TikTok is, truly, a menagerie of Internet culture like no other. One minute, you’re finding yourself in Group 7, and the next you’re learning an unhinged new dance routine.
Once you’re on the platform long enough, certain accounts and gimmicks can become constants amid all of that newness. Over the past few months, a very particular thing has joined my version of that list: the Internet’s best Hugh Jackman impression, courtesy of actor and singer Joey Morof.
For those who might be unaware, Jackman has had a decades-long career in the theater and music world, and has become known for a very specific kind of vocal vibrato. You can hear it, to varying degrees, in movies like The Greatest Showman, Les Miserables, and the upcoming Neil Diamond-related Song Sung Blue, and in any video from his recent “From New York, With Love” stage show. But you might not really notice it until you start watching enough of Morof’s videos.
In June of this year, Morof started posting videos imitating Jackman’s vocal warble… sometimes with songs from Les Mis, sometimes with contemporary songs (shout out to his July 4th rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework”, while standing in front of lit fireworks), and sometimes just with a random string of sounds. It doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say that things snowballed from there — at the time of this writing, Morof has nearly 150 posts in his Jackman-themed playlist on TikTok. He has a Cameo account, and has fielded multiple requests to be the entertainment at other TikTok users’ weddings. At this point, he could probably release an entire professionally-recorded cover album, and fans would be there.
Once there was a way…
Morof’s videos have popped up on my For You page for months now, and their popularity has remained delightful to see. His impression absolutely nails Jackman’s singing style, the uniqueness of which has become a bit of a cultural blindspot amid the success of Les Mis and The Greatest Showman. I’ve lost count of how many TikTok comments I’ve seen — even on videos of Jackman himself — of people being shaken into the reality that that is, in fact, what he sounds like, and Morof’s videos aren’t really an exaggeration.
But I’ve also loved seeing Morof’s videos build their own little world of lore. Every comment section tries to imagine Jackman’s reaction, or joke about how relieved he must feel once Morof posts a video impersonating someone else. (Other victims have included, but are not limited to: Josh Groban, Mort from the Madagascar movies, and Allan from Smiling Friends.) And after he covered The Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers” in August, nearly every single comment section has had some all-caps variation of the song’s lyrics, alongside an image of a sheep from the movie Sing.
The funniest part, beyond the accuracy of Morof’s impression, has been the Jackman-themed tweaks to song lyrics, regardless of their original genre or subject matter. These usually include references to Jackman’s Les Mis character Jean Valjean, like “24601” or “loaf of bread,” but has now stretched to randomly namedropping Jackman’s costars like Ryan Reynolds or Jake Gyllenhaal, and simply replacing every use of the word “you” with “Hugh.”
Is the joke silly, both in and out of context? Yes. But I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that it has worked on me every single time, whether Morof is covering a Broadway hit or the latest Sabrina Carpenter song or the Jet2Holiday commercial copy (yes, really). Part of that is because of just how much fun Morof seems to be having doing it: you can almost spot a twinkle in his eye in some videos, and he fully breaks character and starts laughing in others. My personal favorite of these is his rendition of the JG Wentworth jingle, which devolves into a flurry of laughter and “877-LOAF-OF-BREAD.”
In a chaotic world, Morof’s videos are such a bright spot. Not just because they always build to a glorious punchline, but because they illustrate that Jackman is more than the man who puts himself through the physical wringer to play Wolverine for the umpteenth time. I wasn’t even actually following Morof’s account until I started writing this article, because I wanted to see just how often the algorithm would serve me his covers. But once I saw that Morof was getting into the holiday spirit, with a rendition of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” that needs to be seen to be believed, I knew it was time to finally hit the follow button and help spread the gospel even further.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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