The Controversial Comedic God, GangBuddha

Washington Square Park, late October 2018. Two boys stand in front of the fountain that neighbors the arch, clad in nothing but their boxer shorts despite the frigid air. One surveys the area with a stern gaze and states matter-of-factly, “Ladies don’t like us anymore. We tried ALL THE FEMALES.” He points both fingers in the radius in front of him to emphasize his point before exclaiming, “LOOK AROUND! No females like us! So what are we gonna do?!” He tilts his head toward the heavens slightly, and bellows, “We’re gonna look for MERMAAAAAAIDS!” The boys then proceed to tumble roll, jump, and dive into the fountain with the kind of zeal that only accompanies fervent romantic pursuit. This entire sequence of events is a comedic video composed by none other than @gangbuddha, junior Evan Wong.

The birth of his account was, like the content cranked out after it, done on a spontaneous whim. “I tried taking the name @buddhagang and it was taken, and I needed a domain, so I just kept trying mad stuff, and @gangbuddha was clean,” Wong said. An entertainer on social media, Wong’s account primarily consists of prank videos and other assorted snippets of crass, explicit humor. He acts without inhibition as he mischievously weaves his way through the five boroughs. In less than a year he has amassed hundreds of supporters and fans, but he has also garnered attention from those who find his content vulgar and distasteful.

The nature of Wong’s humour has gotten him into trouble, as he frequently films others without their permission. Usually he gets kicked out of fast food establishments or receives empty threats of getting law enforcement involved. At this point Wong realizes he must back away and carry on. But there was one occasion that temporarily cost him his position on the football team: “What happened was, I was on the train. There was this random guy next to me and then I was like ‘Ey, I’m gonna make a @gangbuddha vid with this guy.’ [I] whipped out my phone, started recording him. The teacher—I didn’t know he was a teacher at the time, so I made a video and he grabbed my phone. Apparently he was a teacher at Bard,” Wong said. Bard students were tagged in the video, and the situation escalated to the point where Dean Brian Moran was e-mailed a link to Wong’s Instagram. Wong was then kicked off the football team, but was readmitted a few weeks later because of his high state ranking and because his infamy is not due to him being malicious, but instead due to the flamboyant and sensationalist nature of his pranking.

Crude, raw, and uninhibited, Wong is an iconoclast who oversteps the boundaries of not only restaurants and social norms for the sheer hell of the ‘Gram, but also of the stereotypical image of what an Asian-American Stuyvesant student can be or become, and what their successes could entail. “The reason I do @gangbuddha, the reason why I do what I do, is for the Asian-American culture. Not even at Stuyvesant, but throughout. Most of our parents are immigrants, and as a result, everyone is working very hard to do good in school. And we

need more big [penis] energy in the Asian-American society because we’re picked on, frowned upon,” Wong said. He hopes that by being the greatest comedian he can be, he can inspire others, particularly Asian Americans, to pursue their destiny to be the greatest that they can be at their particular talents, too.

He may be swarmed by a mob of critics, but his indifference prevents him from being oppressed by his opposition. “People do hate me,” Wong acknowledged. “It’s funny to me. You’re just being yourself, and someone’s in the comment section like, ‘Go [expletive] yourself,’ and you’re just like, ‘Why?’ When they hate you, they want to be you.” For those who hate him because they believe he’s simply foolish, Wong said, “Then that’s okay. It’s like fear. They want my big [penis] energy. I have unlimited amounts of it.”

Even after he graduates in 2020, Wong still wants to continue making content for his page. However, he does not want to limit himself solely to it: “I have bigger goals than that. Like, I’m gonna be the world’s greatest boxer, I’m gonna become a doctor. I’m gonna become famous, gonna have a million followers on Instagram, a few houses around the world, impregnate multiple women, and continue the legacy,” he said.