Some of you may remember that for a brief moment at the end of 2016, an Indonesian-born meme called “Om telolet om” went global after famous international DJs started picking up on the odd phrase that was flooding into their social media comments from Indonesia. We may soon see another uniquely Indonesian meme get a spike in virality after Marshmello, the masked DJ all the millenials love, made a reference to it on his Instagram account.
The caption on this photo sent out to his 10.9 million IG followers says “Masuk Pak Eko”, which could be translated as “Score, Mr. Eko”.
So who is Pak Eko? He’s an Indonesian police officer named Eko Hari Cahyono who first rose to social media stardom thanks to videos posted to his Instagram account showing his incredible ability to throw things so they stick into a block of wood, everything from knives and screwdrivers to scissors, saw blades and even a spoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siUIiL0YIpo
While his throwing skills are uncanny, it’s clear from the videos that what truly makes Pak Eko a star is his amazing showmanship, making almost all of his tosses with a cigarette firmly placed between his teeth followed up by his signature two-thumbs-up victory poses.
But what really made him into a meme was the phrase you can hear Pak Eko’s young fans shouting after each successful hit: “Masuk Pak Eko!” The word masuk literally means enter but it’s also used in football to describe a ball entering the goal.
As with many things that gain viral popularity in Indonesia, soon came Pak Eko parodi videos…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voDdHhjvpbg
… dangdut songs…
… and even a mobile game.
All of which fed into the further virality and memeification of “Masuk Pak Eko” until the point we’re at now where Marshmello, one of the world’s most popular musicians, is referencing it.
We’re guessing that, as in the case with “Om Telolet om” meme, that Marshmello simply repeated the phrase after seeing it pop up a million times in his social media comments, but we’re pretty sure he still made all of his fans in Indonesia very happy with the recognition.
Pak Eko, who works as an instructor at the Police Training Academy in Sidoarjo, said that the four boys cheering him on in the videos were kids living around the complex who he would show off his throwing skills too during his breaks. He told the media that he started posting the videos after his young fans urged him to do so but was surprised that they went viral.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmjqBJPAK7p/?taken-by=papi_eko_pusdik_sabhara_porong
He said that anybody could learn to throw like him with practice and invited anybody who wanted to learn to train with him.
“Anyone can do this. As long as you want to learn, you can do it. Those who are interested, come train with me. But for those who can’t, don’t try carelessly at home. And for those who can, don’t misuse it,” he said as quoted by Tribun.
