Comedian Chris D’Elia generated one of the internet’s funniest memes (“You using way too many napkins!”) last year when he did an over-the-top impression of an Eminem freestyle in his car so good, it got the rapper’s attention. After Em reached out, the two arranged a meetup and D’Elia even landed a role as the rapper in Logic’s “Homicide” video. Recently, D’Elia detailed the experience on his YouTube channel, revealing an unexpected twist in the tale: In a case of impression inception, Eminem reversed roles with the comedian when they met, performing D’Elia’s impression of himself and proving he was in on the joke.
Chris says Eminem was gracious about the video — and its viral follow-up — saying, “He was like, ‘You killed that impression, man. It was so funny… And the one in the garage when you’re out of breath. Dude that’s hilarious because I get out of breath sometimes.'” He says that the first thing Eminem said to him was, “Flappin’ around like a bapkin,” a cheeky reference to the original freestyle video, which Chris calls “the craziest f*cking thing… He’s doing my impression to me of him.”
The comedian calls the experience “mind-blowing” and said they talked about hip-hop and comedy for two hours and that Eminem was “a normal, cool guy.” It looks like this is one of those rare times when meeting your idol turned out to be a good thing.
