To some people, Peter Chao is an offensive stereotype. For more than 450,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, however, the hip and handsome young Vancouver guy with a thick Chinese accent is a breath of politically incorrect fresh air.
Wearing his trademark sunglasses, Chao takes aim at anyone and everything, from Justin Bieber to Chinese people who eat too loudly. He curses freely, or "freery" in his mockery of Asian accents, and comes across as the biggest "ass-hoar" (another of his favourite words) on the Web.
In fact, Davin Tong is a pleasant and articulate 23-year-old Chinese-Canadian guy from Surrey with no accent, but a keen sense of the smarts needed to garner 75 million views of videos starring his creation. In only 18 months, Tong's Chao has gone so explosively from zero to hero that the man behind him is about to take to the stage, at the 2010 Global ComedyFest, for the first flesh-and-blood appearance of a viral video phenomenon.
Mind you, there have already been those brief appearances late at night at various clubs around town.
"Everybody's drunk and having a good time," says Tong, "so whatever I say caters to these people -- I'm there yelling random obscenities, and they'll just cheer."
The crowd will be a lot more sober when Peter Chao appears at the Vogue Theatre on Sept. 25 for the festival's Best of the Fest. Tong admits to being a little nervous.
"It's going to be me up there for 15 minutes, just riffing and rapping and doing a little standup," Tong says. "Fifteen minutes is a very long time for a first-time standup comedian ... make that aspiring. I won't call myself a standup comedian just yet because you never know whether I'm going to bomb or not."
It all started in January 2009, when a bored Tong decided to have some fun by responding, as Peter Chao, to a video on a popular YouTube channel. He uploaded the unedited work, was "favourited" by the channel's operator so the video could be accessed from that popular page, and woke up the next morning to find 15,000 hits for the debut of his cheeky Chinese character.
How can the rest be history in such a short space of time? That's how the world works now -- buying a cheap video camera and getting help from friends, Peter Chao started to take off -- and went viral with a pre-Olympic trip to Whistler that's been seen more than a million times.
Late last year, the rude dude took on Justin Bieber, who also got his start on YouTube.
"For some reason," Tong notes, "people who don't like Bieber like watching videos about other people who don't like Bieber. People related to me hating Bieber, even though in real life I don't hate the guy that much."
Bieber-haters loved Chao, flooding the video comments, and there were of course the inevitable death threats from obsessed 11-year-old girls. On the other hand, Peter Chao has also encouraged many imitators and a spoof or two.
"I watched one that was really good, called The Search for Chao," says Tong. "It's some kids trying to find Peter Chao in Vancouver."
What we used to term the World Wide Web is indeed a global beast, as Tong was quick to realize when Chao started going viral overseas.
"Sometimes," Tong notes, "when I upload my videos late here in Vancouver, Australians will be the first ones to watch -- and they'll be the No. 1-watched video. Then Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany . . . ."
The Germans banned Tong's creations for a brief time, but his biggest bout with censorship came when You-Tube gave him a two-week suspension over his typically -- and deliberately -- crude caricature of African-Americans. "They didn't really explain why to me; they just said 'inappropriate content,' " Tong says.
Subscribers poured in during that period, demanding Chao's return.
"At that point I had so many subscribers that I had enough pull to talk to the top dogs in YouTube. I told them, you know, I'm this guy now, so you should put my videos back up."
Most who tune in to watch get Tong's attempt at what he calls "complete satire, but there are people on the Internet that will just not forgive it.
They'll hate on you no matter what, whether it be the quality of your video, the quantity in which you make your video, or what you say in your video -- they'll always find something to hate on."
As the world of Peter Chao expands to incorporate live performance and a line of T-shirts, Tong finds interesting offers popping up. From Oct. 5 to 9, for instance, he'll be living in a Los Angeles warehouse as one of 12 Internet celebrities at Prank House, "the first reality video game."
Go to prankhouse. com, and you can watch on webcam as a paintball gun you control is aimed at Peter Chao -- one of many ways to wreak some revenge on one rude mother (you know the rest).
AT A GLANCE
GLOBAL COMEDYFEST
When: Today, to Sept. 26 Where: Various venues Schedule and ticket info: www.comedyfest.com
pbirnie@vancouversun.com
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