If you’ve never heard of YouTube legend Tio Choko, The Music Man’s about to make your day. This Afro-Latino cowboy has been making waves online for the last eight years with his hysterical mixmatch of skits and comedy characters, including one of YouTube’s greatest dance memes: Tio Choko.
Translating to ‘Uncle Choko’ in English (or, taking it a step further, ‘Uncle Chocolate’), Tio boasts a notorious trademark move: hip thrusting, exaggerated to the point that it’s oddly violent, and 100% meme-worthy. Each video is self-explanatory as the cowboy lands himself in situations from “Tio Choko in Zumba Class” to “When You Try Sushi For The First Time,” which sees Tio let loose after eating his first sushi roll. Even the sushi restaurant’s bar staff join in on the mayhem!
But the 35-year-old Houston cowboy, whose real name is apparently Bruce Wayne Zelaya Jr., had his biggest hit back in the summer of 2018. Titled, “When You Link Up with your Favourite Cousins at the Quinceanera”, Tio takes his ridiculous dancing to an empty car park, joined by fellow Latino-Texan musicians and dancers, Cesar and Adrian Alba of Heavyweight Musik.
This vid has racked up 5.59M YouTube views to date, and it’s not hard to see why! The two-minute meme sees Tio kick off the dance with his signature thrust, before the camera pans out to reveal his morbidly obese backing dancers who go completely wild busting their own side-splitting moves. It’s completely absurd and absolute brain rot content, but if you Music Man readers are seeking a clip to make you smile like crazy, this one’s got you covered!
After posting vids on his YouTube channel, “Callmechoko” for the last eight years, Tio took his dance memes to TikTok where he’s amassed nearly one million followers and over 7.7M likes. His video hip-thrusting to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” went viral with the hashtag #Chocolution, eventually nabbing the attention of will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, who let Tio choreograph a scene of their “Vida Loca” music video, and even join the band on stage at the 2020 VMAs.
As 2020 came to a close, Tio did a spectacular job of rationalizing how his stupidly brilliant character spread like internet wildfire, telling the Houstonia Magazine, “I realized I have this, this character where there’s no restrictions, there’s no boundaries, there’s no walls. I can do anything with this character. I can dance hip-hop, I can dance to Spanish music, I can dance to ballet. Whatever the case is, Tio Choko can do no wrong in people’s eyes. He’s everyone’s favourite uncle.”
If you would like to hear more from this talented artist you can subscribe to their YouTube Channel for more incredible music. Check out Tio Choko on Facebook and follow on Instagram for the latest updates and content.