Fans of Laughing Gor (Laughing 哥) are all upset about his death in the 22nd episode of TVB’s popular drama “Emergency Unit” (《學警狙擊》). Both the role of Laughing and the fabulous acting by Michael Tse (謝天華) have gained hot attention and massive praise since he was revealed to be an undercover for over 9 years in the recent episodes. Of course, everything didn’t happen intentionally by TVB itself, Laughing Gor just tips in the social media.

Tipping in New Media

Laughing started as a supporting role in “Emergency Unit” as a senior position in a triad (進興社) and got not so much attention in early episodes. But once the surprising rumor of Laughing is an undercover spread in various social network sites like Facebook, forums and blogs, it created massive buzz and raised much more audience attention about “Emergency Unit”. With such respectful and interesting characters of Laughing, social media facilitated the unstoppable viral distribution and hot discussion about his destiny.

Being the hottest search keyword in Yahoo! HK (The most popular search engine in Hong Kong), Laughing Gor simply dominated the local online community this week.

Fans in Facebook

The death of Laughing in 22nd episode is the hottest topic among mainstream and online media before and after it is broadcast. It attracts more than 120,000 Facebook users to join his group and here are some facts:

Mar-18 3PM: ~60,000
Mar-18 11PM: 73,166 (The night of 22nd episode)
Mar-20 1AM: 103,319
Mar-22 4PM: 125,780

The death of Laughing doubles the number of fans and attracts 1.8% of Hong Kong population just in a Facebook group, it is pretty impressive in local social media.

User-Generated Media

The death of Laughing triggered much more user-generated contents. Facebook and Twitter were flooded by the status updates in which netizens expressed their sympathy of losing Laughing. As there are massive desire of expressing their sadness, revenge and wanting Laughing back, there are popular facebook apps. The most interesting one is “In remembrance of Laughing” (“永遠懷念Laughing哥”) developed by Eric, it enables user to mourn him by laying virtual offerings.

People also organized Laughing’s gags, derived numerous funny photos and uploaded his “Death Note” video in Facebook group and forums. The phenomenon of Laughing also gained huge coverage of personal blogs as well, and all these show the power and impact of Web 2.0.

Tipping Point in Web 2.0

Laughing Gor reminds me about a book – “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Galdwell, and he completed side-mission to create a very first successful case how Web 2.0 tips drama and character from mainstream media in Hong Kong. Wish you rest in peace, Laughing Gor! We will either see you in final episode of “Emergency Unit” or Episode I of Laughing Gor (Laughing 哥前傳).

Extended Reading

• Laughing哥 – 從電視到互聯網 by 案內人隨筆
• 12萬人悼念Laughing哥 by 廣告101‧Be Always Convinced!
• 解釋 Laughing 哥 II：電視劇熱潮, 是刻意還是巧合?part 1 by 石先生
• 從領袖的角度看Laughing哥的死亡 by 寫作空間
• Unravelling the Laughing Gor Phenomenon by The Picth HK
  
• 「Laughing哥」紅遍討論區 編劇剖析熱潮 「社會需要英雄」by 明報新聞網

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