In November of 2007, I, along with the help of friends B&S, created a video to be shown at a community event. The idea was inspired by Dave Chappelle’s “Ask a Black Dude“. Purposely subtle, tongue-in-cheek, and heavily sarcastic, the video was welcomed by positive response and laughter when shown at the community event. The video was posted up on youtube immediately, and since then it has clocked in to almost 30,000 views with minimal promotion (shout out to the Hyphen blog, though).

It has gotten some positive replies on youtube – those who get it have either seen the original Chappelle show skit, live in Seattle, live in Seattle AND know their local hip hop artists, have a very good sense of humor, possess a very good sarcastic radar, and….did I mention good sense of humor?

What is more interesting to me are the replies of people who don’t “get it”. These are folks who don’t read the sidebar info about the video or other people’s replies. These are folks who react immediately to the video as if the people asking the questions were totally being honest about their questions.

There are funny examples of this, especially to the question of “Why are Filipinos so short?” The subject was filmed at an angle to make him appear taller, but I digress.

To the question, “Why aren’t there any Filipino vegetarian recipes?”, the improved answer of Tofu Adobo is actually a dish made many times over by a certain homie…and yes it does taste good! Funny comments made on the youtube aren’t necessarily comments about the answer given, but recommendations on other meat-free Filipino foods (here in the states and in the Philippines). I knew we could do it, people!

The best comments are the defensive ones from folks who just don’t get the joke. As a result, they try to attack the video:

Unwarranted comments from bigots makes the video project more enjoyable for me. I find it very ironic that a lot of the defensive comments come from Filipinos, too. As the hits approach the 30,000 mark, I’m glad to see the project create dialogue, controversy and laughs (to those who get it, anyway). Feel free to visit the actual video page and comment!