In an internet world full of douchebags and ignorance, two men may have just distinguished themselves by releasing the most cringeworthy, painful and idiotic video about Hong Kong in the history of YouTube and its purported “stars.”
Meet Asian-American YouTuber Bryan Le — aka RiceGum — and his vlogging sidekick, a YouTube “prank comedian” who goes by M2THAK.
They came to Hong Kong to film what the city’s netizens have universally panned as, and we’re paraphrasing here, a piece of shit ignorant clip mocking people unfortunate enough to encounter the pair as they stupid their way around town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSCSwpcDhI
Naturally, it has 3 million views. The video was later removed from his official channel, but some have managed to save it and re-upload it onto YouTube.*
Here’s just a slice of their douchebaggery. One, walking around Tsim Sha Tsui asking people where they can eat cats and dogs. Two, enquiring with strangers about “where the hoes at?” Three, querying a lady advertising massage services about “happy endings.”
They also say the city’s street food looks disgusting — curry fish balls are a goddamn work of art, thank you very much — and just can’t get over how FUNNY it is to touch strangers’ hands on the escalators.
They were fond of startling strangers. They gave a half eaten ice cream to one local man, who at least got free ice cream, so … good for him.?
“Prank comedian” M2THAK, meanwhile, showcases his originality by ripping off a line from Rush Hour to supposedly demonstrate how people in “China” don’t speak English, yelling at a random guy at the Hong Kong airport “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” Hilarious. A true delight.
He also brings all his comedic prank skills to bear by making shop window mannequins touch each other sexually.
But what was actually funny, many netizens pointed out, was the irony.
Le, who is of Vietnamese descent, says in the clip that he was motivated to go on his deep-dive, two-day visit because he was tired of racist commenters telling him to “go back to China.”
So to combat the racism and prove that he didn’t actually belong in China, he decided to go to Hong Kong and release a clip that pokes fun of stereotypes and mistakenly (?) uses the Japanese flag to note their arrival in the city.
“Do your research before you come to Hong Kong,” one netizen snapped in the comment section, while others lamented the “disrespect” of local culture by “ignorant tourists.”
Another Hong Kong netizen pointed out the city’s own Vietnamese community of refugees from the Vietnam war, saying maybe Le would like to read up.
“Maybe you should ask your parents about it, so you will not be that ignorant about your ancestry.”
Several other commenters were also quick to draw comparisons to disgraced YouTuber Logan Paul, who was universally panned for a video of him laughing at the corpse of a man who had recently committed suicide in Japan’s “suicide forest” in Aokigahara, at the foot of Mount Fuji.
“Please don’t be another Logan Paul,” one netizen, rather politely advised.
Read more Hong Kong stories here
*This article was updated on August 1 to include the fact that the original YouTube vlog had been removed from RiceGum’s account.
