About

Shane Dawson (born Shane Yaw) is an American YouTube actor and comedian. In the beginning of Dawson's YouTube career he was best known for making comedy videos featuring many recurring characters, including Shananay, Ned the Nerd, S. Deezy, Mom and Aunt Hilda. Additionally, Dawson was frequently known to impersonate various celebrities and uploads comedy skits parodying music videos and television shows. He is now best know for his docu-series' and conspiracy videos.

History

On March 10th, 2008, the ShaneDawsonTV YouTube^[1] channel was created. Many of the early videos have since been deleted, which included various high school assignments. The earliest remaining video was uploaded on July 2nd, 2008, featuring a comedy skit in which Dawson has a mock conversation with a Kermit the Frog sock puppet (shown below).

On September 12th, 2008, Dawson uploaded a video mocking YouTuber Lucas Cruikshank titled "Fred Is Dead" (shown below, left). Over the next 10 years, the video accumulated more than 24.8 million views and 55,400 comments. On June 20th, 2009, a comedy sketch video title "Lady Gaga Is Trying to Kill Me!" was uploaded to the channel, garnering upwards of 12.1 million views and 27,000 comments in nine years (shown below, right).

On March 31st, 2012, Dawson released a music video for the song "Superluv," garnering more than 15.3 million views and 136,000 comments over the next six years (shown below, left). On September 20th, 2013, a parody of the music video for the song "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus was uploaded to the channel. Within five years, the video gained over 34.5 million views and 33,400 comments (shown below, right).

From 2013 to 2016 Dawson concentrated on personal pursuits outside of his YouTube channel. On June 5th, 2013, he introduced the "Shane and Friends" podcast. On April 4th, 2014, Dawson announced that he had directed and starred in a comedy film and on June 26th, he announced that the film would be titled "Not Cool." In 2015 and 2016, Dawson released two memoirs. The first, "I Hate Myselfie: A Collection of Essays" and the second "It Gets Worse: A Collection of Essays"^[6][7]

In 2017, He collaborated with other YouTubers like boyfriend Ryland Adams, Garrett Watts, Morgan Adams, Tana Mongeau, James Charles, Drew Monson, Andrew Siwicki, Trisha Paytas and Bunny Meyer (shown below).

On June 28th, Shane Dawson released a video titled "The Truth About Tanacon," in which he discussed the history of the convention (shown below, left). The following day, a second video about the event was released, titled "The Truth About Tana Mongeau" (shown below, right).

On July 2nd, 2018, Dawson released the final video in the series titled "The Real Truth About Tanacon" (shown below). Over the next week, the videos accumulated upwards of 10.6 million, 9.7 million and 7.1 million views respectively.

On August 1st, 2018, Shane continued the documentary format and covered internet sensation Jeffree Star in a five-part series called "The Secret World of Jeffree Star" garnering 70 million views in the first two weeks (shown below).

On September 21st, 2018, Shane Dawson released the trailer for his eight-part documentary series The Mind of Jake Paul. The trailer mostly shows the stress and confusion he experienced while make the film. Within three days, the trailer received more than 5.3 million views (shown below). The series debuted on September 25th, 2018.

On September 28th, Shane took to snapchat to apologized for sensationalizing a mental illness^[8] (shown below).

On October 18th, 2018, many people took to Twitter using the hashtag #shanedawsonisoverparty to respond negatively to his Jake Paul series (shown below).

Makeup Collaboration

On December 12th, 2018, Shane took to Instagram Stories to share some eyeshadow palettes he had purchased from Jeffree Star's brand for "research" purposes, before revealing all about their collaboration. "I'm actually doing research because you guys know that me and Jeffree were talking about doing some kind of a palette together."^[9]

Conspiracy Series

On January 18th 2019, Shane Dawson uploaded a trailer to YouTube for a new docu-series called "Conspiracy Series." "The trailer doesn’t reveal too many details about its subject. What it does reveal, however, is that the mysterious person Dawson investigates in the series’ first installment, a two-part “special edition” episode, is worrisome enough that longtime Dawson collaborator and editor Andrew Siwicki tells him it’s a good thing he has security cameras at his house."^[12] The trailer gained 7,738,492 views and 900K likes in four days (shown below).

On the week of the 30th, Twitter users expressed their excitement (shown below).

Collaboration with Jeffree Star

On March 7th, 2019, Shane Dawson^[13] posted an update to Twitter which gained 16,900 retweets and 193,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The note attached explained that he has been filming a series with Jeffree Star. He also hinted at more series in the works in the next seven months (shown below).

That day, Twitter user @youtubeismee^[14] asked shane, "Wait so his next video is in 7 months?" and Dawson answered with "haha no! there will be stuff on my channel in the next couple months. just letting you know we are filming one of the series over the course of 7 months" (shown below). The response gained 1,900 retweets and 57,000 likes in a day.

Controversies

Pedophilia Rumors

On July 1st, 2013, the third episode of Dawson's podcast "Shane and Friends" was released, in which Dawson can be heard joking about searching for "naked babies" and attempts to provide a justification for pedophilia (shown below at 7:20).

In January 2018, tweets mocking and condemning the comments began circulating on Twitter, with some accusing him of being a pedophile (shown below).

On January 10th, Dawson uploaded a video titled "Regarding the rumors about me today," in which he addressed the rumors, beginning by loudly yelling "I am not a fucking pedophile!" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gathered upwards of 3.7 million views and 160,000 comments.

Racial Controversy

In 2012, Shane performed in Blackface at VidCon. On September 25th, 2014, Shane uploaded an apology video that gained 1,594,711 views and 82,000 likes in four years (shown below).

Reception

By September 2011, his main YouTube channel was ranked the fifth most subscribed channel of all time, behind Ray William Johnson, Nigahiga, Smosh, and Machinima.com. In November 2009, Dawson was featured on Attack of the Show! In 2010, Forbes magazine named him their 25th most famous web celebrity.Since 2017, he maintains one active channel, shane, which is one of the 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels with 19 million subscribers and over 4 billion views.

Personal Life

Dawson was born on July 19th, 1988 and grew up in Long Beach, California. Dawson's have announced that he suffers from body dysmorphic disorder in October 2014 (shown below, left) and came out as bisexual in July 2015 (shown below, right).

Engagement to Ryland Adams

On March 19th, 2019, Dawson^[14] tweeted about his 3rd anniversary with Ryland Adams (shown below, left). The tweet gained 12,246 retweets and 252,263 likes in a day. Later that night he^[15] tweeted pictures of himself proposing to Adams with the caption "He said yes!!" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 171,637 retweets and 876,751 likes within the first day (shown below, right).

Soon after @jamescharles^[16] and @MrBeast^[18] responded congratulating the couple with each reply gaining over 20,000 likes in the first day (shown below).

The proposal occurred only a few days after Shane Dawson's cat sexual abuse controversy. Many Twitter users incorporated a cat joke in their reaction to the proposal announcement. The op reply on Dawson's Proposal announcement was posted by @jakegrnr which included a GIF of Dawson sticking his face in a dog's crotch (shown below). The post gained over 15,000 likes and 1,500 retweets in a few hours.

The next day, Twitter users began parodying the cat's feelings towards the engagement. Twitter user @rahxrahbitxh posted a video of a goth cat furry (shown below).

On March 20th, @isaiahhzion^[19] posted a picture of a sad cat looking at a phone with the caption "Shane Dawson’s cat seeing all the engagement photos on twitter" (shown below, left). @poopycowboy^[20] created a scenario of Dawson's cat seducing Dawson when Ryland leaves the house (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References