"Chinese Food on Christmas" Deconstructed
Brandon Walker discusses the song he wrote about what Jews do on Christmas and its viral music video.
By Marc Shapiro
December 27, 2010
MoutainView Patch
It was a college songwriting assignment that exploded.
Mountain View resident and Owings Mills, Maryland native Brandon Walker had to write a Christmas song for his songwriting 101 class at James Madison University, in Virginia.
"They always say write what you know, and I know that I eat Chinese food on Christmas," he said.
Walker struck gold in 2004 when he decided to tell the tale of so many others Jews, like himself, who enjoy Chinese food and go to the movies on Christmas because, as "Chinese Food on Christmas" says, "there just ain't much else to do on Christmas when you're a Jew."
The song was, ironically, written in a church parking lot where Walker was waiting for his girlfriend.
"I guess the church inspired me," he joked.
Around the time that he wrote the song, YouTube was getting popular. Since the song had already been a radio hit, getting airplay for a couple of years on 98 Rock in Baltimore, he decided to make a video of himself playing the song on piano. It wound up on Youtube's front page.
"It got half a million hits," he said. "That's when I decided to go all-out."
And go all-out he did. Walker rented a Chinese restaurant, contacted The Senator Theatre in Baltimore so he could get his name on the marquee, got himself a videographer and sketched out a story for a full-production music video.
The finished product, fit for MTV, poked fun at a variety of Jewish traditions. There's a game of dreidel set like a Hollywood-style gambling scene in which Walker, smoking a cigar, triumphantly wins all the Chanukah gelt. In that same scene, his mother brings in a tray of potato latkes.
At the Chinese restaurant, Walker's guitarist, dressed like an Orthodox Jew, teases the melody from "Hava Nagila" as people dance the Hora, a traditional Israeli dance that is a part of Jewish weddings and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.
There was one part of the video that did cause a bit of controversy, however.
Early in the video, a car comes to a screech so the driver can pick up some change in the road, evoking one of the more negative stereotypes about Jewish people.
"I think self-deprecation is a big part of my sense of humor and a big part of Jewish humor in general, at least in the reform and conservative circles," he said.
Although Walker had initially thought of the change idea, he wasn't going to put it in the video until a friend suggested it.
"It was satire," he said. "It depicted such a cheap moment that no one would really be that cheap."
But Walker heard from some not-so-happy people. Some posted in the video's comments section on YouTube and others wrote him personal emails about it. He defended his decision though, often referring to satirist Jonathan Swift, who suggested the Irish eat their own children in his 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal."
"Either way, it got people talking," he said. "The contention surrounding it and the dialogue it opened up was well worth it."
The video spread like wild fire via word-of-mouth. It got 10,000 hits the first day, and within a couple of weeks, had a million views.
"It was as close to euphoria I've ever felt," Walker said.
The video, which was released on Dec. 1, 2007, had 1,741,488 hits on Christmas Day at noon.
These days, Walker is making music and living with his wife in Mountain View. In October, he released his first E.P., "One Step Behind."
He recorded the six-track album at home, with friends filling in on guitar, bass and drums.
"It's so good to have something tangible that's mine and totally my creation," he said. "I never had a CD of my own."
The music is in a poppy singer-songwriter style with a taste of folk, Walker said. He plans to use the album to promote his music at his gigs and try to get some television spots. The E.P. is available on hiswebsite.
Although he's been gigging solo and playing in some cover bands, Walker has his sights set higher. This year, he hopes to form a backing band and get out more as a solo artist in Mountain View's café scene and break into the nearby San Francisco music scene.
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