The first season of Average Guys has wrapped up, but the hit web series hopefully will return as a full-length TV series ideally on platforms such as Netflix, said its creator Cheng Chai Hong.

 

Average Guys is a mockumentary about a fictional video production house called Sharp Images. With a motley crew of four “idiotic” guys and a man-hating woman, it dreams of producing commercials and films but is stuck in the daily grind of making corporate videos.

 

Behind the scenes of the Average Guys mockumentary.
Cheng Chai Hong, creator and director of the Average Guys web (third from the right), on set with the cast. Photo by Russel Chan.

 

With its good-humored and incisive social commentary, the web series has struck a chord with many Singaporeans, including well-known YouTubers TheMingThing and Hirzi Zulkiflie.

 

Reaction to the pilot episode of Average Guys by TheMingThing and Hirzi Zulkiflie from MunahHirziOfficial.
The pilot episode of the Average Guys caught the attention of TheMingThing and Hirzi Zulkiflie from MunahHirziOfficial.

 

The 6-part series has scored a total of 17,000 views and 127,000 views on YouTube and Facebook respectively to date. Many netizens praised its script and likened it to The Office, a hilarious British mockumentary sitcom which has spawned an American adaptation.

 

But the series creator is quick to credit the success to the actors. “The cast members are a bunch of amazingly talented performers,” Chai Hong told The UrbanWire.

 

“I’m very glad that we managed to get them together. I truly believe that if we didn’t manage to round this bunch together, the whole series would not have worked as well as it did,” he added.

 

The self-funded series by Singapore video agency The Hummingbird Co. stars two-time Straits Times Life Theatre Awards nominee Thomas Pang, Channel 8 actress and Love, Bonito model Jasmine Sim, Jun Vinh Teoh, Fauzi Azzhar and Justin Faith Ng.

 

 

Chai Hong hopes his web series has changed Singaporeans’ perception of local comedies. He hopes Singaporeans would recognize that there are talented actors, writers and producers here who can do comedy well.

 

He said he himself was relieved that there’s an audience for his brand of humor, and that he might actually be able to make a serious career out of creating something funny.

 

Interestingly though, he did not imagine he’d be making comedies when he was studying in LASALLE College of the Arts. In fact, he’s always been making “dull, depressing” films for his school projects.

 

Have a look at the theme that he’s tackled in his short films here:

 

If you have yet to catch the first season of Average Guys, here you go.