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Dee Kosh (Darryl Koshy)

Revision as of 14:28, 8 March 2019 by Dayana Rizal (talk | contribs) (→‎Involvement in controversies)

Dee Kosh is a Singaporean social media personality, Youtuber and Radio DJ. He was born and raised in the Philippines. Even though his parents are ethnically Indian and Chinese, he states that he is "Malay by heart".[1] During his years in school, Dee Kosh had been teased for his skin colour. He started telling jokes to overcome his insecurities that stemmed from the teasing.[2] Dee Kosh is known for his straightforward manner and loud personality. He first gained popularity through Youtube (Youtube channel) and then started deejaying for local radio station 987FM. As of 2019, Dee Kosh has over 160,000 followers on Instagram (Instagram profile) and 200,000 followers on Twitter (Twitter profile).

Career highlights

Youtube (2011 - Present)

Dee Kosh gained his initial fame through Youtube. Although he had created his Youtube account in 2006, he only begun uploading videos in 2011. As of 2018, Dee Kosh had close to 300,000 followers and more than 62 million views in total on his channel. He regularly uploads comedy skits, vlogs and storytime-type videos. In his videos, he regularly dresses up as different characters such as Xiao Tina, Lechme and Ria Warna. These characters are meant to be exaggerated Singaporean stereotypes of a female Chinese influencer, an Indian lady, and a Malay woman respectively. His most viewed videos include ‘Singaporean Style (Gangnam Style Parody)’ with 3.2 million views and ‘Shawn Mendes Reacts to Thirsty Tweets’ with 1.8 million views.[3] He has collaborated with other well-known Youtubers like Singaporean blogger Xiaxue and American acapella group Pentatonix.[4] On top of this, he has also interviewed many international stars including Fifth Harmony, Hailee Steinfeld and 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) on his channel. In addition to his personal Youtube Channel, he hosts two shows on local Youtube channel Night Owl Cinematics - ‘Food King’ and ‘Do It For The Money’. He had been featured on other Youtube channels including TheSmartLocal and ZYRUP.

Radio DJ (2012 - Present)

Dee Kosh’s foray into DJing begun in April 2012 when he was offered the role as a host for 987FM’s “Say It With Music” segment.[5] Dee Kosh hosted the segment until January 2013 when he started co-hosting another segment called ‘The Double D Show’ with DJ Divian Nair.[6] During his time in 987FM, he had also interviewed many celebrities including Korean pop group B.A.P as well as Korean pop star Jay Park. In 2014, he left 987FM and joined 98FM. Currently, he has a show on weekday nights from 9PM - 12AM called ‘Up All Night’.[7]

Hosting (2013 - Present)

Year Event Role
2013 2013 FHM Models Top Ten Co-host for the event at Bugis Junction as part of ‘The Double Ds’ with Divian Nair.[8]
2015 National Day Parade 2015: Celebrations at The Float One of the 10 emcees for the event jointly organised by SAFRA and People’s Association.[9]
2015 Asia’s Got Talent (AGT) 2015 Host for AGT 2015 in a segment titled ‘Fresh off the stage interview with Dee’ where he interviewed participants backstage.[10]
2019 Youth Music Awards (YMA) organized by *SCAPE and INVASION Singapore Hosted the closed event with a line-up of performances including local artist Charlie Lim.[11]

Awards

In 2015, Dee Kosh was nominated for two awards in the Singapore Social Media Awards (SSMAs). His video titled “Types of Annoying People to Travel With” (Youtube video) was nominated for ‘Collab of the Year’. Additionally, his series “Doctor Dee” (Youtube video) was among the three nominees for ‘Online Series of the Year’.[12] Held in May 2015 and hosted by Aaron Jansen and Cleo Chew, the SSMAs was an independently run online awards show acknowledging Singaporean online content creators.[13] The results show spanned across 3 episodes on Youtube, accompanied by additional interview videos (Youtube channel playlist).

Noteworthy incidents

BTS ARMY social experiment (2018)

On 18 October 2018, Dee Kosh had posted a tweet saying “Unpopular Opinion : BTS’s songs all sound the same. I need something fresh! Come on now….”.[14] This comment was not taken too kindly by BTS fans as they started responding to his comments negatively on Twitter. Subsequently, it appeared that Dee Kosh’s Youtube channel had been deleted due to this incident. He posted a video in which he seemed distressed due to all the hateful comments he had been getting from BTS fans. He also mentioned that the fans had gone too far by emailing his bosses in the radio station he was working at about this incident.[15] However, Dee Kosh himself later revealed that the whole stunt was a social experiment  intended to provoke reaction from the BTS fans. Through this experiment, he wanted to show the consequences of ‘mob mentality’ prevalent in Singapore society.


In response to this, Singaporean blogger Alvinology spoke out against his social experiment. He stated that Dee Kosh was equally insensitive towards the fans’ feelings through his replies. Furthermore, Alvinology stated that his social experiment lacked integrity as the fans were not aware of their assessment and he was taking advantage of their responses. Apart from this, Dee Kosh also faced backlash from another local site TheOnlineCitizen who felt that his social experiment was merely a “publicity stunt” and misleading for his fans.[16]

Nicole Choo’s book 'Nineteen' (2018)

In 2018, local Youtuber Nicole Choo released her book titled ‘Nineteen’ as part of the 'BuySingLit' national movement. Following the release, Dee Kosh and local social media personality Hirzi published a Youtube video criticizing the book. In the video, they had pointed out that Nicole Choo’s work read more like "social media captions" instead of the intended poetry.[17] However, the video was later taken down due to a copyright issue. Subsequently, Dee Kosh and Hirzi posted an apology to Nicole Choo on YouTube.[18]


The Associate Editor of Rice Media, Julian Wong addressed Dee Kosh’s video through an article titled 'At 19, Nicole Choo is A Published Poet. So What?". In the article, he argues that it was unfair for them to have undermined Nicole Choo’s work in such an insensitive and crass manner. Julian spoke out against the way Dee Kosh and Hirzi commented on her book, stating that at times their commentary "... came uncomfortably close to sexual harassment and cyberbullying...".[19] The article also included encouraging sentiments from local Youth Poet Ambassador Pooja Nansi who felt that poetry was subjective and that everyone should have the opportunity to express their creativity.

Eden Ang exposé (2018)

For more information on the incident, refer to Eden Ang.

Dee Kosh had initially spoken out about local media personality Eden Ang’s alleged sexual harassment incident with his personal assistant on Instagram Live. Dee Kosh had revealed the evidence that was sent to him by the alleged victim including conversations she had with Eden Ang using screenshots.[20] He had then went on to upload these Instagram Live videos on his Youtube channel. His video sparked more responses from the key people involved the incident, which resulted in the unfolding of the whole saga.

References / Citations

  1. ↑ “Dee Kosh - About”. Facebook. Accessed on 24 january 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Thedeekosh/about/?ref=page_internal
  2. ↑ “Dee Kosh”. Askfm. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://ask.fm/DeeKosh/best?page=2
  3. ↑ “Dee Kosh”. SocialBlade. Accessed on 24 january 2019. Retrieved from: https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/sweetestkind
  4. ↑ Dee Kosh. “90s Music Challenge with PENTATONIX”. Youtube. June 5, 2015. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j-Jtb5q5sU&feature=youtu.be
  5. ↑ Azliah. “The Double Ds: New funny guys on Singapore radio”. Yahoo Lifestyle. April 12, 2013. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://sg.style.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore-showbiz/double-ds-funny-guys-singapore-radio-100458697.html
  6. ↑ Ibid.
  7. ↑ “Dee Kosh”. Power 98FM. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.power98.com.sg/dj/dee-kosh-2/
  8. ↑ "2013 APR FHM Models Top Ten, Bugis Junction, Singapore". April 20, 2018. Accessed on 20 February 2019. xtemujin 360 resources Singapore. Retrieved from: https://xtemujin.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/2013-apr-fhm-models-top-ten-bugis-junction-singapore/
  9. ↑ “NDP 2015 Celebrations at The Float Fact Sheet”. SAFRA. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.safra.sg/~/media/Media-Releases/NDP-2015-Celebrations-at-The-Float-Fact-Sheet.ashx
  10. ↑ Asia’s Got Talent. “Fresh off the stage interview 1 | Ep 1 | Behind the scenes with Dee Kosh”. Youtube. March 20, 2015. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm8eb9CN-ag
  11. ↑ “Inaugural Youth Music Awards themed “Catching Feelings” To Celebrate Local Music Representing The Best Different Moments In Life”. Scape. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from:  https://www.scape.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Invasion-YMA-Press-Release.pdf
  12. ↑ Kyle Malinda-White. “Gentle Bones, Munah & Hirzi Among Nominees For Singapore Social Media Awards 2015”. Popspoken. March 7, 2015. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: http://popspoken.com/music/2015/03/gentle-bones-munah-hirzi-among-nominees-singapore-social-media-awards-2015
  13. ↑ Telescope. “Best of Online Entertainment in Singapore”. YouTube. May 16, 2015. Accessed on 13 February 2019.  Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4u4Tvq_A7w&t=0s&list=PLM_XH3SnYRV0TlshX_2-XNYhQqS1dkxaA&index=2
  14. ↑ Dee Kosh. Twitter. October 15, 2018. Accessed on 13 February 2019. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/TheDeeKosh/status/1052933791797280768
  15. ↑ Monique Danao. “Here’s The Dee Kosh, BTS, Youtube Drama Explained”. MustShareNews. October 20, 2018. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://mustsharenews.com/dee-kosh-bts/
  16. ↑ The Online Citizen. “A view on Dee Kosh’s “Social Experiment”/ Publicity Stunt”. The Online Citizen. 22 October 2018. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved on: https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2018/10/22/a-view-on-dee-koshs-social-experiment-publicity-stunt/
  17. ↑ MuttonSoda Channel. “Nicole Choo book review with Syasya and Xiaotina (REPOST)”. Youtube. April 30, 2018. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obDdwqTVicA
  18. ↑ Dee Kosh. “WE’RE SORRY NICOLE CHOO!!”. YouTube. May 25, 2018. Accessed on 12 February 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUrZHTyk8L4
  19. ↑ Wong, Julian. “At 19, Nicole Choo is A Published Poet. So What?”. Rice Media. May 28, 2018. Accessed from 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: http://ricemedia.co/current-affairs-commentary-nicole-choo-poet-nineteen-19/  
  20. ↑ Jewel Stolarchuk. “Dee Kosh reveals incriminating details as Eden Ang denies sexual harassing 18-year-old employee”. The Independent. January 27, 2018. Accessed on 24 January 2019. Retrieved from: http://theindependent.sg/dee-kosh-reveals-incriminating-details-as-eden-ang-denies-sexual-harassing-18-year-old-employee/
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