SEOUL, South Korea _ When Mun Jung-ho launched his YouTube career a couple of years ago at the ripe age of 50, he wasn't sure what he wanted his channel to be about.
Mun, a voice actor by day, experimented with various trends popular in South Korea. He recorded video reviews of camping and outdoor gear. He tried mukbang, close-up videos of himself eating, a yearslong craze that gives viewers the illusion they aren't dining alone. He dabbled in autonomous sensory meridian response, the tingle-inducing heightened-sound videos that were fast becoming all the rage.
Then a few weeks in, a viewer commented on one of his videos: You remind me of my dad.
Mun took the comment to heart and began playing the role of a "YouTube Dad" talking directly into the camera, accompanied by soothing ASMR sounds. Sometimes, he was a father eating Chinese delivery with his son after work. A dad gently combing and braiding his daughter's hair. A father polishing a pair of well-worn shoes while soliloquizing about his children.
In each video, he played the part of the father he wished he'd had growing up and the one he struggled to be for his own son: a warm, expressive, supportive dad, a rarity in South Korea's patriarchal society, where fathers are expected to be solemn and authoritative.
"You're doing well, you'll be great. Dad believes in you," he'd say into the camera. "Do what you want to with your life, or you'll regret it."
It seemed to strike a chord. Many of his more than 53,000 subscribers have taken to calling him appa _ "Dad" in Korean. In the comments section, they'll tell him about their day, fret about what's troubling them and seek his advice on everything from school to jobs to life.
Many fall asleep to the comforting sound of his voice. Many confide in him, a stranger they know only through their smartphone screen, telling him some of their deepest, most personal thoughts.
