TGIF FEATURE: YouTube's Fung Brothers get a reality show

YOUTUBE stars David and Andrew Fung, who I featured in several earlier postings, will get their own reality show after years of building a following on the video-sharing website.

Titled What the Fung?!, the show will feature the Fung brothers dual comedic interview style, finishing each other's thoughts, educating the viewers and celebrating diversity without preaching.

What the Fung?! will debut May 21 on the FYI Network. Check your local listings for times and channel. I guess the shortened reference will be WTF?!

The Fung Brothers love their food.

The Seattle brothers new show will draw on their love of food. In their YouTube channel, many of the most popular videos focus on the cuisine of different Asian cultures. 

"I do think it's kind of innately in Asian -- but particularly Chinese -- culture to just always talk about food constantly," David, 28, told an NBC reporter. "At least in our family, there's no ratchet drama stories. All that energy ... just goes towards talking about food in a very nerdy and enthusiastic way."

Growing up in the Seattle suburbs, David and Andrew were fascinated by hip-hop, comedy, and food. Not surprisingly, their immigrant parents wanted their children to become either doctors, lawyers, or follow in the family tradition of being an engineer. Like many Asian Americans youth, their childhood was a constant struggle between the wishes of their traditional parents and the new opportunities and discoveries offered by America's pop culture.

After graduating from college, the brothers moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in both stand-up comedy and YouTube. 

Like so many minority artists without the industry contacts and not having a show business background, they found Hollywood a hard nut to crack, the brothers saw YouTube as a way to display their talent. After making a few funny rap songs about food and putting the music videos on YouTube, people started to take notice – viewers across the world appreciated the subtle blend of the equal parts: rapper, comedian, and foodie. Since then, Fung Brothers have been featured in the New York Times, NPR, the Cooking Channel and Travel Channel.

What I like about their videos is that they do social commentary disguised as comedy. You'll be laughing along and then suddenly you arrive at an "aha" moment. Watch this video below, "What Asian Girls Hate" to get an idea of what I'm trying to describe. Visit their YouTube channel to see their other videos.

Have a great weekend!

Are Filipinos the happiest Asians?

WHEW! I've been on a tear lately - really heavy topics ... and I haven't even done anything on Ferguson yet. I figure its about time for a breather.

Its a light-hearted discussion about what makes Filipinos Filipinos. Are Filipinos really the happiest Asians? It's fun to "claim" so-and-so celebrities as Filipinos. Yes, I'm guilty of doing that. Some of the minor things they say are inaccurate but I can let it slide because they raise a question we all face sometimes in our lives.

I'm still a first generation immigrant even though I've lived in the U.S. 65 years. My wife's family has been here for four and five generations. My own family is starting its second and third generations. Like the immigrant groups before us, with each generation, we grow more distant from the Philippines: The names of relatives are forgotten, stories about relatives become myths, family histories blurred, recipes lost, and our Filipinoness become less and less evident.

The family members are proud to be Americans and are as American as we can be in our attitudes, values, the way we walk and talk, behave, and think. And like all Americans, we mingle. Boy, do we mingle. We come in all shades of brown and beige. There are blacks, blondes, and a whole range of eye-shapes. Our accents are Californian, New Yawkese, Chi-ka-goan and Hawaiian.

Many of the younger relatives may not even have asked themselves the question and I'm afraid some may even not count Filipino as among their racial lineage. 

I'd like to hear from the rest of the family or from you readers: What do you call yourself? Is it important to you that you have Filipino blood in you? How do you keep your ties to your roots? What box do you check off when the Census asks your race? Or, is the topic even important to you?

The video is from the up-and-coming Fung Brothers from their work on YouTube videos and the cartoonist is the Manila-born Corky Trinidad, who worked for years at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He was the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated.

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