Ryan Higa
In 2006, at the tender age of 22, Ryan Higa started posting skits and lip-syncing videos to YouTube under the name “nigahiga.” Six years later, he has more than 5 million subscribers to his YouTube comedy channel and a growing presence in the mainstream media. Leanne Mirandilla asks the internet celeb about his work.
HK Magazine: How did you first start doing videos?
Ryan Higa: I actually first started with a VHS camcorder. I literally did it out of boredom. For the very first video I ever made, I was told to film our family reunion, or something like that, and I had so much fun with it that I just kept doing it since then—probably since seventh grade. I didn’t start putting them on YouTube until ‘06 or ’07, and the reason for that was because I wanted to share them with my family.
HK: Is there a kind of “YouTube entertainer community”? What’s the dynamic like?
RH: There are some people now who are very competitive with each other. A lot of people are starting to join YouTube because they see it as a business, rather than [for] the original reasons a lot of us older [YouTubers] started. But I’ve always seen it the same way: I treat YouTube like a community and I believe that everyone, no matter how big or small [your audience is], should just help each other out. About 90 percent of my friends in LA are all some type of YouTuber, or they’re getting into YouTube right now.
HK: What’s your relationship like with your fans?
RH: It’s so weird to me that people would even want to see me. It feels like you’re meeting a friend that you’ve known about for a long time. I guess I don’t really see them as “fans,” I see them more like new friends.
HK: How do you think YouTube is different compared to more traditional media, like TV?
RH: YouTube gives a very good opportunity for everyone to have an equal shot. It’s starting to become more similar to TV networks, but YouTube will always be YouTube. You can’t just post your first video or TV show, no matter how good or bad it is, on TV—you have to hope that the network will buy it and all that nonsense. But YouTube is just so much better because I think that people can watch whatever they choose to watch; they’re not being told what to watch. I think that’s also the reason why a lot of Asians do so well on YouTube. At the time [when I started posting videos] there were no Asians in Hollywood. There wasn’t anyone who was like Taylor Lautner or anything, where they would be in all these different TV shows and movies, because [Hollywood wasn’t] casting anyone. So on YouTube we’re finally proving that there’s this big Asian community.
HK: Where do you get your inspiration from?
RH: I do watch a lot of Family Guy in terms of TV, and a lot of comedic shows and movies. But a lot of it is just from everyday life. And definitely, when I’m writing, I try not to watch things so that I don’t [bring that material] into my ideas. I literally just sit in a room, sometimes for three days straight, and don’t do anything other than eat and write. I like to have a basic outline. Sometimes I have a very detailed script—it depends on the video. Most of the time I end up changing everything in the process of making the video.
HK: Has your popularity changed the way you approach your videos at all?
RH: There are some things I could do in the past that I can’t do now. For the most part I’ve always created content that I believe is funny and that I like, but while staying true to myself. At the same time I have to keep the audience in mind and what’s appropriate for them. I’ve always [done that], but there are definitely certain videos that I can’t do now that I probably would’ve done five years ago.