Source
r/Thailand•
FlightBunny

Thoughts On This?

Food and Drink

I Tipped Roti Lady Street Vendor $100!!! - Thailand Street Food - YouTube

I find something very cringeworthy about this, and also quite creepy. Seems to be a bit of a trend where attractive women doing their jobs are sought out and somehow fetishized. No real issue in the tip, and will obviously help her, but it seems to bring out so many creeps, and I don't see the need to video this, obviously done for altruistic reason. Would this happen in any other country?

Also seems to be some sort of white-man saviour attitude, and that all Thai's are poor and need help. (More than a few of these stall holders drive BMW's and Benz's)

Posted Jan 23, 2023, 10:36 PM UTC

5484
RockyLeal•

Let's not give this guy views, even by hate-watching the video he has accomplished his scam

103
ThongLo•

Yup, he gets paid for every view so all sharing does here is enforce the behaviour.

32
jandetlefsen•

Aborted views are really bad for your video ranking apparently.

1
stingraycharles•

Unfortunately I skipped to the end to watch what actually happens.

2
RockyLeal•

I haven't hear this before, but its interesting. Source?

2
jandetlefsen•

Was mentioned by some YouTuber, don’t have a written source. But it makes sense, watching a video but stopping half way through probably a worse signal than not watching at all.

0
RockyLeal•

I have also heard that any engagement, even thumbs down, counts as a plus as far as the algorithm is concerned. I guess there's no way to actually KNOW this since the algorithm is a black box.

2
2pt_perversion•

If you dislike the video it will probably hurt him with the algorithm and cost him views and money overall. Bonus points if you use some sort of ad blocker because then he makes nothing off of you.

0†
Swansborough•

He will make money off all the views. This post gave him a ton of views. If you watch his video and dislike it, you will help him make money.

it will probably hurt him with the algorithm and cost him views and money overall

sadly no. it doesn't work like that.

5
2pt_perversion•

I'm under the understanding that dislikes and especially short watch times affect the algorithm and will shorten the videos tail and maybe all recommendations for viewers in similar demographics. From a small sub like this with only 34 upvotes on the post, I think a tiny amount of traffic just to downvote would hurt more than the small amount of gain. Again, bonus points if you can block the ads anyway.

0
bootofstomping•

Unless they changed it recently, a downvote and an upvote both count as “engagement”. More engagement equals more weight to the algorithm. 1 million adds shown to hate watchers is as good as a million love watchers.

3
Swansborough•

yes probably true. if people just went and quickly downvoted. but I am not sure it would hurt his money from the video.

0
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-1
Serrated_Shaft•

No, any kind of interaction is good for the algo, even downvoting.
It's purely interaction that counts, it doesn't matter whether it comes from quality or controversy.

2†
chrisbrooksguitarist•

Agreed. It's creepy when someone needs to be seen doing something good, then uses it for social media monetisation, hero status etc.

Performative charity, fetishization, western saviour complex, take your pick.

He probably stinged everyone else that day unless the camera was on.

76
chrisbrooksguitarist•

Damn, all his videos are thirsty as fuck. What a douche.

21
PetKapKap•

If it were a middle-aged lady or a Rohingya guy (typical roti vendors), I would have had less of a problem with an oversized tip. Still obviously for YouTube creator's own purposes, but also doing some good.

With two young hot, dolled up women, it's just creepy, as ulterior motivations immediately jump to mind.

2
playtrix•

Hot dolled up women.. that describes most YouTubers. Who cares?

-3
DowntownContribution:BKK:Bangkok•

OP Are you sure you're not Mr. Silverspoon trying to drive traffic to your video? /s

Seems to be a bit of a trend where attractive women doing their jobs are sought out and somehow fetishized.

You hit the nail on the head. She's at a prime location doing a steady business. It's hard work; but, she is probably doing reasonably well. You never see them going out of their way to help older non-conventionally attractive vendors in non-prime areas. Add in the white saviour complex and colonialist attitude. Cringe is an understatement.

36
-Dixieflatline•

I saw those types of videos and thought the exact same thing. There's something not right about them, and I don't know if I can put my finger on it. Some go as far as to point out that the women are "sexy" as well as "skilled". Feels like this is the line between a tourist truly appreciating a culture and one who is gawking at an attractive foreigner while throwing around cash to really drive home superiority over that culture and/or the notion that everything is for sale. Feels like old school imperialism. Like, colonial imperialism.

29
daveyboyschmidt•

You think "imperialism" was men going to foreign countries and giving women (fairly insignificant amounts of) money?

4†
-Dixieflatline•

That's not exactly the distillation of my comment I was hoping people would walk away with. Classic imperialism is defined as follows:

"a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. "

Where I wrote "while throwing around cash to really drive home superiority over that culture and/or the notion that everything is for sale" was the sense of "power and influence" from classic imperialism, and in this specific example, it was attempted via diplomacy (money). And while $100 may be insignificant for a westerner, it is still a fair chunk of change for many working class Thai people. There are some who might take several days to net that much. The exploitation of this disparity in income due to national wage averages is a self-serving ego rub by this blogger, and thus showing that imperialistic view point in thinking everything is OK because of money.

1
daveyboyschmidt•

What you're describing has nothing to do with imperialism. You're just repeating buzzwords you heard on Tumblr or wherever

Imperialism is the UK taking a treaty port at Hong Kong, or Russia invading it's neighbours. It's not some blogger giving a large tip to show off

0
piezod•

What's wrong is that the videos are low effort, riding on an attractive woman to get views while pretending that it's culture. The tip at the end is again, like you mentioned imperialist.

2†
max5575•

So basically most of the TicTok and IG videos 😂

2
MadValley•

If it’s on YouTube it’s about the YouTuber, not the subject.

25
Rocmue•

Shit. I don’t like this one bit.

21
Mike-Mentzer-NL•

It's even worse. I live there, and I can tell you, this girl does not even work there, never seen her. So, the whole thing is staged.

14
PetKapKap•

Where is "there"?

2
BestBiotech•

Yup, total cringe. Furthermore, the way he interrupted the previous transaction and pulled back one of the notes initially confirms your conclusion. Embarrassing AF.

11
ratskim•

Yeah cringe as fuck

Can't stand people who pretend to do nice things purely for their own self-absorbed, self-obsessed benefit --

11
GotSeoul•

As another stated, this is more for the content creator more than it is for the recipient. Good for the lady to get that tip, don't have much of a problem with that unless the expectations change that everyone should be tipping like that and starts pricing accordingly or starts two-pricing foriegners like I've seen some vendors do on Sukhumvit (the cau ka moo vendor on soi 8). But if he wanted to tip her on camera he could have just tipped her on camera. But instead he made it like, "Here's the tip," Reaction: "Whoah!", then, "Oh, here's more." Reation: "Whoah!!!!", then again, etc, etc to drag it out for more reaction content for the video. So that tip while I'm sure appreciated by the vendor, was not sincerely for the vendor, it was to get more "Aww's" from people to get more views and subscribes.

Is this bad? I have my view on that, I think it's insincere at least. Acts of charity that end up getting caught on camera are one thing. Act's of charity staged are just that, staged. He's probably calculating that the monetization will over ride the amount given for the tip. The real show of character is when good is performed while no one is looking.

There is a fellow in Philippines that was doing something similar to this, I saw in on the Philippines subreddit (I work in PH on contract from time to time). He would do the same sort of thing, but, it would be he would find a 'pick up girl,' take her to a nice place to eat, film that with all the questions about family and such to pull out the hard luck story. He would then take her back to a room, but instead of doing the deed, he would get almost to doing the deed, then pull out a wad of cash way way beyond what she was expecting and he would go off on a monologue about how he wants her to use this for her family, he wants to do good for her etc, etc, etc. All for "aww's," views, and subscribes.

In PH this started getting dubbed in that subreddit as 'Povery Porn.' Eventually I heard that fellow went over the line on something and the PH gov't deported him. I don't have a link but read it in the comments in that subreddit so take that with a grain of salt.

I don't think this video should be labeled poverty porn, the lady seems to be in a good spot with good business and seems she has been taking good care. But it is false altruism, insincere, and just another type of 'influencer' behavior for views. Would that be a (false) altruism influencer? Hero Influencer? Or just another Youtuber doing whatever he/she thinks it takes to get views?

I think the outcome for the lady is nice. I think the motivations on the givers part is insincere and cringey in my opinion.

Interested to hear other's thoughts.

EDIT: and it seems he's doing an affiliate link for travel insurance to add to the monetization of the youtube videos. It's all for Ahh's, views, clicks, monetization. But I guess it works? Seems like there's a lot of it out there.

10
Historical_Feed8664•

Have you seen those videos of that weird asshole that is in the Philippines acting like he's a homeless Foreigner guy? He asked people if they can give him food or water, and that he hasn't eaten. He will go to kids or poor gramdmas and give a pity story. They share their food with him and then he gives them a lot of money.

It's downright fucky and I hate seeing it. The titles are always about, Look at the generosity of the people in the Philippines. Its poverty porn and 100% just for views. The comments are so stupid too. Im pretty sure the guy goes by ForeignGerms. His fake altruistic videos are primarily on Facebook.

4
GotSeoul•

I don't think I've seen that one. But sounds like another Youtuber I'd shake my head at. I was reading another recent comment that stated, lets not give these guys views. I'm agreeing with that. Or if one ends up getting to a video, hit the downvote button on the Youtube video. They show the upvotes, I wish they would still show the downvotes.

0
buffyvet•

hit the downvote button on the Youtube video

Don't do that. It counts as "engagement" and boosts the channel. YT doesn't care if it's liked or disliked, only that someone engaged with the video.

If you don't like something, the best thing to do is to not click on it. If it's too late for that, just exit YT. No commenting, no scrolling the comments, no voting.

1
GotSeoul•

Thanks for letting me know this. I wasn't aware that's the way a downvote worked on Youtube.

1
Tallywacka•

Also seems to be some sort of white-man saviour attitude, and that all Thai's are poor and need help.

I don’t know if you’re actually out of the loop or just a hot take, this has been a trend for a while, and a very effective one.

YouTube is a business and that’s exactly what’s going on here

9
Hefty_Ad_5999•

Driving home the idea farangs are idiots

7
jamesclean•

Hey, is that enough? You want one more? How about one more? 🤢

6
FlightBunnyOP•

Yeah, I thought that was pretty degrading

0†
69Sheogorath69•

People have accused me of exhibiting the so called white saviour complex, however I don't think it has anything to do with skin colour, I am not wealthy by any means (I have £250 in my bank account) but I do like to help people and animals in a worse situation than myself, not because it makes me feel good but because it makes them feel better than they were beforehand. I often buy food and drinks for homeless people and while I was in Thailand I fed and made friends with many neglected street dogs in my fiance's village, I have also helped more than a few injured wild animals in my home country and in my opinion if you don't do anything at all to help those in a worse position than yourself then you are a selfish arsehole. Videos like this are just cringey though, if you want to help somebody then do it, but don't film it to signal virtue and make money from ad revenue, I don't film my interactions with the homeless and I often talk to them for over 30 minutes because I geniunely care and want to help.

5
exoxe•

Cringy af.

4
noobnomad•

Cringe as fuck.

4
LungTotalAssWarlord•

Exploitative. Giving the exorbitant tip if you feel like it, that's fine, but making a video out of it for your own personal gain? That is shitty.

4
salx777•

That's FUp

3
butterfryman•

These are the battles you fight? - OVERTIPPING hot service industry chicks?

HOLY SHIT

HINT : you make the cash, you get to spend it any way you want.

I guess if they're butt ugly and poor it's different?

3†
jonez450reloaded•

Also seems to be some sort of white-man saviour attitude, and that all Thai's are poor and need help.

Some of it could be that but keep in mind that giving things like money to random people is a social media meta.

It's a trendy thing to do YouTube, TikTok etc and an easy way to get views and it works - that guy runs 500 to 5,000 views a video with the occasional 10k and yet the video of him tipping the Roti seller has 64k views and counting.

3