So a few days ago Shane Dawson starting trending for two different subjects. First, he was trending for a very "Old Shane" joke that he made over three years ago in a podcast. Then after three years, two homes, three animals, and many many discussions of children and marriage he (finally) proposed to his boyfriend Ryland and told the world about it. This has left many people in contrast over the already controversial Youtuber. What exactly were his intentions?
Intentions: TO PROPOSE TO THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE AND GET MARRIED AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, AFTER THREE YEARS OF DATING THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE AND ONE DAY (HOPEFULLY SOON)THE FATHER OF HIS CHILDREN.
I have been a hardcore Shane Dawson subscriber and fan since his OG youtube days so I think it is a fair thing to say that I can speak to the evolution of Shane Dawson. I can also speak to the fact that he is in no way the villain that the twitter trolls have continued over the year to make him out to be.
So here are the facts about the twitter attempt number infinity to cancel Shane, in 2015 Shane Dawson among many jokes that were graphic in nature pre-political correctness season on one of his own podcasts about actions done to his cat. Disgusting, vulgar, and definitely not funny. However was it true? No.
Shane in 2015 was a shotgun style comic. Like many comedians and beloved sitcoms 90s-2015ish nothing was off limits. Any kind of joke was up for grabs and the funny part of it all was nobody got too mad about it. That is until the last couple of years when Twitter takedowns really became a thing. Then all the sudden things that were said years ago and recorded have become the nail in the coffin to totally ruin a person's character and no amount of apologies videos or years can really ever erase it. Honestly, it's a real shame that many people just read the headlines or don't even really delve into the person and many make shotgun decisions on the fact that a person cannot truly apologize or even change or grow as a person because they are in the public eye. Anyways let's talk about Shane and the fact that he is, in fact, human who is not immune to change, growth, and real human emotion.
The Shane Dawson in the beginning years of Youtube was in no way the making video exposing the character of other controversial figures on Youtube, making in-depth conspiracy videos, or the online philanthropist/Ellen that he has become today. Shane was not vulnerable or really real in the past on his channel. The first times he was really honest and real would be his coming out video and when he discussed his eating disorder. Other times were usually quick sketches that were funny jokes and strange situational/stereotypical sketches (that I myself enjoyed) sometimes fake or about his life. His original channel was, in fact, Shane Dawson TV, meaning that all of it was intended for entertainment and comedy purposes and not to be taken too egregiously serious.
His characters were usually aside from when he did play himself or had an actor play himself were largely fictitious. Alike most character sketches or theater/improve techniques characters were created some following some sort of stereotype. When he created the Shane Dawson it was a step towards a more real Shane with more vlog style videos. However, Shane was not happy with his content or how frequent the videos were rolling out with streamlined content. The Shane Dawson of 2019 is not that same shotgun comic who had no care for how his jokes landed as many comics who have a similar style of jokes some of which have not stopped that style in today's climate. At least Shane has actively changed his comedy style like many comedians have and have actively and continuously apologized for it.
Here are some comedians that have made some pretty damning jokes and many of which stated that they understand they were insensitive and apologized, some, however, did not, feel free to look it up: Weird Al Yankovic, Paul Sheer, Sasheer Zamata, Patton Oswalt, Amy Schumer, Jeff Ross, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Chelsea Handler, (obviously) Joan Rivers (RIP), (more obvious) Howard Stern, Dane Cook, Daniel Tosh, Kevin Hart, etc. etc. etc. It is a never-ending list since comedians are always quite literally playing the joke lottery and hoping that each one is the winner and not a boo off the stage. I believe in political correctness, I believe in canceling people who truly have not changed, but I do not believe in holding celebrities or people in public eye like Shane to an inhuman standard in which they "should have known better," "once a this always a this," "apologies don't fix anything" (that one is the worst since that is quite literally the intent of an apology.), or "people don't change when...."
Anyways people make mistakes and people have done things in their past or made bad jokes in their past. The main difference between us and them is that they are in the public eye and are constantly under surveillance. Think of it in this regard, 2015 was four years ago, so in that time frame would you say that you have changed? Four years ago for me, I was a senior in high school, I thought I was going to go out of state to have the craziest college experience, exercised excessively, didn't care for myself, and would soon become a hotshot screenwriter, easy stuff. Now, I am working a different dream job, taking a semester off school (something I never thought I would do), coping with an autoimmune disease, and have learned self love the hard way. I have a new appreciation for myself in four years time and never want to be that person of the past. If you are not changing and growing you really are not challenging yourself and becoming a better version of yourself.
Shane Dawson has grown as a person in four years time. He met the love of his life, starting learning how to love himself and his job even more than before. He started to make content to inspire and show new themes of real life instead of make-believe. Another bright spot is that we got to see more of his real life through Ryland's eyes as well. We learned about the real Shane and not only about the character we saw on his channel or in any HBO series that spawned "Not Cool." His engagement to Ryland should be no surprise to anyone. If you watch either of their channels you would have known it was coming sooner rather than later as they have been together for three years, bought their dream home together, and have been talking about children and spending their lives together. So to those trolls, naysayers, pessimistic people that are likely to continue trying to cancel him, it is true love get over it you lonely single pringle and for a moment from your hunched over position behind the keyboard think before you type. The amount of unoriginal tweets I've seen is rather uninspiring try something else, it is not working. We are in the year of the pig everyone. Sip Sip. Enjoy the tea sisters.
@Shanedawson Instagram
@Shanedawson Instagram
@Shanedawson Instagram