The video of Jehan Ratnatunga wearing a wig and pretending to be his mother has been viewed over 600,000 times on Youtube. Titled ‘S..t Sri Lankan Mothers Say,’ it’s a hilarious collection of classic lines - from the dozen known variations on ‘Have you eaten?’ to the familiar predictions of ‘you will die!’ with a dozen ‘aneys,’ ‘ahs’ and ‘aiyos’ thrown in for good measure.
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| Jehanr in one of his videos |
There’s a ‘S..t Sri Lankan Fathers Say’ too.
Also proudly wigged is Jehan’s best friend Sanushka Ranasinghe, co-star in several other productions. “Sanushka and I grew up together and spent most of our time at family dinner parties listening to our parents and then imitating them for our own personal entertainment!” Jehan told the Mirror Magazine in an email.
The duo credit the original video ‘S..t Girls Say’ with inspiring them to create a ‘Lankanised’ version of the same. Working with family and friends have made their “low or no budget productions” possible. “I would not be a Sri Lankan if I did it any other way!”
The 28-year - old was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia where he studied Robotics Engineering and Computer Science at Melbourne University. He now works for YouTube over in Los Angeles. He grew up immersed in what he considers the truly Sri Lankan obsession with family and food. “’Have you eaten?’ is a question I hear about 10-15 times a day. Even now, living in the US, it’s one of the first questions I get asked when I phone home. When we were filming we tried our best not to exaggerate the lines at all - the more genuine the better!” The content of ‘S..t Sri Lankan Mothers Say’ was initially intended for a sketch ‘Classic Amma!’ which they never quite finished. “They were all the things that we had heard our mothers say over the years,” says Jehan.
Jehan’s father, unwittingly provided them with all the basic equipment they needed. “When my father came home with this new video camera, I started making videos that very day. The first video was a murder mystery involving my cousins and my sister Rehana, and for some reason a Shaggy song as the sound track. It was terrible. But from then on I was really interested in what can only be described as ‘making silly videos’.”
This was over a decade ago, and Jehan and his friends went on to write and perform in several productions in University as well, all of which were intended to raise money for charities in Sri Lanka. Then in 2005, YouTube launched. “It’s an amazing tool to have - it allows you to reach even the most niche of audiences - like second generation Sri Lankan youths worldwide.” Jehan has had great feedback on the videos, but confesses that the only thing that gave him pause was using the word “S..t” in the title. “But you have to play by the rules of the Internet, and if you parody somebody, you need keep the titles consistent, or people won’t make the link!” It paid off though, since ‘S..t people say’ has become something of an Internet phenomenon – you’ll find every possible variation from ‘S..t Cyclists Say’ to ‘S..t Yogis Say’ and even ‘S..t Cats Say.’
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| Sanushka Ranasinghe |
Among the fans of Jehan’s version are his own parents. His mother was amazed to find herself so popular. Though she may have had her reservations initially, when the video racked up 100,000 hits overnight (“and every Sri Lankan on the planet was phoning Amma to say “we saw your son imitating you!”) she made her peace with it.
“Over the next few days, every morning Amma would ask me “Ah...how many hits have I got now? My father also loved the videos, and when I did the father version - he was planning to do a response video ‘S..t Sri Lankan Children Say’ where he and another uncle would dress up as us kids and imitate us. I wish they made it!” In the meantime Jehan and Sanushka are entirely unrepentant: “Sri Lankan children have been imitating their parents for years - but it’s all done with love,” Jehan says.
You’ll find more videos up on Jehan’s youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/jehanr
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