- Tony Huynh
Infobox internet celebrity
bgcolour =
imagesize = 175px
name = Tony Huỳnh
"thewinekone"
birthname =
birthdate = 1982 Fact|date=August 2008
birthplace =Toronto ,Ontario
Canada
height =
period active =December 17 ,2005 -present
host service =YouTube
genre =Observational humor Surreal humor
webalias = "thewinekone", "TWK"
influences =Conan O'Brien
notable works = "Hotness Prevails / Worst Video Ever"
"Snow Day"
"New Video Partner"
"Troublemaker"
notable role =Tony Huỳnh (thewinekone or TWK) is a
Vietnamese Canadian YouTube comedian fromToronto, Ontario .cite news |first=Janet |last=Kornblum |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=These guys draw a YouTube crowd |url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-10-29-youtube-stars_N.htm |quote= |publisher=USA Today |date=October 30 ,2007 |accessdate=2007-11-02 ] He is known for posting his thoughts on different subjects toYouTube with his own style of comedy and farce.As of September 2008, Huynh is the #34 most subscribed user on
YouTube with over 100,000 subscribers (most subscribed in Canada). [http://www.youtube.com/members?t=a&p=1&s=ms&g=0&locale=en_US YouTube - Broadcast Yourself ] ] In March 2007, he wonYouTube 's first ever YouTube Video Awards [http://www.youtube.com/ytawards YouTube Awards] ] in the "Best Commentary" category. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/arts/27tube.html?ex=1332648000&en=a4284b48aa615518&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "YouTube Awards the Top of Its Heap" - Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times, March 27, 2007] ]YouTube
Huynh first began on
YouTube with a video called "The Delaware Boy". [http://youtube.com/watch?v=X3t8XKtFMlI "The Delaware Boy" - "The Wine Kone" on YouTube] ] He continued to make videos and eventually attracted attention fromYouTube viewers with his video rants on random topics, including the video "Hotness Prevails / Worst Video Ever" [http://youtube.com/watch?v=w-rcjaBWvx0 "Hotness Prevails / Worst Video Ever" - "The Wine Kone" on YouTube] ] , which is his most viewed video with about three million views.Huynh's unique style of humor has been described as eclectic and self-deprecating. He is known for his various rants for which he has gained a loyal audience even from other YouTube celebrities, most notably
Ben Going . A repeating joke is a video with the warning that watching the video is a waste of time. This warning is followed by dead time or content which is uninteresting and not humorous. Another repeated theme in Huynh's videos is to address individuals who have achieved the rank of Internet celebrity..Huynh has made appearances on the cable showThe FIZZ . [http://thefizz.tv/cast.html The FIZZ Official Website - cast] ] He has also collaborated with otherYouTube celebrities to perform in a music video forBarenaked Ladies entitled "Sound of Your Voice" [http://www.bnlmusic.com/news Barenaked Ladies' Official Website - News section] ] and for causes such as "Save The Internet campaign", [http://savetheinternet.com/=videos Save The Internet Website - Videos section] ] "The YouTube Anti-Racism Collaboration" [http://youtube.com/watch?v=-mB3pDYTne0 "The YouTube Anti-Racism Collaboration: We Can Make A Difference" - "kwaichi" of YouTube] ] the [http://www.yellowbirdproject.com Yellow Bird Project] , "and Dare to Dream - YouTube Community". [http://youtube.com/watch?v=Eajp31v6Fjc "Dare to Dream - YouTube Community" - Digitilsoul of YouTube] ] In December 2006, Huynh participated in theYouTube andCoca-Cola Holiday WishCast. [http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/061208/0193038.html "YouTube and Coca-Cola Introduce Video Greeting Cards for the Holidays" - Press release from YouTube and The Coca-Cola Company, December 8, 2006] ] He has also contributed a special video message forYouTube New Year's Eve Countdown in partnership with Warner Music Group Corporation and presented byChevrolet [http://musicvideowire.com/dynamic/article_view.asp?AID=11945 "YouTube, Chevrolet and Warner Music Group Present New Year's Eve Countdown Around the World"] ] in January 2007.In May 2007,
YouTube invited Huynh to join theYouTube Partner Program. [http://youtube.com/blog?entry=4b3PkL8HQcw "YouTube Elevates Most Popular Users to Partners" - YouTube blog, May 3, 2007] ] This exclusive status, previously only offered to commercial content providers, allows users to earn revenue from advertisements placed next to videos [http://youtube.com/members?s=al&t=&g=5&p=32 YouTube's list of partners] ] .Huynh registered a second
YouTube account thewinektwo for his video responses.On July 31, 2007, Huynh posted on his channel that the meaning of "The Wine Kone" was "love", however, he edited his channel to change this meaning every several weeks.
Background
Huynh started sending newsletters to his friends back in 2002 in his university (University of Waterloo) through email. His mailing list grew over time and a year after, the newsletters had been named "The Wine Kone". Subscribers then received a collection of articles, edited images, audio clips and videos produced by Huynh himself. In April 2005, he decided to publish his works online [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20060302053310/www.blogger.com/profile/7868228 "The Wine Kone" on Blogger.com (Archived March 2, 2006)] ] with the use of free blogging websites such as
Wordpress ,LiveJournal andBlogger.com . Later on, he focused more on video production and found his way toYouTube .On his
MySpace page [http://myspace.com/thewinekone] (accessed May 2007) Huynh states that he first came ontoYouTube so his friends could watch his videos. This was instead of distributing his videos via email as he found the attachments were too big. Huynh also says that he never realised that he would become popular on such a site. He wishes to go on further with this and also hopes that "this is just the beginning."YouTube video chronology
2005
2008
ee also
*
YouTube celebrities
* YouTubers for net neutralityReferences
External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/thewinekone "The Wine Kone" on YouTube]
* [http://www.youtube.com/thewinektwo "The Wine Kone"'s second account on YouTube]
* [http://myspace.com/thewinekone "The Wine Kone" on MySpace]
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