History Music / Deadmau5

* RunningGag: "Skrillex is Not Even Funny", after it was coined in a UStream session.

-->"…well now the world knows what you think about it. go outside or somethin for a while dude."

** The video "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7cJSuKZe0 The Unveiling]]" turns out being a ShoutOut to [[spoiler: TheLazerCollection]].

--> "HEY, frickin' douchebag! Hey Ed Hardly, go fuck yourself, you fucking idiot! Take your JerseyShore and get the fuck out of the door!"

** Another song, "To Play Us Out", samples the memetically infamous [[TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly]] rant, which the song title derives its name from.

Real name Joel Zimmerman, he was born and 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 derisively calls "laptop music"), [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D26U26fFojw he uses huge racks of analog modular CV equipment]] to produce them. After dropping out of high school, doing many odd jobs over the years (including being contracted for an IT job for two years using [[{{Badass}} 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, he 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.

* ImageBoards: Goes on (and is well-liked by) /b/ (and claims to have gotten his start there), but has a mutual hatred of /mu/. He says that he doesn't post, though, only preferring to lurk.

* BuffySpeak: While teasing {{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]]"

* ButtMonkey: {{Skrillex}} is often the [[StealthPun butt]] of deadmau5's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhRbpMspDsw jokes]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHeuAp0Tll8 pranks]].

* RuleThirtyFour: There is indeed porn of him. [[HoYay With]] {{Skrillex}}. He's rather chill about it.

* RunningGag: "{{Skrillex}} is Not Even Funny", after it was coined in a UStream session.

* SitcomArchNemesis: David Guetta. See CanadaEh above and TakeThat below.

* SoProudOfYou: To {{Skrillex}} [[http://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/142179392251117568 for getting five Grammy nominations.]]

** Avicii is starting to become the next DavidGuetta in terms of {{Take That}}s being a RunningGag now, too. Nearly every 2012 livestream so far has had at least one TakeThat towards him.

** 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 recent dubstep trends "of the past year", including seemingly-random effects and sampling, like the style found in {{Skrillex}}'s work.

!!Tropes Related to Deadmau5:

** "[[https://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/are-you-not-afraid-blah Are you not afraid blah]]" is another hip-hop song that's so well-produced that if Deadmau5 is the ''last'' person you'd think of being capable of making that beat.

* StageNames: Deadmau5, with his real name being Joel Zimmerman, as previously stated.

* XtremeKoolLetterz / Letters2Numbers: Deadmau5. Justified in that it was originally going to be spelled correctly but couldn't fit the character limit for an IRC username.

* [[LineOfSightName Line of Sight Tattoo]]: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRGzh7h2Ugk The origin of the scissors tattoo on his left arm]]. He was hanging out with [[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.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''while(1<2)'' is definitely a lot more introspective and darker than the good majority of his older songs. If anything, Joel pretty much abandoned trying to make dance music and moved towards creating a more personal, somber, NineInchNails inspired sound.

* WritersCannotDoMath: ''4x4=12'', in what is a rare example of a ''[[EpicFail musician]]'' failing at math. The album name is an in-joke stemming from a live-stream incident in which he was describing his setup and said "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.

* WritersCannotDoMath: ''[[CaptainObvious 4x4=12]]'', in what is a rare example of a ''[[EpicFail musician]]'' failing at math. The album name is an in-joke stemming from a live-stream incident in which he was describing his setup and said "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.

** Even his management is in on it, though - one instance was when his manager texted him about how the ShigeruMiyamoto who signed his arm was just a stand in...while he was getting said signature tattooed into his arm. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensued]].

** 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/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Cylon]].

** One of his really old songs, "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ltFYTT0ok Intelstat]]", not only sounds like something from GhostInTheShell, but has vocals sampled from a song in the first movie.

** The concept art for his upcoming 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 [[GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Tachikoma]]. Others have noted similarities to StarCraft and ''ComicBook/TankGirl''.

** "How's United We Fail going?" "[[DevelopmentHell It's not ''going'' anywhere!]]"

** Another song, "To Play Us Out", samples the [[MemeticMutation memetically infamous]] [[TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly]] rant, which the song title derives its name from.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: [[https://twitter.com/deadmau5/status/280920822577782785 Right here, and lampshaded]]
** Apparently, [[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/61526512529/damn it gave him ideas.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: while(1<2) is definitely a lot more introspective and darker than the good majority of his older songs. If anything, Joel pretty much abandoned trying to make dance music and moved towards creating a more personal, somber, NineInchNails inspired sound.

** Seeya Next Tuesday could be an example of [[CountryMatters C U Next Tuesday]] except that the official title is shortened to just "Seeya".

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Seeya". Let's say that "Ghosts N Stuff" is to "Seeya" as [[Music/DaftPunk "Harder Better Faster Stronger" is to "Get Lucky"]]. The only hints of electronic in the song are in the occasional distorted harmonization or the offhand wubwub, while the song is actually more funk-based, established around vocals from Colleen D'Agostino and a bass riff.

* InMemoriam: On June 3, 2007, Spanish producer and creator of music software Arguru (real name Juan Antonio Arguella Rius) lost control of his car which then slammed into an RV, killing him. Soon after, Joel and DJ Chris Lake produced [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLALcdmxbh4 this track]] christened with his nickname in his honor.