YouTube stars of Gonzaga, pt. 1

Luke Barats and Joe Bereta, better known together as the comedy troupe Barats and Bereta, have undoubtedly become Gonzaga University's most prolific and successful YouTube stars to date. Their journey didn't begin completely by design, however, when they were still undergrads here at GU. For the most part, they were just normal college kids that liked making people laugh.

Barats and Bereta began when they were a sophomore and a junior, respectively, by deciding to make some short videos for some laughs. These videos would later be the building blocks for a much larger project. "Our buddies seemed to like them, so we started making videos on a more regular basis for the campus TV station," Barats explained. The campus TV station, GUTV, is still run and operated by GU Broadcasting students. "We broadcast[ed] the show to students on the campus and to a small smattering of people in the Spokane area," Bereta said. This was a vital step in their climb to stardom, and although it may seem small-time compared to the exposure they would later receive from YouTube, this was the beginning of something much bigger.

At first the videos were mostly for fun, and partially for credit for Bereta's classes. "Joe was a broadcasting major, so he needed to pump out vids for class credit," Barats said.

But the videos were earning lots of laughs, and when YouTube was launched in 2005, they signed up very quickly in order to share their videos with their families. "We signed up for a YouTube account right away so our family and friends back home in Montana and Idaho could easily view our little works of art," Bereta said, describing their initial step into YouTube fame.

This turned out to be a life-changing decision, the gravity of which they may or may not have even realized at the time. YouTube had not even existed for a year by the time they joined, and was not yet the Google-owned giant that we all know and depend on. It was a new service, with potential that exceeded even the most radical of estimations.

When YouTube chose to feature one of their little works of art, "Mother's Day," on their front page in 2006, their internet stardom was born. "From that point on our channel has enjoyed much more attention than it ever would have otherwise," Barats said. Their goal was not necessarily to show hundreds of thousands of people their videos, but rather to simply make them available for their friends and families to enjoy. Once YouTube chose them for stardom, however, they accepted the role graciously and willingly.

 "We may have accidentally stumbled upon the ‘path to success,' but we've attempted to build and maintain it since," Bereta admitted.

With new exposure on such a grand scale, the Barats and Bereta project changed from making short, funny videos for GU students to making short, funny videos for thousands of online viewers. The shift was anything but gradual, but the newfound popularity provided a new motivation for the two that helped them push from their humble beginnings into an emerging new kind of stardom — they became YouTube celebrities. They currently have over 400,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel, and have racked up an impressive 112 million views. "Mother's Day" remains one of their most popular videos, with over 10 million views.

These giant numbers don't mean that their job has suddenly become easy. Quite the contrary, it has made them work even harder to maintain their ever-growing fan base. Although their path to online celebrity status seemed almost accidental and completely serendipitous, their healthy following hasn't just created itself. Barats explained that "maintaining that viewership has been a much more deliberate and lengthy process" than their original climb to success. "We try to put out two videos a month these days."

The subjects of these videos range from college life to superheroes, but what they all share in common is a relatable nature that attracts young, college-aged viewers- the same market they first began to make videos for back in 2005. They tell the story of Jesus' party-loving brother in "The Other Son," and teach what it means to be a man in their "MANtage."

In addition to their video production, Barats and Bereta keep busy with other forms of comedy and by working with fellow YouTube channels. "These days we're down in Los Angeles paying the rent by doing comedy, which was the goal," Barats said. Their current plans include writing a live show that they plan to start this March, which they will take to various college campuses. They also will be involved with some upcoming television programs, if everything goes as they expect.