Christian Lander and Myles Valentin were joking around about why white people don't watch The Wire when they came up with the idea for a satirical blog about the specific tastes of the Caucasian population. The site, Stuff White People Like (stuffwhitepeoplelike.com), has become a viral sensation, and the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based Mr. Lander recently landed a book deal with Random House. We talked to Mr. Lander about how he vets his posts, the people who hate him and the stuff white people like, which apparently includes sarcasm.
Your blog has only existed for two months and already it's become so huge there's a backlash. The Washington Post called you pasty.
I got a book deal and the publisher told me I can't talk to American press. They didn't want me getting overexposed. [The Washington Post reporter] got in touch with me the day the book deal was finalized and got all pissed off. Gawker hates me and The New Republic and Slate. They all wrote mean things about how I'm really not very funny and it's not a very good site and that I don't deserve any of this.
Are you surprised by how many people do like it?
To say the least. After the site got about 15 posts I thought, 'This is kind of funny, I'm going to send it to my friends.'
And they really responded and started sending it to their friends and the next thing I knew it was on the Good Magazine blog and the Comedy Central Insider. It got bigger than I could have ever expected and none of it feels real.
Why do you think it struck such a chord?
Part of it is weird timing. The people I'm talking about on the site are back in power in the U.S. After eight years of Bush and the Republican right wing, the Democratic race is really showing that these people are taking over again.
You mean bourgeois white liberals who enjoy gentrification and having gay friends?
Yeah. So there's an interesting reaction to that. People on the right like to poke fun of those kind of people, and for left-wing liberals, it's fun to skewer your friends. It's just a new take on an old subject. People have written about yuppies forever.
How much do you vet each idea before you immortalize it as something white people like?
I picture all the people I went to McGill with, and I think, 'Would you be excited about this?' If the answer is yes, then it goes up.
Which items have gotten the biggest reactions?
Myles wrote the post on Asian girls and he's Filipino and it's by far the most inflammatory. Expensive sandwiches got a lot of traction because I think no one had really pointed out that at some point in the last 15 years it's become standard for people to pay 13 bucks for a fancy sandwich.
Some people have said the site is racist.
Those comments don't bug me because I know I'm not. Most people just say that it isn't funny any more, it's really overrated, yawn.
Do you get lots of reader suggestions?
The one I don't want any more is mayonnaise. Please stop sending mayonnaise. I'm not going to do it. Other people want NASCAR and hunting and guns. But that's not really what the site's going for. That's been done to death and it's too easy.
Any really weird takes on what white people like?
I get some that are offensive. I can't comment as to whether or not they're true. Users always want me to do ones on abortion, eating disorders, suicide, things like that. People desperately want me to put the blog itself on the site.
Do you worry about running out of material?
