Punch Up the Jam

Punch Up the Jam was a music and comedy podcast hosted first by Miel Bredouw and Demi Adejuyigbe, and later by Andrew and Evan Gregory. The podcast, hosted by Headgum, started in December 2017 and concluded in December 2022. The podcast discussed popular singles, including their production, instrumentation, vocals, and lyrics, and often ended episodes with a "punched up" version in which some element of the song was rewritten in a comedic way ^[1][2][3].

Most podcast episodes featured a comedic guest, including notable comedians such as Ayo Edebiri, Chris Fleming, Adam Conover, Amir Blumenfeld, Jake Hurwitz, Nicole Byer, Weird Al Yankovic, Negin Farsad and others. Bredouw and Adejuyigbe also performed multiple live shows across the United States.

The show's theme music is a mash-up of "Pump Up the Jam" by Technotronic and "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon.

Episodes begin with an enthusiastic introduction of the comedic guest. Together with the guest, the hosts then discuss one popular single for the entirety of the episode. The discussion often begins with some discussion of the song's history and trivia regarding its writing and production ^[3]. The hosts then walk through the song section by section, often clipping just a verse, chorus, or bridge, discussing and critiquing the instrumentation, vocals, and lyrics ^[1]. After discussing the entire song, almost every episode includes a "punched-up" version in which a host produces a parody that changes the original song's music or lyrics in a comedic way ^[1]. Some songs, however, are praised as "unpunchable" and thus no punch-up is aired. Finally, each interview ends with the hosts and guest offering their own "unpunchable jam" of the week as music recommendations.^[4] These were curated into a Spotify playlist by Adejuyigbe from 2017 through 2019.^[3]

Bredouw and Adejuyigbe recorded multiple episodes live, including episode 15 in Austin, Texas ("Mambo No. 5"), episode 54 at PodCon in Seattle ("Send Me On My Way" with Griffin McElroy), episode 80 in Los Angeles ("Two Princes" with Jon Gabrus and Alice Wetterlund), episode 86 in Seattle ("Santeria" with Ian Karmel), and episode 87 in Portland, Oregon ("Ghostbusters" with Open Mike Eagle and Neil Cicierega).

Punch Up the Jam was produced by the Headgum network. The first episode aired on December 13, 2017, and the podcast was originally hosted by both Bredouw and Adejuyigbe.^[3] On the 77th episode, on July 4, 2019, Adejuyigbe announced that he would no longer be involved with the show.^[5]

Beginning with episode 91, Bredouw continued the show as its sole host. Throughout the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Bredouw often co-hosted the show with Chris Fleming. The podcast was also expanded to feature commentary from musician and music theorist Rob Moose, which was referred to as the show's "weatherman" segment. The final episode of the show with Bredouw hosting was posted on December 24, 2020 ^[6].

A year later in December 2021, the podcast format was revived by Headgum with Andrew and Evan Gregory of the Gregory Brothers as hosts ^[7]. The Gregorys hosted the show until December 22, 2022, when the show was again retired.

Punch Up the Jam has received praise from numerous outlets, including Lifehacker,^[4][8], The Oregonian,^[9], Metro^[1] Vulture,^[10][3] Time,^[11] and Pitchfork.^[2] It was included in annual "Best of" lists by the Comedy Bureau^[12] and Buzzfeed^[13] in 2018, Time^[11] and Vulture^[14] in 2019, and Popsugar^[15] in 2023. Writing in 2019, Mark Kramer with Vulture praised the show, saying "Bredouw and Adejuyigbe put more work into each episode than some podcast hosts do in a season, pulling out individual tracks, researching the artist, and creating the Punch Up from scratch".^[3]

In 2020, Punch Up the Jam won the award for "Best Podcast Created and/or Hosted by a Woman" from Discover Pods ^[16]. In 2022, the podcast was nominated for "Best Music Podcast" in the People's Choice Podcast Awards

• Headgum
• List of music podcasts

• Official website