Comedy's Scrappiest All-Stars

RDC World turned its funny videos into a content empire. Now Hollywood is calling for the group's 29-year-old mastermind.

- HERSHAL PANDYA

THE SCENE OPENS on a kitchen in a suburban home. A Popeyes employee (Leland Manigo) wearing an apron stands behind the breakfast bar and politely takes an order from a customer (John Newton). The restaurant supervisor, played by Mark Phillips, cannot abide this respectful conduct. He shoves the employee aside and steps in to berate the customer while purposely botching his order. He flies off the handle and fires another employee (Ben Skinner) for having the audacity to use tongs. "This ain't no five-star restaurant-this is Popeyes," he yells, his eyes bulging. "Pick it up with your hands!" Only the restaurant's drive-through attendant (Desmond Johnson) meets Phillips's exacting standards for customer contempt-by challenging the person on the other side of his headset to a fistfight.

With over 28 million views, "How Popeyes Be Training They Employees" is the most-watched sketch on RDCWorld's (an acronym for "Real Dreams Change the World") popular YouTube channel. Over the past 11 years, the seven-person collective has become a rising comedy empire whose videos have amassed nearly 1.4 billion views. Phillips is front and center in all of them, contorting his face into looks of disbelief and exasperation-a walking, talking reaction GIF of a punch line. The 29-year-old-who writes the group's sketches-is RDC's driving force creatively and operationally. "I always had a pretty clear vision," says Phillips, who is more gregarious in person than his fast-food drill sergeant. It's the day after the 2023 Streamy Awards, and his voice is hoarse from celebrating the group's win for Comedy. We're sitting in the living room of a penthouse Phillips shares with the rest of the group, one of two rentals in the same West Hollywood building.