Doing Peter Chao No Favour! Mudaf*cka!

The picture you see is from about a year ago when a colleague and I bumped into controversial YouTube stud, Peter Chao, in Vancouver's Chinatown. He was on our station a week later for his first ever mainstream media interview - months before the Georgia Straight newspaper did its cover story.

By the way, Peter Chao is the Chinese guy on the left and I'm the one on the right. I thought I should clarify since we apparently all look the same.

For those who don't know, Peter Chao is a Vancouver guy who produces YouTube videos mostly from his basement. He has a fake Chinese accent and his humour targets everyone from Asians, Blacks, Whites, Women to Justin Bieber. Here's a sample of Chao's work that got him temporarily banned from YouTube. Warning: don't watch if you're easily offended!


Once our station landed the exclusive interview with Chao, a lot of people at the office saw this as a major "get". This guy was from Vancouver, had a large Youtube following and was highly controversial. But there was one skeptic among us.

A member of our team said, "Peter Chao is just a guy who makes low budget videos for YouTube. Why are we doing him a favour by putting him on TV?!"

Another colleague of mine then retorted, "Peter Chao's videos have on average 1-million views. That's more than our newscasts and any other in town. We're not doing him any favour. He's doing us a favour!"

I tell this story because it surprises me there are still people in the media who are skeptical of YouTube's reach, and think people like Peter Chao are just internet punks.

A quick search on YouTube will show most of Chao's videos have more than a million views. Chao's "Chinese Guy is a Sexist" video has upwards of 3.6-million views. That would make it the top ranked TV program according to the BBM Canadian Ratings for the week of Nov. 29 - Dec. 5, easily outdistancing The Amazing Race 17.

Peter Chao's videos aren't even the most popular. The infamous "Double Rainbow" video has 18-million views, topping the 13.5-million American viewers who tuned in for the much anticipated series finale of Lost.

Yes, I know "Double Rainbow", and Peter Chao's clips gained millions of viewers over a long period of time. They also have viewers from across the world, some of whom viewed them multiple times. Conventional TV shows, on the other hand, garner their ratings in one night in one defined geographical area.

Still, Peter Chao's videos have attracted millions of eyeballs with a shoestring budget, while some TV shows still fail despite having multi-million dollar budgets. The only thing people like Peter Chao haven't figured out is how to convert their views into big money. Although, selling t-shirts like the one you see on the left is a start. Peace out, Mudaf*&cas!

Taking the "Crazies" Seriously!

There's a news story making international headlines right now about a supposed time traveler who pops up in film footage of the 1928 premiere of Charlie Chaplin's film, The Circus. An Irish filmmaker is getting major media attention for an odd discovery he has made.

In a YouTube video that has drawn 2.8-million views and counting, George Clarke, points out a woman who walks by the camera and appears to be talking on a cell phone. While the scene of someone walking by with her palm to her face and talking is not uncommon in 2010, it's rather unusual in 1928.

Clarke draws the most obvious of conclusions: the mystery woman is a time traveler talking on a cell phone that requires no cell tower signal.

"What?! That's an outrageous claim!" is the reaction people generally have when seeing the story. But thanks to YouTube, so-called "crazies" making these claims are gaining credibility and getting into the news.

To be fair, Clarke doesn't seem all that crazy. Okay...his time travelling theory is a bit loony. Still, he seems like a normal guy otherwise, and is a legit independent filmmaker. But prior to YouTube, I don't think he would ever have gotten the attention of traditional media outlets because he would have been labeled as a nut.

In the olden days, he would have to call or write people like me and pitch his idea. That exchange would have went something like this:

Clarke: "Hi, I have a news story idea. I found a woman in a Charlie Chaplin film who looks like she's talking on a cell phone. I think she's a time traveler. Can you put this in the news?"

News Editor: "Uh...okaaay...thanks for getting in touch with me, but um...yeah...we don't do those kinds of stories. No offense, I actually think you're kind of crazy. Bye."

Nowadays, Clarke just has to make a video, upload it to YouTube and hope a million people will watch it. Once that happens, it's not him who's calling the media - it's the media calling him. The world is then treated to an intriguing story with ample water cooler buzz. Isn't it funny how a million YouTube views can give you instant credibility?

For the record, I don't think the woman in the clip is a time traveller. She's likely a woman shielding her face while talking to herself because she's...well...probably a little crazy.