UWSP Students Become YouTube Famous

“It’s quiet hours; can I close your door? Come on guys, I can hear the bottles. I’m not just your RA, I’m your friend too.” This is all “Sh*t RAs Say” according to Tommy Nouansacksy, a senior social science major at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. Nouansacksy created the YouTube video with Curtis Kadow, a super senior Elementary Education major, a week ago and it has had close to 300,000 views since.

There have been many “Sh*t (insert person here)s say” videos on YouTube and Nouansacksy decided to search YouTube to see if anyone had already made a video applying to the lives of Resident Assistants, but no one had.

“It was the perfect opportunity to make this video,” Nouansacksy said.

Nouansacksy and Kadow both were RAs in the residence halls at UWSP. Nouansacksy approached Kadow with his idea and Kadow worked with him to bring the video to life.

“Tommy’s really good at making videos,” Kadow said, referring to Nouansacky’s hobby of creating YouTube videos which started when he was a freshman. The two wrote the script using Google+, using the Hangout feature to video chat with RAs from around the country.

“I wanted to make it as universal as possible,” Nouansacksy said.

Both Kadow and Nouansacksy had no expectations for the video to become as popular as it has. Kadow had to convince Nouansacksy to even upload the video in the first place.

“I hated it … I’d seen it so many times so I didn’t think it was funny anymore,” Nouansacksy said. He was hopeful to have around 15,000 views, much less nearly 300,000.
The reason why the video has become so popular, the two think, is because it’s true. Nouansacksy also credits his YouTube experience.
“My experience has helped me with comedic timing,” Nouansacksy said.
Whatever the reason, the video has nearly made Nouansacksy, as some would say, “YouTube famous.”
“This weekend I went to an RA conference and I felt like a celebrity,” Nouansacksy said. People at the conference asked him for his autograph, to take pictures with him, and even quoted his video.

“I think that Tommy’s video points out all of the comical parts about our job. Sometimes we get faced with problems that others wouldn’t want to be faced with,” said Matt Waro, a junior Biochemistry and Spanish major and RA in Hyer Hall. “It’s a sharing of experiences.”

Nouansacksy dreams that someday he might be partnered with YouTube and paid for every view.
“Everyone on YouTube wants to become YouTube famous,” Nouansacksy said.

Kaitlyn Luckow
kluck791@uwsp.edu