A band of merry pranksters who call themselves the Monkey Kingz have been delighting and disturbing unsuspecting China folk in equal measure. We decided to do a little Journey to the East interview to see the motivation behind their simian shenanigans...
So who are the Monkey Kingz?
The pranksters vary episode to episode. We encourage people to come in and give it a try, but the main three guys are Matthew, Zach and Storm. With Alessio and Nemo behind the scenes as shooters and editors.
How did you guys get it all started?
Believe it or not it's our job! We work for this great content company called Tomado Group, they do branded content, events and original content (under the name TMD).
How do you come up with ideas?
If we make each other laugh talking about an idea then we will likely give it a go. Some have worked more than others, but it's all trial and error, really. To make ourselves unique, we try to do as many China-specific pranks as possible that play on humorous aspects of local culture and language.
Which has been your favorite prank so far?
Kissing Prank definitely! I think we hit the nail on the head with that one in terms of feel and quality. Recently, we've been making an effort to try and steer away from negative or touchy subjects. And with the kissing prank I think we have a perfect balance of cute and funny reactions without scaring or offending anyone (too much!)
Was it a surprise for you that so many guys accepted your kisses and the women didn't?
I'm guessing the guys thought it was such a strange request that it must be a cultural thing and they didn't want to offend. However, during the kisses you'll see some intimate touchings like a hand on the waist or shoulder, which was kind of oddly romantic. Whatever the reason it was awesome how it turned out! Except for Matthew who didn't not plan for kissing so many guys. What a champ though!
Second favorite?
We also enjoyed filming the Windex prank, where we filled a windex container with blue Gatorade and casually drank it around a shopping mall. People believed that we were actually drinking Windex because we had heard from friends that it would help clean our stomachs. They were extremely concerned.
Ever tried one that just failed miserably?
We’ve been putting out a new prank every week so there are definitely a couple that didn’t turn out how we hoped. We did one that involved us stealthily blowing bubbles on strangers in the supermarket and it turned out Matt somehow never learned how to blow bubbles as a kid. We’ve found that Chinese people already expect foreigners to be acting strangely, so you have to have a well thought out concept to get the best reactions.
Ever been in trouble with the law?
We were doing an invisible rope prank and the cops told us to move along. Hopefully that's as far as it ever goes.
Any time you felt things have gone too far?
We had a female Chinese college take part in one of our pranks, the ass slap one. We would walk down the street and another prankster would walk by and slap our ass and keep going. We would then turn around and playfully accuse the stranger behind us of slapping our ass. It was the female pranksters first time and she took it wayyy too seriously, more like a con than a joke. And unfortunately that's how the stranger took it, he got super mad and was convinced we were trying to con money out of him by accusing him of slapping his ass.
Ever received some aggressive reactions from people during pranks?
Just the above time but generally we like to keep things playful or unbelievable surreal.
Why is China a good place to do stunts like yours?
Absolutely no one is doing it in China! And there's definitely a market for it. Most of the views on the Chinese sites are in the high thousands with a few over the million mark. We’ve found Chinese people to be very non-confrontational and willing to laugh at themselves, so the pranks are normally well received by the people who end up getting pranked.
Also, as foreigners doing pranks here we get to weird people out a little more and get the kind of reactions that other prank shows aren't getting. For example, when we did the “Can I eat your food” prank everyone offered us as much food as we wanted. However, when Storm, who is Chinese, tried asking people told him to go away. I guess Chinese people’s tolerance for strange behaviour is much higher when it comes to foreigners.
On the YouTube side we get people commenting about how this is a different side of China they haven't seen before or that "Chinese people are so cute!" We even have people learning Chinese from watching the show because we duel subtitle everything.
What do you say to people who criticize you for giving foreigners in China a bad name?
That's a very separatist outlook that we try not to pay much attention to. We want to keep the group mixed as possible, even doing all Chinese pranks that foreigners wouldn't be able to pull off. There will always be people who don't like what we do, but I think there are foreigners here doing way worse than a bunch of fools trying to make people laugh.
What's next for the Monkey Kingz?
As a team we have a strong drive to continuously improve our work and with time we hope we can perform more elaborate and creative pranks with more people involved. It would be fun to do some pranks in a city other than Shanghai too. If anyone wants to be involved in a prank or has a great prank idea don’t hesitate to contact us through our Facebook page or email tomadoonline@gmail.com.
// To see what Monkey Kingz pranks we have kept up with, click here.
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