Written by alvin on July 28, 2010 – 1:32 pm -
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Yesterday Funemployed, an entertaining 11-episode web series, released its final episode. The series is about two best friends who lose their jobs and decide to try careers as internet media stars, all while juggling romantic interests.
In my opinion this series is very cutting edge in its medium format and distribution; it’s a peek at what entertainment and media are going to look like more and more over the next five to ten years.
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One interesting aspect of this project is it’s a collaboration between real-life internet stars
KevJumba,
Nigahiga,
David Choi, and
Wong Fu Productions, who came together to form a YouTube Voltron. The project took them 8 months to complete.
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Each of these Funemployed performers are already Youtube celebrities in their own rights. I would argue that some of their audience numbers rival Nielsen ratings on more traditional media (wink at forward-thinking advertisers). Consider the fact that:
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- Nigahiha is YouTube’s #1 all-time subscribed overall channel and #1 all-time subscribed comedian, with 520 million total web views of his videos.
- KevJumba has over 1 million subscribers and is the #8 all-time subscribed comedian.
- David Choi is the #9 all-time subscribed musician with 67 million total views of his songs.
- Wong Fu Productions has collaborated on music videos and short films with dozens of noted Asian American artists and performers.
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For years traditional entertainment gatekeepers have made excuses that Asian American entertainers simply aren’t marketable, funny, or talented enough, to justify shutting them out of film, television, or music opportunities. The huge popularity of the Funemployed collaborators shows just how silly these excuses are. Despite well articulated and publicized efforts like
racebending.com about systemic issues within traditional industry, it can be a little depressing to think that gatekeepers not only don’t care, but continue to benefit in
lucrative ways from their practices.
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Luckily, technology is leveling the entertainment playing field more and more, where quality media can be created by more individuals with fewer resources, and distributed at low to negligible cost to mass audiences. It is looking more like solutions won’t come from changing innate discrimination within traditional entertainment, but from alternative media that continues to explode in popularity. With the ability nowadays to feed internet content directly into HD televisions, entertainment and media is in
vital stages of being redefined.
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Since YouTube’s creation in 2005, a generation of adolescents (at various stages of entering college studies now) have been exposed to and accustomed to seeing (and enjoying) non-traditional faces in their entertainment choices, in consuming alternative media.
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The younger generation’s open-mindedness toward Asian American performers can be found in examples like
Legaci, an Asian American musical group asked by Justin Bieber to tour with him. Justin Bieber himself was
discovered on YouTube at age 13, and I’m sure there are others like him, who grew up entertained by Asian American personalities, who can appreciate them for what they are without all the traditional-media-ingrained prejudices of their predecessors.
Kollaboration is a nonprofit organization whose mission is EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTERTAINMENT. They are dedicated to the promotion of a strong Asian Pacific Islander American presence through entertainment. Currently, they are working on Acoustic 4 2010, a competition that features unique Asian American Artists, who share a love for music. Headlining for the show is Marie Digby, famous YouTube star who received a jumpstart in her career after performing a cover of Umbrella, by Rihanna.
