A Conversation with the Mastermind Behind the Worst Suburban Tourism Video Ever

From Esquire

The banal indignities of suburban life have a way of crushing one's spirit. Perhaps by now you've seen the work of 31-year-old part-time security guard and YouTube filmmaker named Angelo Mike. Although Mike's video, "Welcome Home to the Shithole of Annandale, VA," was first posted to YouTube in September of 2014, this week it took off, making it all the way to the top of Reddit and pulling in 1.1 million views in a day's time.

His description to the contrary, Annandale, a city of just over 40,000, about 15 miles outside of Washington, D.C., with a significant Korean population, isn't some bleak wasteland-the median household income is $75,871.

But as anyone who spends time in the suburbs and the afterthought cities can tell you, it's not always the facts of a place-it's how it makes you feel. (This truly amazing artifact of a town website should give you some idea of what era the area is stuck in). Mike's malaise is palpable, but in the video, as well as a second one, in which he gives us a tour of his truly screwed up apartment situation, that idea is conveyed with enough dry humor to push the commonplace to the extreme.

"I think a lot of people, they immediately see something they know," Mike said of the videos' sudden popularity. "They think, 'Oh I know that place.'"

I asked Mike, who regularly posts videos of his mother to his channel, including one in which she got into a feud and cooking duel with Tim Heidecker of Tim and Eric, to explain more about his situation. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

ESQ: You've been making videos for a long time now, but this is a much bigger hit than usual.

I posted it on Reddit myself; I didn't really think much of it. I thought, Oh it's an old video, I'll see what happens with it. I never thought to post it before. I don't know if it would've been as popular before. But sometimes you just hit that right stream of people, and they jump on the bandwagon, and it starts climbing in popularity. Other than that, I just look at the comments, and see, well, people just think it's funny. They like it and relate to it, and they want me to make videos for their cities.

I just like making films and videos and commercial parodies. I make a lot of videos with my mom. She's a funny Greek lady. People really like her. We argue, too, but there's always a sweetness to what we do. It lets me have an opportunity to express something: the everyday mundane life.

How did the thing with Tim and Eric come about?

That was incredible. It's still one of my favorite memories. Tim Heidecker did a parody of a cooking show called "Tim's Kitchen Tips," where he made these bad recipes and always screwed them up and argued with Eric. I showed them to my mom. She didn't understand that they were comedy; she was disgusted. She wanted to make a video criticizing him and said, "I'll make a sauce to show him how to make a proper meal." I sent it to the production company that made it, said, "Hey, check this out. This would be cool…" They sent it to Tim, and he challenged my mom to cook off. They set it all up, and a month later we were in L.A. shooting.

Is Annandale really as bad as you make it seem?

Well, look. The video, first of all, I wanted it to have a light feel to it. It was a real frustration, but I didn't want it to be negative thing. I wanted it to be comedy, where you're not just laughing at me, you're laughing with me. I'm not just making fun of the city, I'm making fun with the city. Yeah, it's bad, but look, I'm here, other people are here, they're good people. It's just a screwed up place. That's about as far as the thought process went. I put my tongue in my cheek and made a goofy video.

It seems like a fairly wealthy town, but you make it look like a depressed, run down place with lots of crime.

It's not terribly dangerous, the crime is just like a nuisance. Like I said in the video, somebody drained my bank account. The next day, the bank put it back in. But other than that, I don't worry about walking around too much. Again, I was sort of making fun of the city for the goofy awkwardness of it. The lack of walkable streets, dangerous traffic patterns. My sense of people who live here-I'm not totally sure, since I don't go around too much. It's largely a Korean neighborhood where I live, lots of Korean restaurants. There's not much else unless you go further out.

Do you go into the city for fun?

In Annandale, there isn't much as far as I can tell. That's not me slamming it either… They do have a 24-hour Korean BBQ place and nice buffets. I don't go out that much anymore-I work all the time. I used to go out in Arlington. That's where the young professionals, people in their 20s, hang out in clubs and bars. There's not a whole lot in the city for leisure.

How long have you lived in this apartment? Did I see you mention something online that your landlord is really mad over the videos?

About two and a half years. Yeah, she's really mad at me. She sent me a lot of angry messages last night. I don't want to get too much into it right now, but she was saying: What kind of person am I for doing this? That I sort of deserve my situation when I had to come here. Saying basically I'm a coward. She sent me a flurry or messages, very angry, explaining why the house is the way it is. I don't want to get into that, other than to say I want someone to put me up on a couch. I don't just want to move out in two months. I'll keep paying rent here if I have to and go live on someone's couch. She is very angry. It really makes me uncomfortable. I don't like to talk in anger or be spoken to in anger.

Why are there so many people coming and going?

There are four of us on the lease and a sub-letter. But with the sub-letter, they bring in people, they bring in kids with diapers, they bring in furniture, take my stuff out of the kitchen. Not every one did all these things-I'm compressing a bit. But I don't know much about them.

I came home at three in the morning and the door was hanging open, and the doorknob was hanging off, and the other part was sitting in a shoe. It's like, uh, who didn't think to close the door? It's like, nobody seems in charge. I can't figure out why it's going on and why it's like it is. It's like I'm a nuisance if I tell anybody about it. I thought, what's the point? I'll just do a comic video.