A funny rivalry has erupted between popular U.S. and Chinese comedy shows.
The saga began recently when American TV comic Conan O’Brien, whose show is aired by the TBS network, discovered a Chinese show ripped off his opening credits, image by image.
The Chinese offender was a Sohu (搜狐) produced internet TV show, Da Peng Yakking (大 鹏嘚吧嘚), O’Brien was fast on the track, noticing this copycat act (山寨) and poking fun at Da Peng’s show. Because of the blatant copying by the “weird show,” as he called it, O’Brien decided to copy the strange style of the Chinese show, including imposing images and sound effects onto the screen.
For example, Da Peng’s show had superimposed a half-naked picture of Zhang Chaoyang (张朝阳), the CEO of Sohu. To make fun of this, O’Brien superimposes a picture of a random shirtless Asian man. There are also sound effects and special effects that O’Brien copies.
Da Peng picked up on what was going on and in his next show, stripped away the offending credits, acknowledged the humiliation of being found out, and apologized to O’Brien and his production team.
The English subtitles (after you click “cc” on the Youtube video) show that Da Peng is actually offended by being called a “weird” show, saying that there is more than just American humor in the world. Da Peng also makes fun of Conan’s tricks. “First, that naked dude picture that you put up, have to say he pales in comparison to Zhang Chaoyang (the CEO of Sohu).”
Will this be the end of the issue or will the two hosts find ways to keep it going?