarier: His biggest fear is "being alone". |
| 202 | * OffTheWagon: Fell off ''hard'' at the end of 2011. His house renovation, lack of a studio (but majorly itching to work on music), break-up with his girlfriend of a year, and his struggle with his depression, combined with no touring to keep his mind off of things, led to him [[MustHaveNicotine taking up smoking again]], as well as far more mentions of him getting [[DrowningMySorrows really drunk]] after his unhooked performances at the beginning of 2012. He got better, although he still has some occasional problems with depression. |
| 203 | * OlderThanTheyLook: [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150289025606806&set=a.100357766805.100899.9980651805&type=3&theater He looks really good for someone in his mid-30's]]. It's been said that he can pass for 18 when he shaves. |
| 204 | * OneNoteCook: His mother, apparently. He said that she can only make really good shepherd's pie with the rest of what she makes being "shit". It would certainly explain his own LethalChef tendencies... |
| 205 | * OralFixation: The only possible reason why [[http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000tTSlxE3CIpw/s/750/Lolla-2011-Day3030.jpg this photo]] exists. |
| 206 | * OutOfGenreExperience: |
| 207 | ** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnwfTHpnGLY Raise Your Weapon]]" is this, two times. It opens up as nothing more than solemn piano chords and a drum beat for about four minutes, [[{{Dubstep}} and then the drop happens]]. |
| 208 | ** One unreleased song on his [=SoundCloud=], "[[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/deadmau5-sleeping-beauty-pills-pre-production-version?page=9 Sleeping Beauty Pills]]", is a...''rock'' song? With him doing vocals? |
| 209 | ** "[[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/deadmau5-failbait-ft-cypres Failbait]]" and "Legendary" are ''hip-hop'' songs (albeit with a glitchy flair) featuring Music/CypressHill and Shotty Horroh, respectively. |
| 210 | ** "Seeya". Let's say that "Ghosts N Stuff" is to "Seeya" as [[Music/DaftPunk "Harder Better Faster Stronger" is to "Get Lucky"]]. Yeah, "Seeya" is actually something of a ''funk'' song with vocals from Colleen D'Agostino, based around a lone repeating bass riff with the occasional electronic smidgen. |
| 211 | ** His collaborations with Shotty Horroh, including the officially-released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c3FH6PheKM "Legendary"]] are also hip-hop tracks, with slight dubstep inspirations and free use of {{Sampling}}. |
| 212 | * PerpetualFrowner: The number of photos of him frowning, stoic, or making some silly face ''far'' outnumber the few photos you can find of him outright, genuinely smiling. Averted in his videos and in live streams, in which he actually smiles a bit more often. |
| 213 | * PopStarComposer: He scored the soundtrack to ''Film/{{Polar}}'', released as the soundtrack album ''Polar (Music from the Netflix Film)''. Some of the tracks recycle elements from previous tracks, officially-released and otherwise. |
| 214 | * PrecisionFStrike: "My Pet Coelacanth" has one that comes straight out of nowhere at 1 minute and half through the song. |
| 215 | * PungeonMaster: He absolutely ''loves'' puns. The examples seen in ExactWords and LiteralMinded above are only a ''small fraction'' of the number of puns he's made. |
| 216 | * RearrangeTheSong: |
| 217 | ** He frequently uploads ([[MissingEpisode and deletes]]) [=WIPs=] all over the place, some of which end up becoming officially released under new titles after substantial tweaking. Some examples include: |
| 218 | *** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26DbQcrmAWo Old Ghosts]]", a song that would after ten or so revisions become "Ghosts 'n' Stuff". |
| 219 | *** "Aural Psynapse" is actually a re-edit of a song that he made ''in 2001'' under his old [=Halcyon441=] name, also titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufyx6Yqy2CM Aural Psynapse]]". Not only are the synth lines similar, but the background effects used in the song (which are especially obvious right at the beginning) later showed up in "Strobe" and "[=HR8938=] Cephei". |
| 220 | *** "Strobe" is actually two previously existing songs put together, one of which being "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJdvdq697ts Then We Stood Still]]". |
| 221 | *** Like "Strobe", "Fn Pig" combines "Get in the Cart, Pig" with what ended up being an entirely different song. Several uploads on his [=SoundCloud=] show him toying with different ways of continuing the massive "Cart" introduction, with the original upload ending in what sounds like 90s rave. |
| 222 | *** "Brazil" was originally much more [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2jBI_eixvU chill and meditative]]. It's completely unrecognizable from "Brazil (2nd Edit)." |
| 223 | *** ''W:/2016ALBUM/'' contains several tracks that are reworkings of tracks that Joel uploaded to his Soundcloud. One example of this is "Let Go", which was in its most original form known as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWwSFAe1onw "aassddff"]]. |
| 224 | *** An example of this where both songs have been officially released comes with [[SdrawkcabName "ebortS"]], which first appears as a moody but hard-hitting [[TrapMusic trap beat]]... and then fades in the intro to "Strobe". |
| 225 | ** On the continuous mix version of ''Random Album Title'', "Faxing Berlin" is preceded by a brief piano rendition. |
| 226 | * RefugeInAudacity: He came on stage in a live performance in Montreal ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9NnkSSDcfA without any pants on]]''. |
| 227 | -->"... but to be fair, [[NotWearingPantsDream you know those nightmares you have about being in front of thousands of people with no pants on]]? [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150331140366806&set=a.100357766805.100899.9980651805&type=3&theater yeah, i had to give it a go n see what thats all about.]]" |
| 228 | * RenaissanceMan: On top of making awesome electronica music, he skateboards (badly), snowboards, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTYH0vh0ap0 jet-skis]], [[JustForFun/OneOfUs plays video games]], does web design and web programming, computer programming, 3D modeling and animation, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBKueTCYBhQ Flash animation]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr8TTRPGal0 plays the piano]] and is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF6vYOZ3a_o learning the guitar]], and ''[[HiddenDepths photography]]''. The best part? Nearly all of that is self-taught, and he encourages his fans to do the same. |
| 229 | --> "Full Fail! dude! save the cash! learn on the internets!" |
| 230 | ** He's not only a pianist, but a ''[[HiddenDepths classically trained]]'' pianist. He said on the Joe Rogen podcast that his parents enrolled him in "piano boot camp" since "I was, like, ''three''". |
| 231 | * RevisitingTheRoots: ''while(1<2)'' moves Joel back into the darker, more depressing trip-hop-ish territory seen in ''Get Scrapped'' after Joel had his falling out with Electro House and dance music as a whole. |
| 232 | * RightHandCat: Professor Meowingtons is his cat, who shows up in several of his official Website/YouTube videos and is the namesake of his [[HostileShowTakeover Meowingtons Hax]] tour. He also has three songs about him: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqdHyinGj4U Meowingtons Enables Hax]]", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjoAZrHPupg Have You Seen My Cat?]]", and "[[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/professor-meowingtons Professor Meowingtons]]". He also brings [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luf1vV85M1E Meowingtons]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTxQhz4ADiI on]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-c8u6Pm1Bc livestreams]], often at the (very vocal) requests of his fans. |
| 233 | * RuleThirtyFour: There is indeed porn of him. [[HoYay With]] Music/{{Skrillex}}. He's rather chill about it. |
| 234 | -->"[[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/10758917947/what-do-you-think-of-all-the-porn-of-you-with-skrillex What do you think of all the porn of you with skrillex. haha]]" |
| 235 | -->"…well now the world knows what you think about it. go outside or somethin for a while dude." |
| 236 | ** There's also a decent amount with him and Music/DaftPunk. |
| 237 | * RunningGag: |
| 238 | ** "Skrillex is Not Even Funny", after it was coined in a Ustream session. |
| 239 | ** [[RightHandCat Meowingtons]] being fat is another one. |
| 240 | ** He started another one involving his new songs on [=SoundCloud=]: ever since "Cthulhu Dreams", nearly every new song's genre has been listed on the site as "[item]-[[{{Dubstep}} step]]", such as "Elderstep" for "Cthulhu Dreams", "Pigstep" for "Get in the October Cart, Pig", "Catstep" for "Professor Meowingtons", "[[Creator/StevenSpielberg StephenSpeilbergstep]]" for "[[ShoutOut Closer]]", and "Octoberstep" for "November Second". |
| 241 | * {{Sampling}}: |
| 242 | ** He generally only does this at live shows (such as sampling Music/DaftPunk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger" in a live performance of "Professional Griefers"), but there's a rare instance of sampling at the beginning of "Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff", using a quote from the movie ''Film/TheBrainFromPlanetArous''. |
| 243 | ** Another song, "To Play Us Out", samples the memetically infamous Creator/BillOReilly rant, which the song title derives its name from. |
| 244 | ** One of his really old songs, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ltFYTT0ok Intelstat]]", not only sounds like something from ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'', but has vocals sampled from a song in the first movie. |
| 245 | ** His own music is prone to being sampled by other artists - famous incidents include the Music/BlackEyedPeas's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh2giDlkc_w sampling of "You And I" in "The Time"]], Alexis Jordan sampling [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJguxZ2QTSs "Brazil (2nd Edit)" in "Happiness"]], and Nick Cannon's very blatant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLGdtRUO2dc sampling of "I Remember"]]. |
| 246 | ** The PrecisionFStrike in "My Pet Coelacanth" is taken from ''WebVideo/TheTourettesGuy''. |
| 247 | * SayItWithHearts: Often while posting to his fandom. Likes to use emoticons in everyday online speech, too. |
| 248 | -->"...hahaha despite the 2 minor hiccups, we had so much fun! i'll be back you guys! ♥ night night! im off to Durban tomorrow! :)" |
| 249 | * SelfDeprecatingHumor: Often. He really enjoys making fun of himself. |
| 250 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_XtHebsOQ This video]] about his 2012 residency in Las Vegas has him failing ''miserably'' at any job that isn't performing his music. |
| 251 | ** In [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=441786091805&set=a.441785466805.227242.9980651805&type=3&theater this]] signed picture, he wrote "total idiot!" above himself. |
| 252 | ** In the video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig71F3yOeAk Mr. Happy]], the video momentarily stops with the word "Idiot" next to him. |
| 253 | ** On his interview on ''The Last Call With Carson Daly'', he referred to himself as a "loudmouthed, opinionated idiot". |
| 254 | * ShirtlessScene: [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ugj54BSQ1rseofso1_1280.png This picture]] of him drunk with [[WebVideo/EpicMealTime Muscles Glasses]]. |
| 255 | --> "[[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/186774378879528961 did i seriously tweet a pic of me and @musclesglasses shirtless on a couch in ottawa... fuck... i did. FUCK. lol #backpeddle]]" |
| 256 | * ShoutOut: Many of them. |
| 257 | ** The song title "LimitBreak". |
| 258 | *** The song itself has sound effects from the 8-bit [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] titles. |
| 259 | ** The song titles "Professional Griefers" and "Get in the Cart, Pig" are both VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} in-jokes. |
| 260 | ** "Sofi Needs a Ladder" is a retooling of one of his unreleased songs "You Need a Ladder", which references the idea that having a ladder would solve most of the puzzles in the 3D Zelda titles. |
| 261 | *** Speaking of which, "You Need a Ladder" starts with the 8-bit Zelda overworld theme. |
| 262 | ** The animations for his live shows reference Pac-Man, VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}, VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld, and VideoGame/MegaMan. Past ones have also referenced the original VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI. |
| 263 | ** The concept art for his graphic novel is often full of them, but [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150374596361806&set=a.100357766805.100899.9980651805&type=3&theater this image]] of his tank takes the cake. For one, it's very clearly a souped-up [[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Tachikoma]]. Others have noted similarities to ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' and ''ComicBook/TankGirl''. |
| 264 | ** In earlier shows, [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=385179301805&set=a.385178291805.171699.9980651805&type=3&theater the LED Mau5head]] would occasionally have the face of a [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Cylon]]. |
| 265 | ** The video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7cJSuKZe0 The Unveiling]]" turns out being a ShoutOut to [[spoiler: WebAnimation/TheLazerCollection]]. |
| 266 | ** Upon arriving in Johannesburg for his latest tour, he Tweeted a bunch of Film/{{District 9}} references. |
| 267 | --> "It's cool. Our prawny friends can come to the show too. Afterparty at District 9 ;)" |
| 268 | --> "FREE CAT FOOD AT [=H2O=] TONIGHT!" |
| 269 | ** One of his songs from ''> album title goes here <'' is titled "Literature/TheVeldt", and has lyrics that explicitly reference the story. |
| 270 | *** Not to mention the [[VideoGame/{{Limbo}} video's]] [[http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/59/a3/1340749219_6780_dead7.jpg aesthetic]]. |
| 271 | ** The song title "[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Superliminal]]", as well as "Channel [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy 42]]". |
| 272 | ** "[[ShoutOut Closer]]" uses the the five tones from Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind as its general basis. |
| 273 | ** ''Get Scraped'' features the song "[[Music/BoardsOfCanada Bored of Canada]]." |
| 274 | ** "Creep" was allegedly inspired by ''VideoGame/Metroid1''. |
| 275 | ** The original version of "My Opinion" features the lyrical melody of "[[Music/DaftPunk Harder Better Faster Stronger]]", and warps the lyrics to make them insulting. |
| 276 | * SignatureHeadgear: |
| 277 | ** The giant helmets he wears, called "mau5head"s. He has several of them, including an LED one that serves as an ExpressiveMask. |
| 278 | ** The baseball caps he ''always'' wears could qualify, too. |
| 279 | %%* SitcomArchNemesis: Music/DavidGuetta. |
| 280 | %%* SirSwearsALot: ALL of the time. It's brought up to eleven when he gets angry or enthusiastic. |
| 281 | * SophisticatedAsHell: His [[ClusterFBomb constant cussing]] combined with his large vocabulary often results in this. It's taken up to eleven when he's talking equipment and computers, because in those cases his cursing is mixed with tech jargon, resulting in gems such as "fucking modular oscillation". |
| 282 | * SoProudOfYou: To Music/{{Skrillex}} [[http://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/142179392251117568 for getting five Grammy nominations.]] |
| 283 | ** And to the same person for ''winning'' three of those, even beating deadmau5 himself for all of them. |
| 284 | --> "[[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/168808938555457536 Congrats to @skrillex for the best remix grammy :) can't say I'm not proud!]]" |
| 285 | --> "[[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/168822431690137602 Another epic win for @skrillex ! Cleaning house :)]]" |
| 286 | --> "[[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/168823138841399298 And @skrillex cleans out the mau5. ;) I wouldn't let anyone else do it. Oh well, I got a rad gift bag! :)]]" |
| 287 | * StageNames: deadmau5, with his real name being Joel Zimmerman, as previously stated. |
| 288 | * StellarName: |
| 289 | ** "HR 8938 Cephei" is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_221525 this]] star. |
| 290 | ** "Polaris" obtains its name from the star of the same name, which is usually known as the North Star. |
| 291 | * TakeThat: |
| 292 | ** His first ever hit, a collaboration with Steve Duda under the [=BSOD=] alias titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9wJaFl1Ww This Is The Hook]]", is a Take That against how formulaic house music is. |
| 293 | ** Issuing {{Take That}}s on Music/DavidGuetta is practically a RunningGag (though it's less animosity towards the guy himself and more towards his style of producing - "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiT3_sQbq24&t=42m17s He's like a human-fucking-mashup!]]"). |
| 294 | -->"[[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/14297288053/if-you-could-punch-a-political-figure-in-the-face-who If you could punch a political figure in the face, who would it be?]]" |
| 295 | -->"david guetta." |
| 296 | ** Music/{{Avicii}} also became recurring target, with nearly every 2012 livestream so far has had at least one TakeThat towards him. |
| 297 | --> "He's running a cracked version of Sylenth. What, [=DJ=]ing doesn't pay enough for you to buy a two-hundred-dollar plugin?" |
| 298 | ** During the March 26, 2012 livestream, he joked that he has likely issued some kind of TakeThat against ''everyone'' at this point (a small list of people so far includes Avicii, Justin Bieber, Ed Hardy, Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Neon Hitch, Madonna, Pauly D, Snooki, Britney Spears, and Tiesto). |
| 299 | ** After posting a demo of "Sunspot" on his [=SoundCloud=], he later posted "[[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/sunspot-da-exxxxxxtreme-drop Sunspot (da eXXXXXXtreme drop mix)]]", a 15-second dubstep version demo lampooning all of the then-recent dubstep trends "of the past year", including seemingly-random effects and sampling, like the style found in Music/{{Skrillex}}'s work. |
| 300 | ** While talking about Boxx, the company that made the laptop he was using at the time: "It's like Alienware, but it doesn't suck." |
| 301 | ** A particularly glorious example is when he trashed the entirety of the internet song "Hot Problems" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kRwaN8zGOb4 during a livestream]], which also crossed heavily into DisproportionateRetribution and CrossesTheLineTwice. |
| 302 | --> "Wait wait wait...hang on. This isn't Music/RebeccaBlack...this is ''actually worse''." *pained laugh* |
| 303 | --> "I am extremely looking forward to social collapse." |
| 304 | --> "[[DisproportionateRetribution ...I am going to use the one on the left's skull as a FUCKING SOUP BOWL!]]" |
| 305 | ** At Ultra 2014, he took a few potshots at his newest enemy, then-recent breakout EDM star Martin Garrix. During his performance later that night, he played an edit of his infamous "Animals" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0zWguEOxachis set to "Old McDonald Had a Farm"]]. To top things off, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW5L0Tq93vY he also mixed Avicii's "Levels" into "Ghosts 'n' Stuff"]] as a follow-up. |
| 306 | * TattooedCrook: Subverted in that, while he looks the part with the many, many tattoos he has, the most trouble he ever seems to get into is silly stuff like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RtEtv3LzrI accidentally breaking some glass doors while riding on a flight case]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-q0anRDGto jumping into a pool from a balcony]]. |
| 307 | * TechnologyPorn: Since he's a musical gear-head, this happens often. A few examples are the videos "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D26U26fFojw Modular Mouse]]", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cRt9QeItEg mau5trap recordings]]", and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTFpMYhRbkQ i normally do this on sundays]]". |
| 308 | ** A non-musical-equipment example is in the video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdfDWiGXbGA Pretty Princess Paul]]", in which the camera lovingly pans over the Ducati he bought for his tour manager. |
| 309 | ** There's a verbal example in the Valentine's Day 2012 stream where he's [[http://youtu.be/oiT3_sQbq24?t=5m10s gushing about the awesome new features and specs]] of the [[ExpressiveMask LED Mau5head 2.0]]. |
| 310 | * ThisMeansWar: [[http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150101649327527 Used word-for-word]] as the title for a Facebook post about...[[SeriousBusiness a snowball fight]]. |
| 311 | * TitleDrop: A ''very'' subtle one in the [[NothingIsScarier abrupt ending]] to "Take Care of the Proper Paperwork". It requires amplification to hear it, but you can just ''barely'' hear somebody repeatedly saying something, [[https://twitter.com/deadmau5/status/250724138296152064 which is apparently "Take care of the proper paperwork."]] |
| 312 | * TotallyRadical: Actually uses "rad" and "gnarly" in everyday conversation, but [[NarmCharm makes it sound cool anyway]]. |
| 313 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: His love for Coca-Cola is very well-known. It's to the point that he's stated that he turned down a ''six-figure deal'' from Pepsi. |
| 314 | * {{Troll}}: His signature brand of humor. Examples include posting on Facebook that his agent has been fired during a venue mishap (without actually firing the guy), and tweeting that he supposedly lost his demo Playstation Vita in a cab a day or so after he got it from Sony just to see how much trouble he would (theoretically) get into. Not to mention all the times he has fed the trolls on Twitter and Facebook just for sheer lulz. |
| 315 | ** And as if you had any doubt left, [[https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/168848299217006595/photo/1 he went to the 2012 Grammys]] wearing a shirt that had Skrillex's real phone number on it with "u mad bro?" underneath. |
| 316 | ** Even his management is in on it, though - one instance was when his manager texted him about how the Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto who signed his arm was just a stand-in...while he was getting said signature tattooed into his arm. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensued]]. |
| 317 | * TropeName: He's a huge fan of this, normally because he admits he doesn't usually make anything with names in mind and thus come at the last minute. |
| 318 | ** For starters, three of his albums are named ''Random Album Title'', ''> album title goes here <'', and ''W:/2016ALBUM/''. He also has the almost-example ''[[LampshadeHanging For Lack of a Better Name]]''. |
| 319 | ** Also, "Some Chords", which starts with...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin some chords]]. The trope is also arguably invoked with ''For Lack of a Better Name'', the album released after ''Random Album Title'', as well as the song "Lack of a Better Name", the title track of the aforementioned album. |
| 320 | ** "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" is also an odd minor example pertaining only to the song's music video. The song's video pretty much perfectly matches the song title, as it consists of a ghost doing random stuff. |
| 321 | ** He's already started joking about naming his next album ''IDK'' (''I Don't Know'') or ''IDFK'' (''I Don't Fucking Know''), after being asked about what he's going to name it by a fan on Twitter. |
| 322 | ** His {{dubstep}} demos on [=SoundCloud=] have [[SarcasmMode creative titles]] such as "[[BuffySpeak Dub5tepthingie2]]". |
| 323 | * TroubledButCute: [[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/discontentment-and-spellchecking.html He has problems]], and has no qualms about posting about them online [[DespairEventHorizon when he gets really depressed]]. As for the "cute" part, see NerdsAreSexy above. |
| 324 | * UnsoundEffect: Anytime a notification sound on his computer plays during one of his livestreams, he always follows it up with a verbal "DING!". |
| 325 | * VisualPun: The video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqMKelSpgNM My Cat Hates My Fans]]. |
| 326 | * VitriolicBestBuds: Type 2 with Skrillex. The "vitrolic" part is mostly one-sided, though, as deadmau5 generally makes fun of Skrillex far more than Skrillex makes fun of him. |
| 327 | * WritersCannotDoMath: The name of the album ''4x4=12'' is an in-joke stemming from a live-stream incident in which he was describing his setup and said [[BookDumb "four times four, which is twelve"]]. After [[HilarityEnsues his fans poked fun at him for it]], he decided to name his next album after the incident. Also {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in "Maths", where the only vocal line is a faint voice saying "four PLUS four PLUS four is twelve" at a few points in the song. |
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