VRZO wars: Different strokes |for different folks

THE COMEDY-TV channel VRZO on YouTube was chugging along nicely, a hit with teenagers and pulling in Bt66.6 million in 2013 – and probably more last year – until it got mired in gooey gossip.
The couple co-hosting the show – Surabot “Pleum” Leekpai (son of former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai) and Malika “Tuptim” – have been taking a beating on the social media. It started after Tubtim gave a ringing online endorsement to a skincare product from the brand her mother owns. Tubtim claimed the cream sold as Celeb “can cure strokes”.
Her Facebook page also carried before-and-after photos of users of a very tender age, aiming to demonstrate that Celeb is safe for kids.
These were the sort of claims that used to freak out the Food and Drug Administration and Consumer Protection Board, but of course we don’t need them anymore now that we have the social networks. Things got very melodramatic very fast.
Amateur investigations were launched and turned up “evidence” that Tubtim had undergone plastic surgery and, before marrying Pleum, had fooled around with other women’s boyfriends. It wasn’t immediately clear what this had to with a beauty product, but Pleum dived in on Instagram, defending his wife and saying there’s nothing wrong making a little money on the side as long as no one gets cheated.
Then Champ Chib Tachanyt, a VRZO co-founder and former cameraman, laid into Pleum on Facebook. “Four years ago I put all my effort and money into creating something with you. You sold me a dream, saying one day we’d be able to take care of ourselves and our families. I remember you saying, ‘Let’s work hard now and enjoy the fruits later.’ I believed you and I screwed up my health. I am now dependent on my family and don’t have any work. You are now in comfortable position (financially). I tried to contact you but you didn’t accept my calls. In the old days you called me up all the time to get me to work for you.”
Back to Pleum, who quickly tried to phone Champ. Champ wouldn’t take the call. Huh. Pleum got back on Instagram, saying he didn’t realise Champ was unhappy and in poor health and apologising for losing touch. “I was busy with work and I was wrong to assume that everything was okay with you.” Pleum said he’s always respected Champ and begged for forgiveness.
So we have a huge steaming heap of dirty laundry all over the place and still no explanation about this skin cream that “cures” strokes. Pleum and Tubtim and their VRZO channel are smoking ruins. A lot of folks are blaming Pleum for rushing to his wife’s defence. Others are blaming her for making stuff up about face cream. What these folks need now is another “Celeb”, not for the skin but the living, breathing sort who can generate enough gossip to distract everyone from the spilled beans coating YouTube.