Henry Phillips poses in his kitchen.
Henry Phillips is a comedian, and also happens to be my friend. For decades now, he has entertained audiences with his extremely dry wit and incredibly gifted guitar playing. He has toured, he's made movies, he's appeared in TV shows like Silicon Valley, but in the last handful of years, it's his "cooking videos" that have really taken him to an odd next level.
Let me explain: Phillips isn't a chef. But as a gag, he thought it would be funny to make YouTube clips where he tries to give tutorials on how to make dishes. He calls it "Henry's Kitchen" and cooks and bakes recipes like "Schnitzel with Spinach Spaetzle." Or "Vegan Candy Corns." The videos are awkwardly edited (on purpose) with strange personal stories and sad music cut in when one least expects it. Sometimes, he'll even tell an innocently inappropriate story while stirring sauce and then jump cut to the next "cooking step."
Snoop Dogg shares Henry Phillips cooking video.Photo Credit: Instagram, Henry Phillips, Snoop Dogg
Imagine his surprise when rapper extraordinaire Snoop Dogg took a liking to one of his videos and shared it on social media. Though Snoop knew it was a joke, he captioned the video "Buddy threw in a fun fact while cooking pasta." For the first comment, Snoop wrote "Dropped the hardest lore n left us curious."
The "lore" Snoop is referring to is a story Henry tells halfway through the clip that most definitely doesn't belong in a cooking video. Many in the comment section were stunned. "Wait…what?" they asked. "Is this for real?" Over 430,000 people liked the post but many had questions. In fact, a lot of them seemed to think Henry was a "real chef," not a comic.
This person had notes for his pasta stir: "I don't know what's crazier. the story or the way he cooks pasta." Another notes, "From the fun fact to him hanging half the pasta out of the pot…I'm speechless."
One offered a psychological explanation: "Stirring the pot reactivated his trauma."
A few on the thread knew of Phillips' comedy background. But whether a commenter was in on the joke or not, Snoop's reposting made it go extra viral.
Henry Phillips makes French Toast on an episode of "Henry's Kitchen." www.youtube.com, Henry Phillips
Phillips, who is unusually humble, answered a few questions for this piece to give a little insight on how "Henry's Kitchen" got started and his reaction to having Snoop as a fan. And full disclosure, I was lucky enough to appear as a guest-host on a recent episode!
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Upworthy: What inspired Henry's Kitchen?
Phillips: "When I was in my early 40s, I was going through a terrible breakup. I also didn't have much going on with my career, and was generally pretty depressed. I was also on a budget, so I started trying to learn how to cook for myself by watching YouTube videos. I was absolutely amazed at what I was seeing: so many depressed, middle-aged men with low budget cameras and bad lighting, trying to teach the world how to cook their particular brand of chili, or asparagus, or whatever. Being a comedian, I thought 'I wanna make my own cooking video just like these.' I stood awkwardly in front of the camera and laughed for about 15 minutes and then eventually made my first video and uploaded it."
Upworthy: Which comedians inspire you?
Phillips: "Nowadays, there are too many people with too much self-confidence, so I always preferred the legendary comedians who made fun of themselves: Bob Newhart, Albert Brooks, Steve Martin, Garry Shandling, to name a few. And for Henry's Kitchen, the movie Spinal Tap was a huge inspiration – it's 90 minutes of grown adults trying so hard to be good at what they are passionate about, but failing epically at it. That to me is the perfect recipe for comedy. And when I was a kid, the way the film was marketed gave me the impression that Spinal Tap was a real heavy metal band. And then slowly, my friends and I figured it out: 'Wait, that's the guy from Laverne and Shirley,' and we realized we were watching a comedy masterpiece."
Upworthy: Which chefs inspire you?
Phillips: "This is going to be a major scandal, but I have to confess something: I know nothing about cooking. In fact, if I did learn anything about cooking, I think I would be out of a gig. But that said, I have to say that Anthony Bourdain was pretty cool. And I'll watch Gordon Ramsey's YouTube videos now and then. But I'm mostly inspired by the early YouTube cooking explainers, most of whom reside on the channel called Expert Village."
Upworthy: What did you think when you saw/heard Snoop had reposted one of your videos?
Phillips: "My friend texted me about it, and I thought for sure that he was joking. It just seemed like such a different world to cross paths with. He's cool, successful, has a massive following, and I'm basically the polar opposite of all those. But when I verified it, I was very excited, especially reading the comments, because it made me feel like I had done the 'Spinal Tap' thing that I had set out to do. Most of the people thought they stumbled on the worst chef on the Internet, while a few recognized that I was a jokester."