Analysing NigaHiga!

If you've never heard of NigaHiga, or Ryan Higa, you've probably lived under a rock for the past few years. Almost everyone who has ever been on YouTube has watched one of his videos. You know, those random funny videos starring an Asian with 'Teehee' at the end of them? Yeah, those are his. Currently, Ryan has nearly 11 million subscribers, making him the 9th most subscribed YouTube channel. Ryan mostly makes short, humoristic movies with a deeper meaning behind them. Most of these videos are just so random that you don't realise what the deeper meaning is until the end of the video, which allows you to focus on the humoristic part first, and think about the meaning later, making sure you can relax and laugh while watching it. As always, the question is: how did this American dude from Japan, living in Hawaii, get big?

YTF, the entertainment group Ryan is part of

Ryan Higa started making videos in 2006, when YouTube was still a quite unknown website. At first, he created videos of him and his friend Sean lip-synching to certain songs. After this, he started making sketches: short videos with action and humour in them. His first two sketched 'How to be emo' and 'How to be Ninja'. These sketches went viral and this is how he started gaining a lot of subscribers, eventually making him one of the biggest YouTubers. Nowadays, he makes mostly short videos with a meaning behind them. He even made a 30-minute long short movie, and several songs, one of which being 'Bromance'. Furthermore, he was in a entertainment group with some of his friends for some time, travelling around the world performing in different countries. Yet what makes his videos so attractive?

Well, his videos contain a lot of jokes, like seriously. I'm guessing there is a joke in his videos once every 10 seconds, and these don't even have to be good jokes. They can be the most cheesy kind of jokes you can think of, yet you laugh at them, because the context of the video, he visualizes hist jokes quite a lot, and the way he tells them just makes them funny. For example, he has a video about why lamps are awesome, yes you read that correctly, lamps. He explains why he calls his fans lamps: "Because fans make you cool, but once you go cold they go and find the next hot thing to fan. Even when you're not the hot topic and you go completely cold, lamps will make you hot" (Get it? Lamps give of warmth, *badumtss*). Yeah, that joke sounded better in his voice, you should just go watch that video. 

Furthermore, his videos are made very professionally, even in the beginning of his career. They are directed very well and this makes it feel like you're watching a real sort-of movie. Also, his use of special effects and props just give his videos a little extra, making them more funny and more entertaining. He also collaborates a lot with other YouTubers, making sure that their subscribers go over to his channel and vice versa. 

Another thing about his videos is that he gets personal with his fans (or lamps). He asks his lamps to leave suggestions of what videos to make in the comment section, and then creates those videos. He also has fan (/lamp) meetups where he personally talks with his fans and signs stuff for them. 

The last thing which adds to his popularity is his catchphrase with which he ends every one of his videos. The catchphrase is short and simple: 'Teehee'. If I were to say one thing to summarize his videos, it would be 'Teehee', simply because of the facts that he puts this at the end of every single one of his videos. Sometimes I even wait for the ending of the video for him to say it, because it's just so catchy and funny to hear. 

Hopefully you know now why NigaHiga is so big on YouTube, and be sure to stay tuned so next post's YouTuber: Smosh!

TEEHEE!