How did Fedfe begin?
Tar: I wanted to make money from social media. My friends and I used to work in the production industry so we knew how to create videos with low budgets and just wanted to make it silly and fun to get viewers.
What have been the wildest moments?
Tar: We did some pretty crazy things to hurt each other, like firing firecrackers at a friend’s bare chest, shooting cap guns in each other’s ears, using water from the toilets to brush our teeth, setting fire to our clothes, or just getting naked. But, some videos were deleted from YouTube as it was reported that they were too violent. I still don’t get this. There are so many violent videos such as decapitations, porn, stabbing, teaching people how to make bombs—it’s all on YouTube but they decided to take our silly video down.
Why do people watch this stuff?
Tar: People are bored of watching clean programs on TV. They want something different. We do silly things to make them laugh and we’re not fake. But it’s really hard to make sponsors get this message and hire us to promote their products. No one believes that ugly guys like us can be good marketing for them.
But now you’re getting paid for this, right?
Wow: After we did clips for a year, our first sponsor was a jeans shop, Pronto, who paid us B40,000 to make clips promoting their shop. The owner said he would be pleased if the clip went viral with 100,000 views but he ended with nearly two million views for four clips. We now charge B500,000 but it depends how many clips they want.
Why are you guys always taking your clothes off?
Tar: It’s kind of our fetish. We’re normally walking around naked at our headquarters. The videos are actually the soft versions.
What’s the most difficult clip you’ve ever shot?
Wow: It’s gotta be “Sen Lek Kuan Dern Pai Sung” (“You Should Walk to Order Noodles”) which is a parody of Bodyslam’s new single. We shot it from 6am to 6am—a full 24 hours. Everything went wrong, especially the electric generator that went down every 10 minutes!
What do you foresee in social media?
Tar: Social media is the most neutral media ever and that’s what makes people stick with it more than any other media. But it’s also barbaric. Yes, you can use it for good, but you can post false information too. You can slander people. But, that’s what makes people love it. You can do anything with it.
What’s next?
Tar: I wish we could make a big movie or a series.
