Photo: The original uploader was Elvis9227 at English Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
Dr. Demento was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on April 2, 1941. Dr. Demento is listed as a disc jockey, musicologist and radio personality. That works out to 85 years old in 2026. Education on record includes Reed College.
My Take
Dr. Demento, born Barret Hansen, delights me precisely because of his beautiful contradiction. Here is a Reed College musicologist, a serious scholar and record collector, who devoted his life to novelty songs, comedy, and gloriously weird recordings. Creating the Demento persona in 1970 at a Pasadena station, he spent decades championing music nobody else would touch and, in doing so, gave Weird Al Yankovic his first national break. I respect anyone who studies silliness with genuine rigor, treating the absurd as worthy of preservation. He is a curator of joy, and his archive is a strange, irreplaceable cultural treasure.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Dr. Demento
- Name (Japanese)
- ドクター・ディメント
- Reading
- どくたー・でぃめんと
- Born
- April 2, 1941 (age 85)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aries / Snake
- Origin
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Occupation
- disc jockey / musicologist / radio personality / actor / screenwriter
2. Background
- University
- Reed College
3. Links
- Official sitehttps://drdemento.com
- Xhttps://x.com/drdemento
- Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr.%20Demento
- Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q731668
4. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-17
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.
Frequently asked questions
When was Dr. Demento born?
Born April 2, 1941 (age 85).
Where is Dr. Demento from?
Dr. Demento is from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
What does Dr. Demento do?
Dr. Demento works as disc jockey, musicologist, radio personality, actor, screenwriter.
Disc jockey — see all → · Musicologist — see all → · More people from the United States →