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into-the-frisson: My Neighbor Totoro ft ( @amazingphil and @danisnotonfire)! Because I know they like Ghibli films and it makes me happy...
sleepyconscienceandcoffee: Now I’m just sitting here waiting for Dan’s tweet. Haha It gonna come at like midnight
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thephanattack: Jus thought some people would enjoy this.
chococat543: Merry Christmas guys! 🎄🎁 I made this Dan and Phil drawing with a bunch of 2015 references (if you get them your awesome). @...
sexyjacrispy: I FEEL LIKE IM GOING TO THROW UP IS THIS REAL LIFE *whspers* is this just fantasy
sexyjacrispy: I FEEL LIKE IM GOING TO THROW UP IS THIS REAL LIFE
emma–jayne: 1. I have no children. 2. I’m 35. 3. I’ve heard of Dan and Phil. 4. I’m a big fan of Dan and Phil. 5. This article annoyed...
![phillesteronabun:
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I paid £2.50 for the Sunday times, took out the magazine and binned the rest 😂
I’m sorry you paid to listen to a shitty interviewer being rude af: DAN AND PHIL
Seen
and nerd
MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Above: YouTubers Dan Howell (left)
and Phil Lester can now sell out arenas
like rock stars
DAN AND PHIL
A geeky pair of YouTube bloggers have topped
the autumn bestseller list with their debut
book. Eight million teens are addicted to their
channels. Josh Glancy meets the poster boys
of the great British vlogger boom
THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE 41
DAN AND PHIL
THE WHO? Dan and Phil - their in-jokes and "like" patois are all but impenetrable to anyone over the age of 25
here is an air of hushed
excitement outside when I arrive
at the arena an hour before the
evening in October. And the two
twentysomething British men are not rock
stars, but gawky YouTube bloggers called
Dan Howell and Phil Lester.
and Phil have the passion of One Directioners
or Beliebers (fans of Justin Bieber), but the
relationship is not just one of distant
obsession. Dan and Phil interact with their
fans, tweet them, answer their questions and
take on their challenges. For many of their
followers, Dan and Phil play the role of big
brother, agony aunt, newspaper columnist,
comedian and sex icon combined.
show begins. Groups of young
teenage girls mingle nervously,
cans of energy drink in one hand,
iPhones glued to the other. Blue
jeans and blue hair abound.
Unless you are an attentive parent of a
web-obsessed teenager or under 25, you are
unlikely to have heard of Dan and Phil,
whose online personas are Danisnotonfire
and AmazingPhil. But in internet-land
they are titans. Between them, they have
more than 4m Twitter followers and 8m
subscribers to their YouTube channels from
as far afield as the USA, the Philippines and
Indonesia. The pair have separate channels
but also collaborate regularly.
The figures don't do justice to their
almost cult-like influence. Followers of Dan
A voice calls from inside and
the girls snap into line, trooping
at speed into a VIP holding area, where free
Haribo and mineral water are provided.
Eventually, two young men walk in and the
Toom erupts with screaming, crying, a flood
of photos. "Oh, my God, you exist in real
life!" one fan shouts. The girls are completely
overwhelmed, yelping in excitement. The
organiser tells me that fainting is a
possibility, and assistants are on hand to
They have been around for a few years
now. Along with the likes of Alfie Deyes and
Zoella they were at the heart of what they
call the "great British vlogger boom" of 2013,
when several vloggers went from having
hundreds of thousands of followers to
millions in a matter of months. But until
recently, most members of the adult world,
who use the internet for ordering groceries
and checking the news, have continued to
ignore them.
Now, though, they are becoming
impossible to dismiss. Last month they
released a book, The Amazing Book Is Not
on Fire, a glimpse into their online world
and how it was created. Everyone in
publishing had expected Bill Bryson's latest
book to top the autumn bestseller list, >
"We are nerds. We are losers.
People like the fact that
somebody like them has
the audacity to put
calm them down if necessary.
This, I imagine, is what it felt like to
De the Beatles in 1965, or to be One Direction
today: world-famous megastars attracting
nordes of feverish young women every time
they land in New York or Los Angeles.
Except this is not Hollywood, but the
Plymouth Pavilions on a grey Tuesday
themselves out there"
THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE• 43
it was immediately beaten into second
place by the "amazing" book. Their debut
sold almost 50,000 copies in its first fortnight.
DAN AND PHIL
en and Phil are outperforming books by
Tom Jones, Sue Perkins and Steven Gerrard.
Vlogger books are the new frontier in
publishing. Last year, despite controversy
over whether she actually wrote it.
7oella's debut, Girl Online, became the
fastest-selling debut novel since records
began, shifting 78,109 copies in just one
reek. The 25-year-old fashion blogger from
Wiltshire sold as if she were JK Rowling.
Unsurprisingly, all the publishing houses
are eager for a piece of this new alchemy.
The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire doesn't
fit a conventional book format. It is partly
the story of Dan and Phil and partly trivia
about their lives, along with silly drawings,
games, emoji interviews and selfie reels. The
Catcher in the Rye it is not, but intelligent
children are devouring it nonetheless.
To accompany the book they have
developed a stand-up show and are touring
the country, filling theatres and arenas from
Belfast to Brighton. The unlikely princes of
new media are taking old media by storm.
This is what has brought me to Plymouth,
with a number of questions I want
answered. Who are these strange internet
geeks who are taking over the real world?
And how on earth do they do it?
WILD AT HEART "In real life we're likely to be watching Come Dine with Me"
They brush off my question
about what it feels like to
be unlikely sex idols by
claiming that their fans only
fancy them "ironically"
T
he Dan and Phil phenomenon is
undeniably huge, but as I arrive in
Plymouth I'm still slightly baffled
as to what their appeal actually is.
I watched several of their videos
ahead of the show. They are
quirky and eloquent, a paean to
internet wackiness, but they also
come across as fairly aimless, full
of creativity without direction and
smile around them, but it is difficult to believe
we are all about the same age. Spending most
of the past decade on YouTube has given
the internet generation would stop reading
printed books were wrong.
"This book appeals to all sorts," says
Zach, 16, one of only two boys amid a sea of
girls. "There are a lot of people I know who
them a Peter Pan-like quality; they come
across as a pair of overgrown teenagers.
"Watching Dan and Phil makes me
laugh, it makes me happy," says Shelby,
a 16-year-old with electric-blue hair and a
pierced septum. "They have a unique
connection with their audience. They act
humour without any depth.
A typical video might see the pair
attempt to apply make-up to one another's
faces while wearing a blindfold. They often
conduct "seven-second challenges",
submitted by fans, such as "name three
things you wouldn't have tattooed on your
body" or "spell Christmas backwards", which really casual with you, like you're all part of
they then have seven seconds to complete.
At the show, I asked some of the girls
what it is they like so much about their
idols. The most common response was that
they are dorky everymen with whom
teenagers can genuinely identify. They seem
to provide an online comfort blanket, a
refuge from the travails of adolescence.
I joined Dan and Phil backstage for a
while and found them unthreatening, clean-
cut, lovable and slightly irritating. Their
clothes are Topman, their hairstyles both
fiercely swept Bieber-esque fringes. Their
humour is also similar: a fusion of millennial their own special technique for how to paint party: Smartie Artie meets Michael Mclntyre
kookiness, "like" patois and David Brentian
irony. They work well together, generating a
bouncy positivity that makes it hard not to
would never ever read a book in their life
who have bought this. They've watched the
YouTube videos so they know what to
expect." Zach is in the long queue to meet
Dan and Phil, which involves a hug with the
pair, a quick selfie and then a furious session
of tweeting, Instagramming and
WhatsApping the picture to jealous friends.
It's only when I watch the show itself
that I understand quite what is going on
here. The entire thing is full of in-jokes from
their vlogs. Phil sits on a giant model lion,
Dan on a llama. The crowd emits an ear-
splitting shriek– apparently Dan has a thing
for llamas. Then they start acting out
seven-second challenges. I'm the same age
as Phil, 28, but I have never felt more
the same internet family." Shelby is part of
the sprawling, multi-platform Dan and Phil
online community. She has a special Twitter
account that she uses to discuss their work
with virtual fans all over the country.
"I love Dan and Phil because I can relate
to them," says Abby, a 14-year-old fan. “I just
like watching them so much. They're my
favourite YouTubers because they are more
personal, you can relate to them more."
Like many of the girls present, Abby has
cat whiskers painted on her face. This is a
Dan and Phil trademark - they demonstrate
appallingly middle-aged. The whole event
has the feel of a large children's birthday
What I quickly realise is that boring
adults aren't meant to get it. Indeed, the fact
they don't is part of the appeal. In the >
them in one of their videos. Almost
everyone is clutching a copy of Dan and
Phil's book, proof that those who thought
THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE• 45
same way that pop music confounded the
eardrums of mid-20th-century parents, fans
of Dan and Phil like the fact that this is their
DAN AND PHIL
world and the rest of us don't understand.
meet Dan and Phil properly the next
day at the offices of their publisher.
They are 24 and 28 respectively, but
when Dan describes my use of a pen to
take notes as "endearing", it feels like
ve are from different generations.
Texplain my struggle to understand
what it is they actually do on YouTube.
"There is a whole fanbase out
there that is specifically
passionate about me and Phil
and what we stand for"
Dan smiles knowingly. “Nobody
specifically passionate about me and Phil
and what we stand for," he says.
understands what YouTube is vet.
especially in the British media and public,"
represent the people who aren't cool," says
Dan. "We are nerds. We are losers. People
They are understandably coy about their like the fact that someone like them has the
ays. "The grandma that has Facebook
cees YouTube as this place where there are
ints of cat videos. But really it's a Wild West
frontier of independent creativity. For the
frst time in the world, you don't have
commissioning editors and channels and
budgets. People are just independently
doing whatever they want."
Dan Howell, a Berkshire native, is the
pin-up of the duo and turns up in a tight-
itting black leather jacket and black skinny
jeans. Phil Lester is older, a “YouTube
dinosaur". He started on the website in the
far-distant days of 2006 and was already a
regular vlogger when Dan messaged him
five years ago to ask for help with his own
video ambitions. Both were living in
Manchester at the time: Phil with his
parents, having just finished a master's in
video postproduction, and Dan in his first
year studying law at Manchester University.
"I wasn't making videos to get an
audience," says Phil. "I just saw it was a cool
thing that other people were doing. I was just
going to talk about my day and whack it on
there. It took a year to get 100 subscribers."
"Everybody who is at a big place these
days has been growing their channel for
years," says Dan, who describes his early
YouTubing as a "creative hobby with no
goal in sight", and claims success came to
him pretty much by accident.
Things moved faster once the pair began
collaborating regularly. Dan dropped out of
university and the pair gave themselves a
year to see if they could make a living out of
YouTube. In 2013 Radio 1 brought them in to
appeal to younger listeners and they quickly
found themselves reporting from the Brit
Awards - but YouTube has remained their
main focus until the recent book and tour.
"I like the book because it's a physical copy
of everything we've done on YouTube," says
Phil. "If we die in a meteor strike in 50 years,
it will still exist."
Phil may have started off as the master
earnings, but it's clear they haven't looked
back from their decision to try to make a
living off YouTube. Estimates put Dan's
wealth at £2m. Their main source of
YouTube income is simply from the
advertising on their videos – but sometimes
they also produce sponsored content.
This got them in trouble with the
Advertising Standards Agency (ASA)
recently, when it was decided they hadn't
made it clear to viewers that an Oreo
audacity to put themselves out there. We
spend all our time inside reading Harry
Potter and playing video games. We're the
faces of the losers at school. That's why Dan
and Phil are different to other people, who
look perfect, who are mainstream, with the
perfect teeth and the perfect hair."
They may share much of their lives with
millions of followers, but the rest is strictly
cordoned off. They live together in a flat in
London, but won't say where. They brush off
my question about what it feels like to be
unlikely sex idols by claiming that their fans
only fancy them "ironically". I ask Dan what
biscuit-licking competition was paid for by
the brand. The ads were banned. Dan and
Phil's friendliness recedes for a moment
when I bring it up. "Oh, for God's sake." savs
Dan. “Was there a controversy? It was another
element of misunderstanding, I think."
“There was no controversy because
there were no guidelines in place," says Phil.
"This was just the ASA deciding what the
rules should be. Everyone was, like,
"Great, now we know what to do."
"What we're annoyed by is that people
think there was an incident, but the story
was that nobody did anything wrong," adds
Dan. "The ASA were deciding what the rules
are, which is a good and necessary thing."
Has the bruising episode put them off
doing sponsored content? "I'm in the quite
lucky position where I don't have to do a lot
of sponsored content to support myself,"
says Dan. "I can take an opportunity if, for
whatever reason, I want to. But there are
he thinks about the persistent rumours that
he is gay. He references the actor Tom
Hardy's plea for privacy over the same issue.
"We don't talk about our private lives in any
way," he says. “Creatively, we want to be
apart from the people who are reality stars.
We don't want to be some Kardashian."
"In real life, we are more likely to be
playing video games or watching Come Dine
with Me than going to nightclubs, and they
[the fans] know that," adds Phil.
The pair are enjoying their tour, not least
because they "don't usually spend much
time outdoors". Next up they plan to take it
to Rio, Manila, Jakarta and America, where
their biggest fanbase resides. But what does
the future look like? Aren't they getting a bit
old for larking about on YouTube? I find it
hard to believe that these intelligent grown
men aren't starting to find it odd playing
entertainer to young teenage children.
"Never underestimate the intelligence of
a 12-year-old," says Dan, who claims that he
doesn't dumb down his content for younger
followers. "I'm having such a good time
right now," says Phil. "The exciting thing is,
no one knows what the future [for YouTubers]
is going to be. We're the first ones, we're like
the test subjects, to see what happens."
"Everything is brand new," adds Dan.
"Are the YouTubers going to jump on to TV?
Is TV going to implode into nothingness?
creators out there who literally survive off
sponsored content. So I think it's necessary."
YouTube is making them rich, but what
do they say to people who find their work
entertaining, but ultimately a bit pointless?
"It's just wrong," says Dan. "It's completely
wrong. It's understandable, people haven't
had that much exposure to YouTube. The
reason people like me is because I open up
about my opinion and my thoughts on
everything, from existentialism to whether
or not it's right to keep hamsters in cages."
"Even in our videos, we have fun in
some, but others have advice and messages,"
Literally, nobody knows. We're in a great
position, so we are going with the
flow. Confidently." I
The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire (Ebury
Press £16.99) is out now. To buy it for
£14.99, inc p&p, call 0845 271 2135 or visit
thesundaytimes.co.uk/bookshop
and Dan the apprentice, but in interviews, at says Phil. "A lot of it is reflecting what life is
least, it appears that Dan is in charge as he
ends up fielding almost every question,
brimming with an almost arrogant
ebullience about their achievements.
"There is a whole fanbase out there that is
like in school, or when starting university.
That kind of thing, coming from someone
who has experienced it, can help people."
I wonder what their own explanation is
for their seemingly insatiable appeal? "We
THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE• 47
phillesteronabun:
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I paid £2.50 for the Sunday times, took out the magazine and binned the rest 😂
I’m sorry you paid to listen to a shitty interviewer being rude af](https://pics.me.me/thumb_dan-and-phil-seen-and-nerd-magical-mystery-tour-above-64646937.png)
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