The Rise and Fall of Shane Dawson
Shane Dawson has had a vast career on YouTube since he started his main channel in September 2005. He started doing sketch comedy videos and music. Then, in 2008, he created his. ‘Shane Dawson TV’ channel, where he continued to upload longer-form sketches and short films. Then, in November 2019, he created a third channel, ‘ShaneGlossin’, where he uploaded only 6, more personal videos. In this time, Dawson has changed his style of content many times.
A Pattern Emerges:
The change of style of Dawson’s content always coincides with a controversy that he lands in. The pattern is this: he gets called out for something he did (or “cancelled”), apologizes (sometimes takes time away from the channel too), and returns with a completely different style of content.
Shane starts in 2005, posting comedy sketches and music. He then posts an apology in 2014 where he apologises for previous offensive videos. Following this, he changes his content. We can see this new style of content branded with colourful backgrounds, most notably yellow, to his thumbnails, as well as filming solely in his kitchen.
This then changes at the end of 2017/beginning of 2018 when he finds himself in hot water when clips of him resurface making jokes about paedophilia. The last video with a colourful background to the thumbnail was posted on November 22nd, 2017.
We see this pattern repeated twice more. He starts making more long-form content on his channel after the previous controversy. These included some documentary-style and conspiracy theory videos.
This ended, however, as old podcast clips and videos resurface in 2019. These include jokes about him assaulting his cat, as well as more old jokes with poor taste. After his apology, we see another change in his style of content, beauty related, after filming a documentary series with notorious YouTuber and make-up industry mogul Jeffree Star.
This was shortlived, as he was involved in the drama surrounding beauty YouTubers James Charles and Tati Westbrook. He was accused of lying about Charles in order to bring down his career, His most recent apology is the last video he posted on his channel, so it seems like this is finally the end for Dawson.
Conclusion: Natural Progression or Distraction Technique?
It is clear from this that Dawson has a habit of changing his style of content often and this almost always coincides with his controversies. Whether this is the natural progression of his content as he grows and changes as a person or uses the changes in content as a distraction technique to make us forget about the controversy surrounding him we will never know. The fact that this has happened so many times doesn't strike me as a coincidence. He can change his content but he can never change his actions.
