This is Da Peng. He is a Chinese variety show host, and he recently made his American television debut—for ripping off Conan O'Brien.
On a recent episode, Conan O'Brien showed how Da Peng's program, Da Pang Debade, totally copied Conan's opening animation. O'Brien then copied some of the silly antics of the Chinese show in revenge.Da Peng's program, however, isn't televised. It's an online talk show, which isn't exactly a household name in China. However, it does have its loyal fans, and it does appear on a major Chinese web network. After Conan took the webshow to task, that could change—being called out by a famous American celebrity does mean Da Peng suddenly has more name recognition as this story makes its way through Chinese cyberspace via microblogs and webforums.
In the most recent show, Da Peng removed the intro animation—the one that ripped off Conan. Then he apologized. "At this point I want to the time to say sorry to Mr. Conan on behalf of myself, my show, and our staff," said Da Peng, who then started doing a "sorry dance". He even refers to his own show as "shanzai" or a Chinese imitation.
He's apparently a comedian, so he's trying to be funny. "I hope English majors, translators and American show lovers will help me translate this," Da Peng added. "We will immediately stop using the opening sequence—and will officially apologize again. We'll have to apologize again after apologizing."
Da Peng then went off on tangent (again, he's trying to be funny), saying that the show's name is too hard to pronounce as well as mentioning Jeremy Lin and the U.S. debt.
Online in China, many seem embarrassed by the show's opening and how it copied Conan. "China invented the four great Inventions (gunpowder, paper, paper Printing and the compass)," wrote one individual online. "But that is in the past, and now all we're doing is plagiarizing and copying... Such a tragedy."
Chinese people might feel embarrassed. Though, if anyone "won" in this brouhaha, it's webshow Da Peng. "The guy downstairs selling fruit even recognizes me," he said about his newfound celebrity. "I guess everyone knows about this now.
"My ex-girlfriend sent me a text saying how she regrets dumping me and how she saw me on American television. Now, I'm international." That you are, Da Peng, that you are.
View Da Peng's apology in the link below.
Da Peng Debade [TV Sohu]
Its always interesting to see what elements of western culture go viral in the Middle Kingdom, just usually with their own Chinese flavor.
