Overview

Shane Dawson Cat Sexual Abuse Controversy refers to a joke about sexually abusing a cat that Shane Dawson made on his podcast Shane and Friends in 2015. The jokes frequently use the style from Dawson's first tweet of a series in which he denies the allegations, using the template "i didnt fuck my cat. i didnt cum on my cat."

Background

On March 17th, 2019, Twitter user @clikkiewstr tweeted a clip of the sexual cat abuse joke with the caption "can we just stop supporting shane dawson? to me black face pedophila or BEASTIALITY is never a joke" (shown below). The tweet gained 745 retweets and 2,575 likes in a day.

A copy of the podcast clip is shown below.

I found the audio!! Shane Dawson came on his cat! WTF!!!!! This was on his podcast pic.twitter.com/6slFQRxIeE

— Sandwich Ruler (@magician_dragon) March 17, 2019

Developments

On March 17th, Shane Dawson^[1] tweeted eight times in defense of his joke. The first tweet, "i didnt fuck my cat. i didnt cum on my cat. i didnt put my dick anywhere near my cat. Ive never done anything weird with my cats. I promised myself i wasnt going to make apology videos after last years thing so im just trying to be as short and honest with this as possible (1/?)," received 10,504 replies, 16,562 retweets and 152,269 likes in a day (shown below, left). His second tweet addressed that he has apologized for shock-value jokes in the past (shown below, right).

The next two tweets to follow explained why he said the joke in the first place. He tweeted, "that story was fake and was based on a dumb awful sketch idea I had years ago that i never made" (shown below, left). He continued to write that, "its embarrassing and i fucking hate myself for it" (shown below, right).

Shane Dawson listed the parts of his career that he is proud of and writes: "insensitive jokes are something that still haunt me and something I have to be faced with everyday on the internet" (shown below).

Finally he writes that he is sorry for his past and wants to make it right (shown below).

That same night, Fellow YouTuber and friend Garrett Watts^[2] tweeted a long note about Dawson trending (shown below). In the note he writes that Dawson is "thoughtful" and "kind-hearted" and compared Dawson's previous sense of humor to that of South Park The tweet gained 7,468 retweets and 63,300 likes in a day.

Many other friends of Dawson addressed the trending material that night. Andrew Siwicki^[3] who is Dawson's partner in making Conspiracy Theory Documentaries wrote:"@shanedawson is a popular creator who makes great content. Does the internet think it’s not possible for him to be a good person as well? Because he is the most sincere, caring, accepting, down-to-earth person I’ve ever met. Sorry to ruin some people’s day but it is what it is." The tweet gained 8,500 retweets and 84,400 likes in a day (shown below, left). His tweet was followed by another saying, "This Shane Twitter stuff is the greatest display of misplaced energy I’ve ever seen. This is not hot tea. This is not warm tea. This is old, recycled, artificial, frozen tea. Really? Out of all the people to try n cancel?? For an old, edgy, throwaway joke? I can’t" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 6,300 retweets and 57,100 likes in a day.

Online Reaction

On March 17th, 2019, Twitter user @dceuking^[6] tweeted, "i can’t believe i have to say this, but stanning someone that FUCKED HIS CAT, used the n-word, used blackface, defends pedophilia, and consistently uses real life tragedies to create/promote conspiracy theories is WRONG. #CancelShaneDawson #ShaneDawsonIsOverParty" (shown below, left). The tweet gained 55 retweets and 156 likes in a day. Many twitter users responded to the controversy with the hashtag #ShaneDawsonIsOverParty in to denounce Dawson's actions and call to cancel him. That same day @forcebonding^[4] tweeted "i tried checking the #ShaneDawsonIsOverParty tag to see what happened but everyone is just promoting their favs so i still don’t know what’s going on" (shown below, right). This tweet gained 500 likes in a day and was in reference to many tweets calling to unfollow Dawson and sharing examples of other people they are fans of.

On March 18th, Twitter user @ohgodjohnwhy tweeted about the silent reaction many of Dawson fans have to his controversial past (shown below).

That day @Lostface101^[5] and many others tweet about the hypocrisy of those denouncing Dawson's behavior (shown below). There were many positive responses to Dawson's apology tweets agreeing that the past is in the past.

Parodies

On March 17th, many Twitter users began creating parodies of Shane Dawson's initial tweet^[1]. Twitter user @trivksterloki^[11] substituted Tom Hiddlestons name in for "cat." (shown below, left). The tweet gained 211 likes in a day. @McJesse^[7] created a Schrodinger parody (shown below, right). The tweet gained 460 like in a day.

That same day, @ThomasBeautyy^[8] rearranged and and added a copypasta from Ru Paul's Drag Race to Dawson's Tweet (shown below, left). The tweet gained 347 retweets and 2,408 likes in a day. Twitter user @jennifermerr^[9] turned Dawson's tweet to a cursive design aesthetic-like image (shown below, right). The image gained 1,400 retweets and 18,200 likes in a day.

Other Twitter users such as @PinkyRIP^[10] and @SayFuzzyPickleZ^[12] substituted character names for "cat" in the Dawson tweet and attached images of the character (shown below).

Search Interest

External References