DavidSoComedy

DavidSoComedy is one of those YouTube stars that recently became better known after one of his videos went viral. Though with only about 200,000 subscribers, his videos have been viewed more than 21 million times. Coming from a Korean background, DavidSoComedy makes video blogs and does amusing rants about various topics, most of them addressing Asian issues. With a video response to the infamous student at UCLA ranting about Asians, DavidSoComedy got his start on YouTube through the upload of “Vlog #4: Asians in the Library – UCLA Girl (Alexandra Wallace) going wild on Asians.” 

By analyzing Alexandra Wallace’s video scene by scene, he tries to comically defend the actions of Asians mentioned in the video. While he admits some of them may be true, as I admit I can personally relate to some, DavidSoComedy does express his frustration with her statements. Her comments were simply racist because of the way she conveyed them. Most of his viewers were in complete agreement as well, one viewer wrote,

“I love this video responding back to the crazy chick's video. So ignorant, It's just so sad that people have such a general distaste for another race. Open your mind people, everybody!”“

Another person even acknowledged the absurdness of her claims,

“‘American's’ don't even have ‘American’ manners! We suck in general, we have no manners, yet alone respect for each other, which is proven by this girl's ridiculous rant. And secondly, I SEE WHITE PEOPLE ON THEIR CELL PHONES ALL THE TIME YAPPING AWAY IN COLLEGE LIBRARIES!!! AND I"M WHITE!!! Being rude just varies from person to person. There is no such thing as an ENTIRE ethnic culture to not have manners. So blond girly girl that love pink and goes to UCLA.....STFU!!!!!!!! And David..thank you.”

As this viewer acknowledges, some of Alexandra Wallace’s assertions could be relevant to others, Asian or not. She just chose to target Asians specifically making it appear that she is racist.

DavidSoComedy also does two other videos in which he focuses on Asian stereotypes in general. He attempts to clear up the assumptions that people have about Asian people. Though his intentions to determine what is fact and fiction about Asians are good, he does base this off his own experiences which become problematic. For example, he discusses the idea that Asians are bad drivers. As he said, he use to get upset when people assumed this, until he got his license. It’s common for new drivers to mess up a few times or so, not Asians in general. Asians are not the only people who are bound to be bad drivers, anybody can be a bad driver regardless of race. As this is only one example that he bases these generalizations off his own life, this could be applied to most of the stereotypes that he mentions. By imitating Koreans and their accent to prove his points, DavidSoComedy fails to clarify Asian stereotypes for he bases it off a specific ethnic group, as many of his viewers have pointed out.

Though still entertaining, DavidSoComedy is one of many YouTube stars that have used the topic of Asian stereotypes to boost his popularity.