0:05 Welcome back to Careful Boys. Today we're talking about what is one thing about your cultural background that you had to explain to every new friend when you're growing up. >> Oh, wow. >> Mine is probably this weird my mom has. Cuz I think it's like Chinese. >> in Chinese. >> No, cuz like I feel like so I grew up in Cerritos, pretty diverse. I would say it's like almost even across the board. Like especially in my street. Um shout outs to Felson Street kids if any of you are out there that are like 45 now. But But it was like my best friend across the street is half white, half Chinese. But he was pretty much like full white cuz his mom was like third generation Chinese. There was a Filipino DJ down the street. Another friend that was Indian. This Korean guy that taught me how to put the shin ramen spicy powder on snails. And then
0:55 And then we had this cholo down the street who the uncle was 17 cuz I think the parents were locked up. So he raised his two nieces that are like six and seven. There was no adults in the house. It was crazy. And then the the the adult is the 16, 17 year old kid. And then this one other rich white kid named Jordan. And we all lived on the street. It was super diverse. And then whenever people came over to my house it looked like my mom worshipped demons because like she has this Buddhist altar with ████ red lanterns and there's always incense and there's just like it's like 10 times more religious than any home or even church that you go to. And there's a constant chant >> there. >> Yeah, and there's a chanting machine. So you walk in and it's just ████
1:45 chanting all ████ day. >> Oh, so it's like >> Hey, but isn't it tape? It's a it's a machine >> Oh. >> that only you can't even change cartridges. >> I came over. >> Wait, what? >> This ████ had red oak wood couches. No cushion. It was just How the ████ do you sit on just wood? I mean, we did it in elementary school, I guess, but it was just >> Wait, like in the living room? >> Yeah. No, like Okay, imagine like the the color of Chinese, right? So, the color of Chinese is like deep red, and it's like carved and ████ like shiny, and it's got like a picture of some like, I don't know, like some ancient Chinese dude in a robe or some ████ And it's a couch, coffee table, and there is a weird chant going on, and I was like,
2:36 "Does your mom still use like a ████ tape thing? Like, I thought she had like one of those tape stacked up tape speakers that we all had in the living room somewhere hidden, cuz it sounded like that quality tape." >> Can you explain this machine? >> Yeah. So, it's like this plastic thing, and it has a speaker built in almost like a almost like a Talkboy remember from Home Alone, but you can't put tapes in. It's like this square machine with a speaker, and then all it does it goes "Ah me." It's just one chant. "Ah me." It's like this five ████ like five chord progression that just ████ goes over and over and over and over, and my mom just leaves it. And the only adjustment is volume. So, you can make it really loud or really soft. >> They could at least made like five in the MP3 player so you could choose.
3:28 That's crazy. >> My mom's ████ loves to ████ trip so hard that the craziest I've ever seen her take it, she found the necklace version of it, and she would wear that. >> To play? >> No, to ████ We'll be like, "Oh, happy Mother's Day, Mom. Let's go get breakfast at Polly's Pies." And it's like, "Ah me." It's just on her chest. >> She's like those black dudes that got Bluetooth on all the >> Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it's a Buddhist chant. Buddhist chant the whole ████ time. So, my friends come over, it's like and then, you know, my mom has been on that ████ organic tip since I was five. I'm like, "Yo, what snacks you got? You got fruit roll-up?" I'm like, "No, I got ████ dried papaya or some s███." It's It was just nuts, man. >> What your mom does I know her logic now.
4:18 She finds something that's like good, right? And then she puts it on times 10 to make it like perfect. So, she's like, "Oh, chanting is good and we should chant throughout the house." So, she goes, "But what if we have it on 24/7? Then the house would be so ████ blessed. We'll be overdosed with being blessed." I think that's how she's like, "Oh, and then like even for like health, she's like, 'Oh, you know what? I heard that this is good for you. So, we're going to overdose on this ████ right now.'" >> And Bart's dad's like, "I'll see you guys later. Deuce. Deuce." >> Yeah, exactly. That's when my dad wanted to get back with my mom. I'm like, "She's not the woman you remember. Trust me." >> Times a thousand now. >> She's already ████ evolved. >> Full warlock. >> Well, she had nobody saying no, right? For a long time. >> She's Super Mario after she ate the mushroom now. Like she's a different Super Mario.
5:10 >> Some of the ████ though that Bart talks about he's like, "Man, you know that Asian stuff?" And I'm like, "NO, THAT'S JUST THAT'S JUST YOUR FAMILY, BRO. I don't know any Chinese people that do this s███." >> You know Asian people have JUST WOOD COUCHES. >> NO, they don't. >> That ████ LOOK LIKE A LIKE a Buddhist temple. When you go into the living room and it smells like incense and I'm like, I feel like when I go to a Chinese person's house like they have a altar. They'll have like a small >> Yeah. >> little thing. They'll have pictures of their ancestors. They have They might have a Buddha. They might have like a mirror like on the wall or whatever. Chinese like stuff and then they'll do some incense. It's very minimal. When I went to Bart's house, the whole living room was all red and dedicated to ████ Lord Buddha, dude.
6:00 Chinese homes, they are superstitious with Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, whatever, and they'll choose a corner, kind of like where you put your Christmas tree, right? It's like it doesn't take up the whole spot. My mom is like every house she lives in, prime real estate is the Buddha ████ Dedicated to Buddha? Yeah. Yeah, it's That's that's the >> Your friends like, "Hey, Bart, this is absolutely whack. Let's go to my house." Like stuff like that? >> Yeah, but like you know, as a friend, you like going back and forth. So I'm like, "Oh, you know what? Like I know I ate mac and cheese and hot dogs at your house is so delicious. Like just come over for dinner for one night. It won't be that bad." And then one night they all came over, and my mom ate uh made um I guess it was my favorite dish out of all the other s█████ dishes she makes, but it was Have you heard of wood ear? >> Definitely not. Sounds familiar. >> Is that the mushroom? >> Yeah, it's like a crunchy thing. It's
6:50 like wood ear with like this >> Like a Harry Potter thing? >> Yeah, it's like it's like this spongy fake meat cuz my mom's a vegetarian, and then the next day my friends like, "Dude, I'm never going to eat at your house ever again. I threw up as soon as I went home." >> They threw >> Yeah, I'm like, "Dude, yeah, like >> ████ >> Cuz like even our Indian friend, he had some pretty crazy food. >> Indian friend threw up? >> Honestly, I think he did. Cuz he had some pretty crazy food, but it's tasty though. Like my mom can't cook either, and she likes crazy ████ >> Yeah. >> Oh, so the crazy stuff that she would make has that bad flavor? >> Yeah, she already can't cook, and she makes >> Bro. >> Yeah, everything's function. Like what my daily sandwich at lunch was this bread that she baked herself with avocados in it and no salt.
7:42 It's just avocado and stain I call it stained glass bread cuz she bought a this Panasonic bread maker and then she would just fill it full of random fruits and ████ so that the bread is nutritious but when you slice it cuz it has all this baked fruit when you hold it to light it look like a stained glass window. >> Dude, you can't trade that for anything. >> No, you're >> What do you mean? >> Oh, I mean you know you know what lunch you could trade like with other kids. You're not trading that. You're on the bottom of the ladder, dude. >> It goes straight in the garbage. >> Yeah, and Asian kids looking at his lunch like "Ew!" >> Yeah, it go it go straight into the lunch into the garbage. >> Did you Were you Was your family like vegetarian from being like Seventh-day Adventist? >> No. >> Okay. >> Part of my part of my extended family was but we didn't follow that part of Seventh-day Adventists. >> Cuz I feel like I understand a little bit of what like Mark goes through cuz I
8:33 I feel like but then my parents were like socially aware enough to know that we're weird. Of like our our cult like religions kind of like >> not normal. People don't eat ████ What is those those veggie patties and like >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> The faux meat? >> Yeah. So like if we had a party or guests over like they'll bring out the red meat. They'll do normal ████ cuz they know that's what people would want. >> Oh, so it's only when people come over you guys eat like that? >> Well, we depending on the guest. So if it was like church friends then we'll bust out the ████ the Jesus meats. >> Oh, okay, yeah. Like the fried chicken and the egg beaters. >> We ate everything except for pork. >> But then like >> I find it funny that his mom was like "Hey, this is some new next level ████ you got to try this." >> Dude, that sucks, man. >> like "What the f███?"
9:23 >> Be open-minded cuz then later on when I met like Muslim homies or >> Oh. >> I'm pescetarian or vegetarian and they're all like, you know, shy about it like "Oh, I don't know if I could eat there." I'm like, "Just try me." "Oh, I don't eat this." I'm like, "Oh, dude, that's ████ nothing, bro." Yeah, dude, that's nothing. Well, you eat whatever you want. Don't even don't even worry about it. >> You look on vacation. >> Was everything so delicious to you like outside of the house? >> ████ YEAH. DUDE, I remember having like I couldn't wait to go to eat lunch at school. You know, a lot of people like I guess people that with parents that cook really good, they'll skip school lunch just so they can go home and eat what their mom made. I couldn't wait for the ████ taco bowl or the turkey turkey gravy mash like mashed potatoes. >> You did stuff when you went with your dad, right? >> Yeah, that's when I saw
10:13 >> You have whatever you wanted? >> Yeah, that's when so like I So, my dad My parents are divorced, so on Tuesdays and Wednesdays is when my dad would I would spend the whole days with with him. And it was religious uh McDonald's, I think, Tuesday and then Yoshinoya Wednesday. >> Dang. >> So, that's how you got to be who you are today. The McDonald's and Yoshinoya? >> Yeah, the guy who likes that stuff. Cuz otherwise, how would you know about that ████ Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Yeah. >> That's true cuz um yeah, like I have nephews that grew up with no McDonald's and then like I I we went to go eat some and they had stomach aches and they're like, "I don't really like it." >> Oh. >> They don't like it. They're not primed. >> Everybody ████ loves McDonald's. >> to you got to train for McDonald's. You can't just eat it. >> You have to be like a part of the cult as a kid with the Happy Meal, I think. And it like solidifies in your mind and from that point on, you're you're just
11:04 McDonald's. >> Dude, I found my new I found my new prank. I'm going to hide one of those chanting machines on us. >> Oh, dude. Oh my god. My mom still has it to this day. >> Dude, I was on a plane one time uh flying from the UK and this lady this Asian lady behind me had one of those things and it was going off the whole time. It was going off the >> Everyone had to hear that ████ Oh my She probably thought she was doing everyone a favor like blessing everybody. >> I Well, I kept being like, "What What is that noise? Like, what the ████ is that?" And I finally figured it out. It was when I was going to the john. She had this like little speaker box or whatever and it was it was playing this chanting ████ the whole the whole >> tape version of it. Puts it in the car and then it would just the same ████ five chords or whatever. It gets to the end, she hits eject and just flips it over and puts it back in. >> Hilarious. >> sucks. >> I know that hearing you talk about your
11:55 mom this lady's probably like these people are so glad I'm blessing this flight. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> That's what I'm saying. Yeah. >> Like these people got to be hyped on this flight. >> Yeah. Mhm. She's probably thinking she's protecting everybody. >> Yeah. >> So if you go on a flight to Taiwan is the whole airplane playing that ████ >> Conflicting chance. >> Oh, man. >> They try to sync it up. They try to like time it. >> My mom's so ████ crazy. So like my my dog was getting old Tyson he you could tell like he's on his like last limbs or whatever. Um uh she would put the >> the necklace chanting on Tyson. >> And like okay like you'll reincarnate into a human in the next life. You were a good dog. So it's very kind and very sweet. But then if you're like a neighbor looking over
12:45 the fence like man this ████ is tripping. >> If I was like one of those uh like let's say that like would I be able to trick your mom and be like this one specifically for dogs. You should buy this one. She >> No, because in Buddhism the soul is the same and then all the like three levels of hell, three levels of humanity, three levels of like heaven is the same soul. >> Okay. >> So she'll like go to Tyson and she's like oh you could have been Bart's mom in the last life. >> Oh my god. >> Yeah, she's like >> She just says this ████ out loud? >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> Like she's on ████ acid or something but she's sober. >> Dude, that's a I think you probably have the weirdest household to have to explain to friends. >> Yeah, and then meanwhile like she's like farting at my boy. >> It's cultural. It's cultural.
13:35 >> It's crazy, man. It was just so It's so hard to introduce her to like to anybody. >> have her chanting necklace or whatever? >> She denied it. But she's so hard to hate cuz she's so like like happy and bubbly. So when you meet her like you really like her and you really want to like her. But she's just ████ nuts. So that was the hardest part of like introducing her to any friends or anything. >> Did you guys ever have So like obviously I didn't have to explain anything culturally to my friends. But my buddy Stanley Wong his mom like you if you're at his house his mom was cleaning up around you as you're doing regular ████ So like we're just watching Power Rangers on TV and like drinking juice boxes and she's like wiping the table down like after you put the juice box down, right? You pick it up and then I'm
14:26 not kidding she's like coming back and wiping the table down like 10 minutes later and you're just like this is I've never seen a house this immaculately clean. >> likes a clean house. >> Yeah, loves a clean house. It was always ████ is always vacuuming. >> I guess that's not as weird if it you're cleaning up after kids. >> Yeah, but it was I just was confused by it cuz usually you wait till it's done and then you clean. But she was actively cleaning the whole time. It was like wild. >> What is it Was your family hoarding at that time as well? >> It was slowly trickling through the walls, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, cuz my mom would just start putting stuff in the corners and that's where it all started. >> Did um did Stanley Wong's mom ever come over to your house and see how the things were over there? >> Yeah, she came over but I think we went to their house more. >> Oh. >> Their house was cooler. >> Their house was cleaner. >> Cleaner. >> Like you know when your house isn't clean your mom's like nobody's coming over right now. Like tell everyone to ████ off. >> was like that right now. >> Right. >> No one can come over. I'm like what the ████ looks clean to me.
15:16 >> Yeah, you just never know. But to some ████ it's not ever clean no matter what you do. >> Yeah, that's true. I think that for you know Downey in the 80s is like mostly white. >> Yeah. >> And there was like our whole street was practically white and then um >> Were you guys the only Filipino on the street? >> Yeah, we're the only Filipino family. Then there was there's one Korean and then everyone else white. >> How did they settle on that street? >> I they just ran I asked my parents that recently and they said they just randomly picked it. >> You know what's fun You know what's funny? The first vagina I ever seen was Filipino. >> Wait, WHAT DO YOU MEAN? >> SO MY next door neighbor was Filipino. And then this is when I was a kid. I never seen a vagina before and the baby comes ████ running out and then I WAS LIKE, WAIT, THAT'S not a penis. And that's like the >> You're like, WHERE DID IT GO?
16:06 >> I WAS LIKE, DUDE, WHAT THE HELL? >> It was a baby? >> Yeah, this ba like maybe four or five comes running out like butt naked for some reason. >> 25 when he first saw it. >> And then I was like, what the hell? >> Wait, are you telling me that some people don't have penis? >> That's pretty funny. I had to explain the whole like take It's a very simple thing but the taking your shoes off in the house thing. >> Oh. >> All the white kids don't do that. They just like run straight in through and like and I have to explain to them like to to say hi first to to my parents. You know like white >> That that we all had to do. >> Huge, yeah. >> Yeah, cuz you know like white kids are like mad casual. They just like if your door's open and they know you're there they'll run in and they'll just start playing or just start doing something but it's like no, you have to take your shoes off. No, you have to say hi first.
16:56 You know like because it's like they will hate you forever. My parents will just hate any kid forever if they do one thing like that. Like my my sister's friend who was white had made some remark like not even like wasn't even bad but like my dad had just gotten his um Lexus LS 5. You know like the Basically yeah, the the Toyota basically. And uh it just came out. He spent like he paid top dollar, like 50k at the time or something. And then um uh my sister's friend was like, "Woah, cool. Like, now you get to like show it off and stuff." And then my parents got so ████ pissed. >> Why? >> Over that. That's it. All she said was, "Oh, you get to show it off." And they're like, "She can never come over again." >> Is it because she commented >> closest friends. >> She commented on one of like the adults'
17:46 possessions or something? >> Yeah, I think it's like she just was too casual. You can't like talk to you know that's the parents. You can't be like, "Oh, you get to show your car off." You can't be all like chummy about it. Like, you'd have to >> What what should she have said? >> Nothing. >> Yeah. >> Or she should have just been like, "That's a really great car." And then done, you know, like you have to be so below at that age. >> Yeah. >> You know, it's just like I was so surprised by that, too. I'm like, "What? That didn't seem that bad." >> had that, too. I guess it's all Asian hierarchy, too. >> Yeah, which is which is weird because my dad is flexing, but it's not for the kids. >> But he doesn't want somebody to point out that he's flexing. >> Yeah. >> Especially not a kid, right? >> Right. Yeah. >> That's like pantsing them a little bit. >> Or maybe like maybe if I think about it, my dad didn't want to feel like like, "Oh, our car is so much better than the house and everything that it stands out
18:37 to where you should say something." Rather than just say everything's good, you know? He's probably like being weird about it, but that was surprised me.
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