VRZO drama summarized in 10 sentences

No melodrama of the moment is juicier than the social media storm over the people behind “VRZO,” Thailand’s leading comedy YouTube channel.

Since last week a barrage of status updates, Instagram posts and Pantip threads have endlessly debated outrageous claims made by one of its young celebs marketing skin cream sold by her mother’s company and exposed the fragile personalities behind a young internet media phenomenon.

At the center of the controversy are VRZO’s 27-year-old founder, Pleum Leekpai, the son of former politician Chuan Leekpai, and his internet idol wife Tubtim Mallika, who became famous for the show they co-host.

One of the Thai-language YouTube channel’s most popular shows, the program by Tubtim and Pleum involves the couple asking “good-looking people” to comment on a selected issue in three words.

But something about recent claims by Tubtim that her mom’s skin goop could treat strokes and bow legs struck a nerve with the public, who’ve since pored over the scrambled to dig up dirt on her past as well as other VRZO personalities.

A lot of conflicting cultural currents about identity, status and privilege are at work, but instead of recounting the finer points of what led to this perfect internet shitstorm, we turn to Twitter user @Joze_phin, who conveniently summarized the drama, and we’ve kindly translated below:
 

1. The fire started when Tuptim pimped her mother’s skin care line “Celeb”  and exaggerated its benefits. The internet pointed to the product’s Instagram account, which boasted the cream can “cure strokes” and “bow legs.”

2. People started hating Tubtim and digging deep into her past.

3. People also digged deep into the lives of past VRZO personalities — Champ and George.

4. Champ posted on Facebook that he was one of the people who built VRZO but was neglected after he “worked so much that his health was beyond damage,” putting Pleum in hot water.

5. Pleum responded, claiming he didn’t know Champ felt that way.

6. People started digging deep through Tubtim’s past, and the rumors include she has had surgeries and stole people’s boyfriends in the past.

7. The married couple is seen flirting with other people — Tubtim making out with another guy at Demo — Pleum at Wip.

8. Because Tubtim is a woman, people slut-shamed Tubtim saying she’s pretending to be a saint and a good role model for teens.

9. People started criticizing VRZO and their work, which dedicates a large portion of their videos to sponsors.

And the drama goes on.

Yes, this is what people are talking about on Pantip this week, and although it may be pointless to know, at least now you’re not curious now.