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Kanye West's recent addition to the Twitterverse caused a splash, but as of yesterday his tweets have been given new life with a certain hashtag: #KanyeNewYorkerTweets. It's the pairing of one of Kanye West's tweets and a New Yorker cartoon, and it's spreading fast.

Urlesque caught up with the man responsible for the brilliant juxtaposition, Paul Sabourin, one half of the Philadelphia-based musical comedy duo Paul and Storm.

There are two ways to explain the sensation, according to Paul.

The pretentious explanation: Kanye's tweets are more or less raw id (unfiltered, portraying base emotions and simple thoughts) and New Yorker cartoons are almost entirely superego (carefully considered, 'quiet' presentation).

The simple explanation: it just struck me as funny at 3 a.m. Luckily, unlike most 3 a.m. inspirations, this one actually seems to hold up.


The combination is natural comedy, but it's hard to tell who is the butt of the joke, the magazine with the "sophisticated" sense of humor or the star willing to broadcast thoughts like "wuuuuuuuuuut I need this goblet in my life!!!" to a following of 408,000 and counting. Paul believes the cartoon mash-ups mock The New Yorker as much as or more than Kanye's tweets.

I actually quite enjoy his tweets. They're completely un-self-conscious and 'pure,' so to speak. In a way, I find Kanye to be a great metaphor for America: Incredible talent, nearly completely obscured by naked ambition, rampant consumerism and unbridled ego.



If the names Paul and Storm sound familiar, it might be because they also started the #wookieleaks hashtag that took over earlier this week in light of the recent WikiLeaks controversy. Still, Paul says his magical newfound meme-generating abilities aren't a conscious effort. "It doesn't exactly bring us any closer to the solid gold Rolls Royce we have our eye on," he says. "But it certainly has been an interesting week."