Gao Chao (right), the elder brother, plays a man and Gao Yue plays his soul in a sketch. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Gao Chao and Gao Yue secured third position in the comedy sketch competition.

Growing up in Qingdao in Shandong province, they began by imitating the skits on China Central Television's Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched TV program.

"We have loved watching the gala's comic performances since we were children. When we were in first grade, our mother started encouraging us to imitate the comedians. We would perform our skits at family reunions on festive occasions," Gao Chao says.

Later, the brothers competed in school talent shows and put on local performances. By fifth grade, they began studying with cross-talk performer Li Bingjie, learning to hone their comedic craft.

As they entered university in Liaoning province, they continued to spend all their time together and studied traditional performing arts while sharing the same dorm room, and putting on cross-talk performances at local theaters.

After graduation, Gao Chao tried his hand at part-time directing and scriptwriting jobs while Gao Yue took up acting roles in plays, mini-drama series and commercials.

Later, as the popularity of short videos grew, they began scripting, acting and editing funny short videos.

"We have both loved the same things since we were kids. We always dreamed of doing comedy but we didn't know which direction to take," says Gao Chao.

"Was making funny short videos doing comedy? I wasn't sure. We also felt that cross talk wasn't exactly what we wanted to do," he says.