“ | EMOTIONAL DAMAGE?! | ” |
―Steven He's most famous line |
Steven He O'Byrne (born: December 31, 1996[1] is a Chinese-Irish American actor, comedian, TikToker, and YouTuber based in the United States who makes comedic sketches. He is most well known for his "Asian Dad" character on TikTok and YouTube, as well as the "EMOTIONAL DAMAGE" meme.
)YouTube[]
Steven mainly uploads sketches on both his YouTube and TikTok. Most of his videos revolve around jokes about Asians, mostly Asian parents and families. He also uploads reaction videos about memes and his subreddit on his channel.
Career outside of YouTube[]
Steven is a professionally trained actor. He is known for being in Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, A Father's Son, and Dinosaur World.
Series[]
When Asian is a Difficulty[]
This series consists of Steven's Dad playing a video game on Asian Mode, with him as the character. Through the game, he gets annoyed more and more until he just gives the controller to Steven, and beats the game, there are 4 videos in this series.
How Asian Parents Flex[]
This series is about Steven's Dad and Timmy's Dad flexing over stuff, such as careers, or even with their sons. This series has 4 Videos.
When Everything is Off Brand[]
This series is about Steven's Dad walking into a store of some type, asking for a certain brand, but it ends up being an off brand product, and ends up getting mad that everything he knows is off brand. There are a few alternate endings in this series, one being Steven's dad sending the store owner to Jesus as he takes out his slipper in the end, the second being leaving the store, or being a good ending in the first episode in which he decides to buy the off brand League Of Legends: Tournament Of Failures.
Personal life[]
Steven He O'Byrne was born in Shenzhen, China on December 31, 1996. When he was 8 years old, his family moved to Limerick, Ireland.[2] He moved to London at 17 to attend Regent's University and then later moved to New York City. He had graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse, an acting school in New York City, New York as well as a BA in Acting and Global Theatre from Regent's University in London, England.
Appearing Characters[]
Steven He's comedic videos have several characters, all of whom are acted by himself. Sometimes there are some characters which have been acted by other youtubers in collaboration videos, those include Nathan Doan Comedy, Daniel Thrasher and the most recent, mrnigelng.
Steven[]
Steven is one of the protagonists that appear in his videos, and is presumably a fictionalized version of Steven He himself. He is an Asian boy who runs a YouTube channel, which features his father. He is also allergic to peanuts. He usually appears in videos wearing a blue T-shirt with sushi cat illustration. He is also able to play the piano after touching one key and cook minute rice in 58 seconds, which surprises Timmy's Father.
Steven's Father[]
Steven's father is another protagonist. He is an Asian dad who appears in most of Steven's YouTube videos with a heavy Asian accent. He sees his son as a "failure" and attempts to encourage him to become a lawyer or a doctor, though when Steven said he wanted to be an actor, Steven's father said that when he was born he and his mother spun a wheel to see what he'll become in the future and says he was supposed to be a lawyer while showing a wheel on the wall which is just a plastic plate with a horizontal line in the middle with "doctor" on the top and "lawyer" on the bottom (though when you spin it it will always land on lawyer). He is the founder of a fictional brand "Beijing Corn" and a “professional Asian dad who specializes in failure management”. He often talks about how he went to school when he was young in videos, where he claims to have been through quite an adventure, apparently he had to walk 20 miles, uphill, both ways, in one foot, while the other foot was starting a business, had to fight two mountain lions every day, etc. While Steven questions him how is that even possible, Steven's father simply says that back in his day physics was not invented yet. Additionally, he seems to be secretly attracted to Timmy's mother. He loves to call his son a failure and that he is "stoobid". He can be seen wearing a gray suit jacket and a salmon T-shirt. In "How Asian Parents Flex 2", he has asked Steven to play the piano, ride a horse, fly, use shadow clone jutsu and cook Minute Rice in 58 seconds. He is a fan of Matt Damon.
Steven's Mother[]
Steven's mother occasionally appears on videos. She often throws shoes at her husband or at her son as a punishment. She can be seen wearing a T-shirt over her head with generic shirts.
Timmy[]
Timmy is Steven's friend who recently moved into his neighborhood. According to his father, he is a neurosurgeon who is 9 years old with 15 years of work experience (according to Steven's Dad). Additionally, he is able to play every musical instrument and co-founded another fictional corn company named "Shanghai Corn", however he is unable to cook rice and deemed a "failure" by his dad. He sometimes appears in videos, and can be seen with glasses and a black T-shirt. He is also able to dance, which impresses Steven's Father.
Timmy's Father[]
Timmy's father is the founder of Shanghai Corn and a Data Scientist with 3 PhDs from Harvard University who recently moved into the United States from China for his son's job. He used to live in upper part of Shenzhen before moving. He claims to have invented parallel parking and have helped NASA land a paper clip on the sun, which Steven's father thinks is useless. He can be seen in videos wearing glasses and a black jacket.
The Director[]
The director is an incompetent director that appears in the "Film Production" series of videos. He doesn’t do his job well, such as when he made the scene far too dark and shook the camera too much, and also makes the editor fix all his mistakes. He wears red and grey sunglasses with a red scarf and a grey jacket.
Other characters[]
Other characters are featured in He's videos, often exclusively for one video or series. Such examples include the President (Steven's father dressed in sunglasses and a poorly knotted tie), Steven's friend at lunch and the other boy they criticize (both from the "How Asians Pack Lunch" series), the various video game characters from the "Asian difficulty" series and the "Off Brand" store manager (On When Everything is Off Brand series and Sprint it'a Sprite but faster).
Trivia[]
- At least four different cats have appeared on Steven's videos alone (excluding the short series Failure Management: Cat Cafe); Steven is known to like cats.
- If the 58-second minute rice were due to relativity, Steven would be moving at 25.6% of the speed of light.
- Whenever something is on sale, Steven's dad will purchase it without hesitation. E.g. He bought 5 PS5s because Steven said it was 20$ off. Another time he bought a plane ticket to Vermont, USA because it was 70% off.
- When Steven uploads shorts, most are just short forms of the videos, sometimes clips of them. However, sometimes when Steven uploads these shorts, some are not from a video and are completely new concepts and video ideas. This is a much more frequent form of content nowadays with the Failure Management: Cat Cafe series.
Quotes[]
Steven's Dad[]
- “When I went to school, I had to walk 20 miles. Uphill. Both ways. 26 hours a day. On one foot. My other foot was starting a business.” (there are various versions of this quote that are slightly different, but this is essentially the original)
- “Every morning I had to fight two lions.”
- "When I was 9 years old, I was 25."
- “EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!?”
- “You want some therapy?” (immediately after the last quote)
- “Hallo? Hallo? Beijing Embassy! My son's a failure!” (variation where he says "We need air support! I failed my family.)
- “What the hail...” (Sometimes he says "What the hail you say?")
- “Hallo, I am a professional Asian dad specializing in Failure Management.”
- “You will be a doctor.”
- “Beijing Corn.”
- “I will send you to Jesus (brings out his slipper as a weapon when he gets annoyed).”
- “Can I have a discount?”
- “Stoopid.”
- “Pigeon?!”
- “Don't be a dick!”
- “Want to know what B stand for, B stand for Stoopid!”
- “Sitting.. Wasn't invented yet.”
- “Oh, I smell fish in here.”
- “I'll whoop yo ass into Monday—“
- “Your Spanish teacher said you excel with 90% in Spanish. I don't know what excel means, but it must mean STOOPID!”
- “Failure!” (pronounced "Fay-lia", due to his Asian accent)
- “We're Asians, not Bsians!”
- “Your teacher call, said you excel in math with 99%. I don't have a dictionary but excel must mean Stoopid! Where the hell the other 1%? Why, you eat it?”
- “Steven! Cook minute rice in 58 seconds!”
- "He got 15 years work experience; he's 9!" (Steven's dad comparing his son to cousin Timmy)
- "Timmy learned calculus from the back of milk cartons."
- "Timmy had to send in his tests by pigeon."
- "He learned to play Mozart from listening to the McDonalds jingle. Now he plays in his sleep."
- "We had to play in the 150 degree sun, barefoot, in the snow."
- “You don't need straight pants, you need straight A's!”
- "Jesus can walk on water. Timmy can run."
- “Listen, life is about doing stuff you hate to make money, then using that money to flex on Instagram.”
- "Your grades more cooked than a bucket of FRIED CHICKEN!"
- "Fortnite?! Keep playing, it will be nite-nite for you!"
- "I can feel my brain cells making toast in the bathtub."
- "Don't send him to Jesus, that's my job!"
- "Where you trying to send the milk to? Space?"
- "I'm a medic, I can't fix your IQ."
- "You don't know water's wet?"
- "That's the 8th curtain this week, why you think we eat off-brand nibble? We're going bankrupt."
- "BIG HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD?!" (Steven's dad's reaction to the off-brand Microsoft)
- "FAILURE MAN?! It's called the Steven He channel." (Steven's dad's reaction to the off-brand Wonder Woman)
- "Michael Alone? What does he need, a friend?" (Steven's dad's reaction to an off-brand McDonald's)
- "Is that Sheriff Woody or STEROIDS WOODY?!" (Steven's dad's reaction to an off-brand Woody from Toy Story)
- Please don't do me like this... RATED JESUS! PUTTING CHRIST IN CONTROL! will this one send Jesus to ME instead?" (Steven's dad reaction to a off-brand Xbox 360 game)
- "You mean Robot? (Respond after Vender said Knight Rider becames Robert)
Off-brand store manager[]
- "Oh, no, that's not Microsoft, that's (tries not to laugh) Bighard!"
- "...Koala detoer?"
- "We got [off-brand product/character]."
- "Oh, we got his optimistic brother, Christopher Yeslan."
- "We also have some great games!.. We got.. Life 360...!"
- "We have Knight Rider becames Robert"
- "Nope! Rorbert!"
Channel milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
Subscriber Milestones[]
- 1 million subscribers: August 22, 2021
- 2 million subscribers: December 29, 2021
- 3 million subscribers: January 24, 2022
- 4 million subscribers: February 24, 2022
- 5 million subscribers: May 16, 2022
- 6 million subscribers: November 8, 2022
- 7 million subscribers: December 22, 2022
- 8 million subscribers: January 27, 2023
- 9 million subscribers: March 24, 2023
- 10 million subscribers: May 31, 2023
- 11 million subscribers: November 15, 2023
Video view milestones[]
- 100 million views: October 2, 2021
- 200 million views: January 8, 2022
- 300 million views: February 1, 2022
- 400 million views: March 5, 2022
- 500 million views: May 31, 2022
- 600 million views: October 12, 2022
- 700 million views: December 12, 2022
- 800 million views: December 25, 2022
- 900 million views: January 4, 2023
- 1 billion views: January 19, 2023
- 2 billion views: June 28, 2023
Cross-Platform series (YouTube and TikTok)[]
Failure Management: Cat Cafe[]
This series is featured on both YouTube Shorts and TikTok and features Steven's dad reacting to several Vines-style cat videos as if they were taking place in Cat Cafe. This typically means something along the lines of yelling at the cats, correcting their incorrect behavior, or calling them "too fat."
When Asians Work in Construction[]
This series is featured on both YouTube Shorts and TikTok. It features Steven's dad posing as a safety officer reacting to several funny construction video fails and complaining to or criticizing the construction workers. Each episode ends in one of two different ways. The first way is when Steven's dad quits his job as an overseer at the construction site. The second way is when Steven's dad doesn't quit, but still ends up visibly upset.
Failure Management: Medic[]
This series is featured on both TikTok and YouTube shorts. It features Steven's dad posing as a medical professional and reacting to several videos of something happening to a person (or people) that could injure them. Each short takes place in the same setting as the clips featured in it.
Failure Management: Gym[]
This series is featured on both TikTok and YouTube shorts. It features Steven's dad posing as a gym manager and showing the viewer the gym he works. He will abruptly react to either funny gym videos or videos of people using gym equipment wrong, as if he and the people were in an actual gym.