David Dobrik

About

David Dobrik is a Solvak-born YouTuber, creator and influencer. Coming to public prominence in 2013, Dobrik started his influencer career on Vine before moving to YouTube. Since then, he's appeared on television shows and commercials and. In 2019, he launched the photo-sharing application Dispo.

History

In April 2013, David Dobrik launched a Vine channel.^[1] Dobrik's early videos, like many on Vines, consisted of a mix of one-person comedic sketches and ones featuring his friends and collaborators (examples below). Additionally, Dobrik began posting sports highlights and clips on a variety of channels. Business Insider^[2] says that around this "Dobrik estimates he was making $1,500 to $2,000 a month." Within his first year on the platform, Dobrik amassed more than 100,000 followers.

Dobrik began collaborating with other creators, and on July 23rd, 2014, he launched a Vine collective collaboration channel called "Second Class." His work on YouTube began with Second Class, with his first featured video ("David Dobrik's ASK VIDEO!!") publishing on July 30th, 2014. The video received more than 209,000 views in less than seven years (shown below, left).

On February 15th, 2015, Dobrik posted his first YouTube video. His first video ("Cool Intro") received more than 4 million views in less than seven years (shown below, right).

The channel, however, shifted focus later that year. Instead of comedy sketches, Dobrik began vlogging. These vlogus retained some of the comedic sensibilities of his Vine videos, while also keeping the runtime short, which was uncommon for YouTube vloggers at the time. His first vlog, "PUTTING A PUPPY INTO THE MICROWAVE!!," published on July 30th, 2015, received more than 12 million views in less than six years (shown below). 13 months later, Dobrik amassed more than 1 million subscribers on the channel.

In 2016, Dobrik launched a second channel: David Dobrik Too. Released on September 4th, 2016, the earliest available video on the channel "VERY INAPPROPRIATE PO BOX OPENING!! (ft. Liza Koshy)" received more than 7 million views in less than six years (shown below). According to the page's About section, the channel is a space for video that include his collaborators, not vlogs.

Dispo

On June 15th, 2019, David Dobrick posted his first photograph on his secondary Instagram^[4] account @davidsdisposable. The page features photographs from one of Dobrick's disposable cameras. The post received more than 176,000 likes in less than one year (shown below).

On December 21st, 2019, the application David's Disposable launched on Apple's App Store.^[5] Over the next year, developers continued to work on the application, which would eventually come to be known as Dispo. On February 25th, 2021, the app entered public beta.^[4]

The following week, on March 1st, Dobrik's alternate YouTube account David Dobrik Too published an advertisement for the app. The video, which features Dobrik heavily made up to appear elderly reviewing photographs while crying, received more than 2 million views in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Reputation

Seth Francois Sexual Abuse Allegations

On February 13th, 2021, YouTuber Seth Francois, a former collaborator with Dobrik, appeared on the H3H3 Productions podcast, where he accused Dobrik of sexual abuse and racism. During the interview, he said that a prank performed by Dobrik on Francois amounted to sexual abuse. The video in question, "HE THOUGHT HE WAS KISSING HER!! (SUPER CRINGEY)," sees Dobrik pranking Francois into thinking he's kissing one member of the Vlog Squad (Corinna), when in reality he is kissing another (Nash, in disguise).^[3]

Francois said that he did not give consent to kiss Nash and felt uncomfortable with the sketch. He says that he called a sexual assault hotline who confirmed that he had been sexually assaulted. He said:

They said it directly to me. They said, 'I'm sorry you were sexually assaulted.' And I broke down," Francois said. "I called my mother and some of my close friends and I said, 'I can't believe that happened to me.'"

Francois also says that he was singled out as the only person of color in the videos and felt compelled to engage with videos and jokes that make racist jokes, which he feels uncomfortable with. He says that he felt uncomfortable speaking out against these sketches, fearing that he would be removed from the group. Hwoever, these video inspired fans to engage in racist behavior, like editing images of his face on to images of fried chicken. "I was at a breaking point, thinking, Maybe it's just my friends and they're not really tasteful. Maybe it's my job to educate them," he said.

I had fans on my page putting my face on pieces of fried chicken -- stuff that was pretty disgraceful," he said. "I was at a breaking point, thinking, Maybe it's just my friends and they're not really tasteful. Maybe it's my job to educate them."

Search Interest

External References