Redeem now - People are criticizing David Dobrik and Liza Koshy for two videos from 2016 in which the pair, then a couple, imitated speaking Japanese as a joke.
- TikTok user @callmesukiwi posted a video on TikTok on June 21, calling the videos a "clear example of the normalized racism against Asians."
- People are now calling out the mockery of the Japanese language on Twitter, TikTok, and in the comments of the original YouTube video.
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Internet personalities David Dobrik and Liza Koshy are coming under fire for two videos from 2016 in which the pair, then a couple, try Japanese candy, and in another video, "foreign" candy. In both videos, Dobrik sporadically pretends to speak in Japanese as a joke while picking up the snacks and pretending to read the packages, at one point saying, "It's not racist, that's like the sounds I hear when they talk."
TikTok user @callmesukiwi posted a call-out video on TikTok on June 21, showing recordings of both Dobrik and Koshy making similar noises meant to imitate the Japanese language while eating various non-American snacks. After Dobrik makes the comment about how his actions aren't racist, Koshy replies, "No, it's not racist as long as I keep saying 'no.'" Throughout both videos, she continues to say "no" every time Dobrik mocks speaking Japanese.
@callmesukiwiWhy is no one talking about this? It’s a clear example of the normalized racism against Asians @daviddobrik @lizzza ##fyp ##asian
♬ original sound - callmesukiwi@callmesukiwi's video has approximately 45,000 likes and nearly 240,000 views on TikTok. Text on the video reads, "They're trying Japanese candy and pretending to talk in Japanese as a joke. Isn't that still… racist???" The caption of the video says, "Why is no one talking about this? It's a clear example of the normalized racism against Asians."
The videos in question are from 2016 and were published within two days of each other
The first video in question — "COUPLE TRYING JAPANESE CANDY!!" — was published on Liza Koshy's secondary YouTube channel, Liza Koshy Too, on Nov. 11, 2016, and currently has over 11,870,400 views. The second — "COUPLE TRYING FOREIGN CANDY!!" — was published on David Dobrik's secondary channel, David Dobrik Too, on Nov. 13, 2016, and currently has approximately 7,439,100 views.
At one point in the first video, Dobrik reviews a candy, saying, "I give this one five sushi rolls out of eight." Liza protests that comment, saying "no" once again; when Dobrik questions why, she says, "I just have to keep saying no."
"If you have candy from other countries, feel free to send 'em our way and we'll make offensive jokes about them," Liza says at the end of the video.
In the second video posted on Dobrik's secondary channel, the pair try Adobo-flavored Boy Bawang Cornick, a Filipino snack. When Dobrik picks up the bag, he calls it a Japanese snack and mocks the name. Liza says "no" again, but after trying some, also makes a series of noises similar to Dobrik, to which Dobrik says, "Yeah, there we go."
People are criticizing Dobrik and Koshy for mocking the Japanese language across platforms
People criticized Dobrik and Koshy in the comments of @callmesukiwi's video, with one comment with approximately 2,400 likes reading, "Asian accents are already so stereotyped I definitely remember being made fun of in this exact way growing up." Another with approximately 4,000 likes reads, "y'all will cancel everyone BUT your favorite artists."
@callmesukiwi's TikTok video was reposted to Twitter on June 23, where people have begun to share and criticize it.
—Spill Sesh (@spillseshYT) June 23, 2020 —You (@nironlex) June 23, 2020Recent comments on the videos, many made within the past 24 hours, also call out the pair for mocking the Japanese language. While some older comments on Koshy's video call out Dobrik for mocking Japanese, many are fixated on the pair's relationship (they've since broken up). However, many of the recent comments seem to come from fans (or former fans) making variations of statements that they hadn't realized or had ignored the racism back in the day.
One on Dobrik's video reads, "Wow I stanned them so much 3 years ago that I just let their racist asian jokes slide. I was dumb and realized, wow they're really not funny :p."
David Dobrik and Liza Koshy did not immediately respond for comment.
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