Known as that Asian on YouTube from Hawaii, Ryan Higa, "NigaHiga," is the
number one channel on YouTube. Since his
start back in 2006, Ryan Higa along with Sean Fujiyoshi started posting videos
on YouTube that consisted of lip-syncing, comedic skits, and rants. Since Ryan Higa has moved to Las Vegas for
school, his videos are solo and have featured his friends who are also well
known YouTube personalities such as KevJumba and Chester See. Higa’s videos are made for comedic enjoyment;
his skits include making parodies of movies a series he calls “Movie in
Minutes,” to his thoughts on trends such as the most recent one in his video “Sh*t
__ Says.”
Ryan Higa does not address his ethnicity as much as
KevJumba, but to him, he doesn’t see the need.
Higa’s videos are based off what everyone has encountered. He has posted vidoes with the title “Off the
Pill” expressing his opinion on various subjects like Justin Bieber and any
current trend that is happening in our society.
Aside from his YouTube videos, mainstream media has noticed Ryan Higa. Higa and Fujiyoshi have their own film Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure
(2008). Recently he has made an
appearance on the Nickelodeon show Supa
Ninjas as an evil deejay who puts people to sleep. Higa’s popularity on YouTube allowed him to
be able to be featured on the same level as mainstream celebrities.
Even though Ryan Higa does not address any part of his
ethnicity in his videos, he is still popular because of his videos. His audience on YouTube is not just Asians,
but everyone. In most of Higa’s recent
videos his fellow YouTube celebrities make cameo appearances. One of his videos features D-Trix from Quest
Crew as they show viewers how they can become a YouTube celebrity
themselves. This past month Ryan Higa
has reached over five million subscribers.
He is also part of a group called YTF (Yesterday Tomorrow Forever) with
KevJumba, D-Trix, Chester See, Victor Kim, JR Aquino, and Andrew Garcia. Ryan Higa has been part of Wong Fu
Productions and Far*East Movement’s ISA Concert series serving has a host, and
also worked with WFP in their short film Agents
of Secret Stuff.
When Higa moved to Las Vegas for school and started posting
solo videos, fans kept asking “Where’s Sean?” He answered this question when he released his
three million subscribers video showing that Sean was always there. Fans have missed the dynamic duo ever since
Higa moved for school. Its rare to seeSean
in any of his videos, unless he is home in Hawaii. Like most YouTube celebrities, Ryan Higa had
no intention of becoming the number one channel. He simple posts his videos for people to
enjoy. Sure he might use an Asian accent
in his video, but it is only for pure entertainment. Besides, if he knows that his jokes might be
taken as an offence, he is quick to say its only a joke; in a video he replaces Sean, but in the description he explains it was all a joke.
I don't watch too much of "NigaHiga" but I've watched a few and found them pretty funny. What I really like about him though is because he does his videos for entertainment but when when says something offensive, he'll confirm it's a joke, like what you said in the end. I think it's amazing how fame came from him but his using Asian stereotypes seem to take him pretty far, even to Nickelodeon.
ReplyDeleteI agree, he uses those stereotype as a basis to write his scripts like when he created a couple videos like "How to Be a Ninja" and "A Day in a Life of a Ninja." For Nickelodeon, they even asked him to perform his own stunts on the episode. So, its like he uses the Asian stereotype to help him in his craft, like you said.
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