Asriel Barker | Student Life

Philip Wang, Wesley Chan, and Ted Fu of Wong Fu Productions pose outside College Hall on Saturday, November 12.

Student Life: First of all, congratulations on your 1 million subscribers. Could you just describe what that achievement means to you?
Philip Wang: It’s cool. I think there are only 50 or so YouTube channels that are in the million range. It’s taken a while.
Ted Fu: It’s taken a while, yeah.
PW: There are definitely a lot of other channels that have grown faster than our channel, but our content is a little different. It takes a little more time for fans to get into our kind of content. That’s probably why it took a little while. But it’s good. We’re glad, and hopefully most of the people are still watching, and we can keep it growing.

SL: You guys started out doing these college lip-syncing videos, and now you’ve really grown and expanded. You have your whole range of store products, International Secret Agents, your recent MV (music video) for Wang Leehom. How do you think about your own success?
TF: It’s really a gradual (process). We’ve been doing this for 5, 6, 7 years.
PW: Sometimes we do have to step back and be like, “Ok, this was a pretty good year.” To be honest, we’re still always thinking we’re still very far from wherever we need to be. There’s still a long way to go. We are very grateful for all the things that have happened, but we’re not finished. I don’t know what that is about us, but we’re definitely always thinking, “We can do more; we can do more.” But we’ve been very fortunate so far. (It’s been) a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifice, but it’s been good.
Wesley Chan: There hasn’t been a lot of time to celebrate successes, because once we finish one project it’s onto the next. But that’s not to say we’re not grateful for a project when it’s done. It’s just a nonstop stream, and that’s a good problem to have.

SL: When you guys started out, did you imagine yourselves going in a certain direction or having the success that you’ve had? What was the original plan?
PW: We didn’t have a plan. We never started off by saying, “We want to be Wong Fu Productions; we want to do this, this, and this; we want to be popular on YouTube,” or whatever. We just knew that we had a lot of people following us and supporting us and our only goal was to keep it going a little bit longer.
TF: Our goal is always to make the best product that we can, quality-wise, with the resources that we have available to us. We didn’t really have a plan because the playing field has always been changing. YouTube didn’t exist when we first started. Now YouTube is changing a lot too. Social media has boomed and gone crazy.
PW: It’s hard to plan because everything’s always changing. So our only real set goal is just to keep making good work and things that we like, and we’re very lucky that people have been following us and enjoying our evolving (work).

SL: Have you ever imagined what you guys would be doing if you weren’t making videos?
PW: I’d probably be PA-ing on some set, getting coffee for people.
TF: I think working with these guys and knowing myself, we’re all very driven people. I think if we were too idle, we’d get restless and antsy, and then we’d want to do something. So I think that would always revolve around something creative. The funny thing is that since Wong Fu Productions is our creation and we have a lot of flexibility within Wong Fu Productions, we can actually explore the different interests that we have inside Wong Fu. So for example, Wes is a great designer and he would design T-shirts for us or design different products for us.

SL: Why have you guys chosen to expand your company beyond just making videos?
TF: The simple answer is that our fans demand it. Our fans are like, “Oh, where’d you get that shirt?” And then we’re like, “Ok, if you really want that shirt, no one’s selling it, so we’ll sell it for you.” So we’re catering to the fans.
WC: We’re reacting to what we’re seeing from the fans and what they’re asking for. It’s still a surprise to us. The fact is there are thousands of people asking for it so you can’t just ignore them. So for the stuffed animals, we bought this giant bear thing that was just a joke for us. And then showing it in a video, everyone wants it so it’s just a way to further please the fans and for us, it’s a way to be creative and expand in a different area.

SL: You guys have worked together for a while now. What’s the secret to a great working relationship?
PW: When we first started working together we were in college and we didn’t live together. Then when we graduated, we moved to LA and we lived together for a couple of years. It’s funny to say, but it is a relationship, so it’s all the key stuff in a relationship. You have to communicate; you have to respect each other. And I think that’s why we’ve been able to stay close in a working relationship and as friends—because we have this mutual respect for each other and also for each other’s work ethic. We always know that everyone’s working really hard and there are no egos. I think that where a lot of things go wrong is when people start getting egos and people feel entitled to this or that and that’s something that we never allow to happen. We do live separately now, but not because we had a huge falling out—because we’re growing up. We don’t want roommates forever.

SL: Talking about Asians and media, there are definitely more Asians in the media than there were 10, 15 years ago. But do you still feel like they’re underrepresented in the mainstream media, and do you feel that that is still important?
PW: I think it’s definitely important. Mainstream is still mainstream, and that’s how most of the country or most of the world is seeing us. New media has been great because it’s been more for the community. It’s empowered Asians, Asian-Americans amongst themselves, to say, “Hey, I found this guy or girl that I think is really cool. I want to follow them.” And it inspires them to feel like they can do it, too, because they see someone like them doing it. In terms of how it affects the general population, most of white America is not watching YouTube and nigahiga or whatever; they’re just watching whatever show, so there still needs to be more representation. But (mainstream) is a lot better now. I’m actually surprised sometimes when I see an Asian guy on TV and he doesn’t have an accent and he’s just being a regular guy. That’s cool. That’s progress. And I think Hollywood is learning.

SL: Why do you think Asians have found YouTube as an outlet and gravitated towards channels like yours?
WC: Asians or Asian-Americans are just very tech savvy. It could be a stereotype but it’s pretty true, I think. We spend a lot of time in front of the computer. When you’re first in line to this doorway, you’re going to be the first to utilize it.
PW: It’s a stereotype. That’s like looking at it positively, but I think there’s another side where Asians are still very timid people and they are afraid to fully pursue an art and artistic passion sometimes. So let’s say there’s someone really good at singing, but they’ll never tell their parents, “Hey, I’m going to go all the way and I’m going to move to LA with a suitcase, and I’m going to pursue music.” So instead they do a “cop-out,” and they’re sitting in their room, and they’re like, “I can make a video here and thousands of people can see me,” and that’s their outlet for that talent. A lot of people start off that way and audiences flourish from that and people start supporting them and that’s an inadvertent way that a career in music can start. We have friends that have gone that route. It’s a little bit of that stereotype where no one really wants to take that leap of faith—like other cultures might want to because Asian (people) want what’s secure or they want to please their family—
WC: They’re afraid of failure.
PW: So it’s like, “Oh, I’m just going to put it online and if it doesn’t do well, then I didn’t really try.”
WC: There’s a lot less at stake. Knowing that there’s less at stake, it’s very casual and easy to do. The mentality changes when it’s like that so it’s not like you’re forgoing a college education to pursue music school.
PW: But there still does have to be that leap of faith, that moment of sacrifice when you decide that this actually went somewhere and to take it further. That’s where we were when we graduated. When we graduated, we realized that we wanted to make this happen. That’s where the real dedication and hard work kicked in. Once it becomes your job, it’s not just fun and games anymore.

SL: How do you make that leap of faith?
TF: For us, we had that extra push from our fans.
PW: Yeah, we were lucky in that sense.
TF: They kind of gave us the reassurance that we can do this. So I would say our fans were the main push and drive for us to take that jump.
PW: It was actually when we started touring for a project and we saw people face-to-face and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, there are a lot of people.” It’s different when you meet people face-to-face and they’re not just a web stat.
TF: And they want your autograph…
PW: This doesn’t come to a lot of people. We can’t just let it go. We have to see how far we can take this because it’s a huge honor. We can’t take it for granted so let’s try and keep this going. That was our moment that we can’t just forgo this.

SL: Do you guys have a plan for where you see yourself in the future?
PW: At this point, it’s like, “What are we doing next year?” We’re just trying to keep our head above water. The face of YouTube and new media is constantly changing. The players are changing. Even like two years ago, we were still giving this talk about how Hollywood doesn’t understand new media yet and they don’t take it seriously. In two years’ time, it’s changed a lot. Now, Hollywood is putting millions of dollars trying to start a YouTube channel. We’re just trying to keep up. We want to keep making good content. We want to start directing our attention to web series—
TF: Longer form projects.
PW: We started doing less music videos than we used to because we wanted to focus on more narrative projects. We’re considering also doing a feature. We’ve also had it in the back of our head doing a feature-length film, but we’re playing with that idea again.
TF: It’s difficult, because things come up really short notice. Like, oh, Harry Shum wants to do something so we can’t miss this opportunity so we have to figure something to work with him within a month.
PW: The Leehom thing just came up totally randomly. We had plans to do other stuff, but then we shut down Wong Fu for basically a month, and we couldn’t do anything else because we were so focused on that (project) and stressed out about that. So we do have where we want to go, but there are things that are just constantly tugging at us. And it’s so good for the company, and we still want to do it.
TF: We’re able to pick and choose, but when it’s Wang Leehom, it’s hard to turn down.

While Washington University fans might be accustomed to seeing the men’s soccer team in red and white game-day garb, a new team project has players dressed in cowboy hats, swim trunks and fanny packs.

Players have filmed comic videos of themselves singing and dancing on four road trips this season and intend to continue this experiment in music video production. Videos of the team breaking it down have found a following resulting in thousands of YouTube hits.

Last year, during the University’s snow day, players decided to record a video of themselves lip-syncing to the Yung Humma song “Lemme Smang It” for team entertainment. Although players originally intended to only show the videos to themselves, this season the videos are posted on YouTube and filming has become a WUSTL FC tradition. When they’re not taking corner kicks or blocking shots, team members are serenading each other on airplanes, recreating a rollercoaster on metal bleachers or interrupting a study session in nothing but swim suits. No song is too silly and no bystander is safe.

“We decided to take up our time on the road trips we would start creating videos,” junior forward Zachary Query said. “After the first one we just had such a good time, we decided to continue with the tradition—and we’re actually undefeated on the road trips when we make videos.”

Each YouTube upload features players lip-syncing a different song while dancing and joking around in different cities; one features Waka Flocka Flame’s “No Hands” in Memphis, another, the Far East Movement’s “Rocketeer” in Atlanta, yet another, Taylor Swift’s “Mean” in New York City and most recently, The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA” in Dubuque, Iowa.

“Basically [players] just dance a lot and I have the video camera on most of the time–especially when our coaches are talking, or dancing,” senior forward Dylan Roman, who films and edits the majority of footage, said. “At the end of the trips or during the trips…I sort of just put it to the song and see what we need, and then at the end of the trips we fill in the last bit of lyrics and hopefully it turns out well.”

Players joked that “they don’t choose the song, the song chooses them”; on the road they will play the track frequently to catch moments of singing along or miming to a specific lyric–but not all action is improvised.

“We pick the theme for outfits a couple days in advance, we pick the song a couple days before, and people start to get really excited about what we can do with it,” senior midfielder Zach Hendrickson said. “The one in New York for ‘Mean’ definitely had the most planning involved, and choreography. We filmed particular scenes in important places and things like that.”

The videos feature players in a variety of zany costumes and situations. In the “Mean” video the team is seen decked out in plaid shirts and jeans as cowboys while singing and square dancing with the famous “Naked Cowboy” in Times Square. This production has proved to be the team’s most popular thus far with more than 1,800 views on YouTube.

In New York City, players received a variety of reactions from passersby–some applauded their choreographed dance sequence, others stopped to see what might be distracting nine boys pointing off into the distance, and the team even had a run-in with law enforcement.

“We got censored at 30 Rockerfeller Center,” senior midfielder Kevin Privalle said. “We were trying to do something and they just saw a ton of people; a guard told us we had to leave.”

For the song “Rocketeer” some players are featured in satiric tourist garb, donning belted khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts while wearing oversized headphones and fanny packs as accessories. Airport security can only gaze as team members waltz through check-in enthusiastically giving a thumbs-up to Roman’s camera.

According to senior captain Michael Chamberlin, the team’s decision to wear costumes originated from head coach Joe Clarke’s flexibility with what players wear while traveling.

“Joe doesn’t make us all wear the same thing on road trips like some teams do so we decided to start off by kind of making a joke of that and all dressing the same but with our own idea of how we wanted to dress,” Chamberlin said. “It’s evolved into having costume days and theme days every time we travel. The bar is set every trip by [senior midfielder] Cody Costakis who just goes above and beyond with his costumes.”

Although the players do the majority of the performing in videos, notable guest appearances are made by assistant coach Rick Rone, Clarke and a bugle-playing Boy Scout the team encountered at a rest stop en route to Boston.

“I don’t think [the coaches] enjoy being in the videos as much but they definitely enjoy watching the finished product,” Query said.

The Bears travel to the University of Chicago this weekend and intend to produce another video during the trip. The team has a chance to clinch the University Athletic Association title with a victory, and would otherwise receive word of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament on Monday, Nov. 14.

5. Literal music videos
Do you feel like music videos should have something to do with the actual song? If so, you should check out these “literal music videos,” in which the video and the lyrics actually match. These music videos with remade lyrics will make you appreciate the overly dramatic and avant-garde visuals and the subsequent weirdness/stupidity that are in music videos of these days. Some of the best include “You’re Beautiful (Literal Video Version)” and “Safety Dance- literal video of an 80’s band on LSD.”

4. “Sex Ed Rocks!” by Smosh ft. I Set My Friends on Fire
You know something hardcore is going to happen when Smosh teams up with comedy screamo band I Set My Friends on Fire to make a video about sex education. Musically, this video is an outrageous parody of the post-hardcore/metalcore genre. The screams, riffs, synthesizer, autotuned chorus part and brutal breakdowns are all present, just like in any other song of this genre. This ridiculously informative music video should be shown to all high school kids out there, as it may be a more effective sex education than anything they learn in school. Also check out “Four Years Foreplay” by Smosh and I Set My Friends on Fire.

3. “Friday” by Rebecca Black
Parodies are funny. Unintentional parodies are even funnier. Rebecca Black’s “Friday” is such an unintentional parody of today’s teen pop. It epitomizes the genre’s uninspired lyrics and music, autotuned and horrible singing, and the random gangsta rap that somehow legitimizes the genre. By listening to this song, you’ll get a good idea of how today’s teenagers party with middle-aged rappers. Besides giving people a good laugh, it also teaches people the days of the week. Awesome.

2. “Cannibal Corpse – Hammer Smashed Face (Radio Disney Version)” by Andy Rehfeldt
The radio-friendly version of the death metal band Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face” is a perfect way to learn the lyrics you would otherwise not (want to) hear when listening to death metal. With lines like “I feel like killing…YOU!!!” and “Eyes bulging from their sockets/With every swing of my mallet,” this sure will make a perfect song in a typical Disney movie. It’s even funnier to see all the metal heads in the video bang their heads to this happy song. Andy Rehfeldt’s talents also include making pop into death metal, making metal into reggae and making hip-hop into polka. You should check out the death metal version of Louie Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

1. “‘Gang Fight’ — Rebecca Black, as interpreted by a bad lip reader” by Bad Lip Reading
Bad Lip Reading saved the world from the “Friday” apocalypse with their remake of Rebecca Black’s hit, entitled “Gang Fight.” The same video is used, but the lyrics and music are different. Best of all, it actually seems like Black is singing about hanging out with her Nazi friends and starting a gang fight while wondering if she’s going to have chicken to eat. The original cheap music is replaced by some badass beats that completely destroy Black’s version.

As we move into the professional world, accompanied by worries about interviews and making good impressions, we sometimes forget the social Internet footprint that we leave. We’ve all read articles about how some people mess up on online social sites like Facebook and MySpace, and later we tell ourselves that we are not stupid enough to do such things. But upon closer inspection, most of us have some incriminating photos or videos which can definitely come back to haunt in the future. How can we prevent this in a society where we feel a need to put ourselves out there with programs like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube?

More importantly, we should take a closer look at the direction our generation’s society is going in. In this day and age, information that we put on the Internet can be a double-edged sword: We are easier to contact, but that means our info is also easy to find. But you say, “I only use social networking sites for staying in contact with people.” How many of your Facebook friends do you actually stay in communication with? (And no, an occasional “Happy B-day” post or a “Like” does not count).

We seem to be getting closer to one another technologically, but we are getting farther from each other regarding social correspondences. E-mails to friends are rare and written letters are almost never seen nowadays, yet we see a constant need to add more people on our social networks so that we can “remember” them.

Still, there are worse things out there than Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Remember the good old days when you had to have an AIM account or another instant messaging account to meet random people in chat room? Now, sites like Omegle enable us to start a conversation immediately without any input of information. My curiosity got the better of me when I checked out the site, and I began a conversation with a stranger. The ease with which we can meet strangers online today is extremely disturbing, but paired with the fact that we put our info out in cyberspace, they increase the danger of information falling into the wrong hands.

In the end, we still have enough of decency and sanity to realize that social networking programs are tools for safe enjoyment. However, Wash. U. students tend to forget that we live in a bubble that does not exist in the real world. So remember, as you leave the bubble to seek outside jobs, click the “remove tag” button on that photo that you barely remember taking of you kissing a Ronald McDonald statue.

Aditya is a junior in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at asarvesh@artsci.wustl.edu.

A local news station in Atlanta was covering Chateau Elan, Georgia’s largest winery. There’s a stage like the ones upon which there would be a guillotine and two women with their feet in wooden containers. One of those women is reporter Melissa Sander, and her goal for the day is to compete with the lady next to her to see who can stomp the most grapes in the shortest period of time. This should be a wonderful, fun way to commemorate le Chateau’s success on television, right? This should be one big celebration of grapery, right?

Wrong. Legend has it that Sander wasn’t content with just standing and working those grapes under her feet. No, she wanted more. So, as the two ladies start to stomp, vying for the title of Master Grape Stomper, Sander abruptly yells, “Stop!” And then everything happens so fast that it’s a blur. Competitor Stomper has stopped and Sander begins stomping really fast and hard to take advantage of the other’s inactivity. Sneaky, eh? But then to top it all off, Grape Lady Sander trips on the barrel’s side and plummets Beyoncé-style to the ground. When she makes contact with the hard earth, she makes the most otherworldly sounds ever known to man, and she starts to cry out in pain. The other woman watches frantically, seemingly wondering what she can do. But not even her bewildered face can stave off the laughter that comes from the viewer who is wondering why Grape Lady has turned into a wallaby mixed with a narwhal.

Amid the Grape Lady’s cries of “Arnht, urnnnnd, oouwwwwh,” the channel smoothly cuts to inside the studio back in Atlanta, where the two anchors are staring at the camera in awe. They regain their composure, but as they do, they utter earnestly “Ouch, that looks like it hurt” and “Well, hope she’s okay.” You won’t know what to laugh at first, the Grape Lady’s banshee whoop or the anchors’ faked concern. Whatever you laugh at, though, it’s clear that this video must go into the Pantheon of Epic Win. Watch it. Not only will you laugh until you cry, you’ll also derive new meaning from that one Aesopian fable about sour grapes.

OK, so maybe not all of us. But for those of us who do, there’s YouTube. The first in the Friday series of YouTube hilarity is “ATL Hoodrat aka SOULJA GIRL goes crazy on the Marta!” This sensation, with almost 4 million views among all of its variations, tells the woeful story of a woman who was down on her luck. All she wanted was for “Young Jeezy to come and ‘ssassinate George Bush, shawty!” She only wanted people to watch her as she cranked that Soulja Girl.

Victim though she’s not, it’s almost impossible not to feel bad for Nafiza Zayid as she goes completely bananas on an elderly lady on the Atlanta public transit system, known as the MARTA. A mixture of emotions overwhelms the viewer: fear at the craziness of Zayid, sadness at how mentally messed up she seems to be, anger at the violence—not just her own—shown on the train. But let’s focus on the laughter it gets from us. Zayid provides enough catchphrases for at least half a decade as she jaunts around the aisles of the bus, yelling that the old lady “thought I wouldn’t freestyle on…you…boo?” She asks for a phone and, when no one offers one, proclaims, “I no need no phone.”

After a couple of minutes of “shawtys,” Zayid approaches a passenger in a way that makes him a little peeved. As in he attacks her. She repeats that she’s “pressing charges” about 7 trillion times, and then makes her unceremonious exit from the train.

Nafiza Zayid was arrested for assault and disorderly conduct, but not before providing the lawls to a supposedly unmannered generation. The lady didn’t press charges herself, but the video is like a jarring look at relations between many different groups—old and young, male and female, “sane” and “crazy.” But it’s not to be analyzed too much; you should probably just watch, roll on the floor laughing, and chant to yourself, “Get out mah face, get out mah face, yah!”

This decision is scrutinized more thoroughly than an NFL draft pick, a sitting president, or a tacky dress at the Oscars. Most people expect a lot out of their college­—they want to find their true friends, they want to find a deeper understanding of the world, they want to find out why their parents laugh so hard when they watch “Animal House.” When considering their academic future, students want all the information they can get.

Perhaps that is why YouTube’s theUrocks videos get hundreds of thousands of views each spring. The videos, about one minute each, provide a condensed snapshot of some of the nation’s finest universities. Our very own Washington University in St. Louis is among the featured institutions, and theUrocks provides an engaging (if debatable) picture of campus and academic life.

Each of the eight videos is highly complementary of the faculty, teaching assistants, students and the institution in general. Classes are described as a grind, and even the B-school earns praise for its rigorous curriculum. The Pre-med and Psychology departments are singled out for their reputation and intensity, but the videos also showcase a wide variety of available majors. Students are portrayed as involved, hard-working and perpetually protesting. The only misstep is when Wash. U. is described as “the Harvard of the Midwest”—an obvious inversion.

Housing and food also earn accolades. While on-campus housing is dubiously described as “spacious,” students gave off-campus abodes a favorable A-. The variety and availability of food is heavily lauded, and the narrators positively rave about the quality. “We’re not talking good by college food standards,” says one, “we mean good.”

The overall size of the campus is portrayed as sizeable but not sprawling, and students describe the feel as walkable and secure. The interiors of buildings—labs, classrooms, and cafeterias—are presented as well-furnished and roomy, and the exteriors are noted for their comfortably classic architecture (although the façade of Eliot Hall is conspicuously absent from any available footage).

When the discussion turns to the social scene, though, the narrators hate harder than Silky Johnson. An institution where one “spends more time studying brain cells than killing them,” Wash. U. is not only “a weak party school” and “a weak greek school,” but it suffers from “a lame hookup scene.”

The plus side, according to one student, is “lower disease transmission.” “It’s not really a party school,” says another, “at least not in the classical sense.” All of this appears to be a symptom of the students themselves. The videos show the results of a poll in which the student body rated the appearance of the opposite sex; guys were given a generous B-, while girls scored a harsh C+.

Overall, the videos present a dearth of statistics and ratings along with a few anecdotes from campus events. However, the videos all appear to be shot on the same day and in the same locations, resulting in a surface-level view of the more intangible aspects of the University. Although theUrocks is far from the end-all-be-all of college information, its videos give the viewer a relatively honest sense of the featured institution that is designed to make the toughest of choices a bit easier. And after watching the videos and attending the University, Wash. U. students may conclude that theUrocks is a hair more honest than we may prefer.