What is the Valentine's Day Video?

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Image  What is the Valentine's Day Video?  Image

The Valentine's Day video was a video that Phil uploaded privately to his second channel, LessAmazingPhil, on 13 February 2010, while Dan was on holiday in India. It is ostensibly a Valentine's Day gift for Dan, in which Phil describes his favorites memories of times they've shared together.

A transcript of the video can be found on phantaray.tumblr.com.

After the video was uploaded, Dan commented on it and Phil replied:

Transcription of comments:
danisnotonfire:
awrf :'o
i wasn’t expecting this :):)
this means so much to me :'|
you’ve made me the happiest i’ve ever been in my life phil, and i want to be with you for as long as you want me to be <3
i love you.
thankyou :')
  • LessAmazingPhil:
    forever plz
    :] <3
The video remained private for a year and a half, until 17 September 2011, when a YouTube glitch rendered it public. Dan and Phil's fans saw the video and assumed it was real.

Could YouTube really have had a glitch like that?
Yes. At the time of the glitch, YouTube was having a lot of glitches and problems where videos weren't showing up in subscription boxes. It seems likely that unprivating glitch was related to these general technical issues YouTube was having.

And there is proof that the glitch where YouTube made certain users' private videos public on 17th September was a thing that really happened. For example, here is a tweet from a random person (not a YouTuber or anything) from the day of the Voldy unprivating, complaining about their private videos being made public:

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There are also other similar tweets from that day, if you search.

And here is some evidence about YouTube glitches in general, found by spider:
spider wrote:Don't know about back then but Youtube had and continues to have glitches. Only a few months ago Markiplier experienced the same glitch and had this video unprivated.

"Well this is embarrassing... STORY TIME!! This is an OLD video for a brand deal that fell through last year. I had actually forgotten that this video existed until YouTube bugged out and set a couple private videos to public."

How did Dan and Phil respond to the initial unprivating (17 September 2011)?
Here is a timeline I have put together, based a lot of digging into tweets and tumblr posts from that day. I haven't included many "receipts" because it was a long time ago and I don't want to throw a spotlight on anyone who was involved who might not want to be dragged into it. But if you want any more details, feel free to pm me! (All times are in UK time)
  • Around 12:45 PM - The video was unprivated.
  • As of 3 PM, Deppy were still seemingly ignorant of the unprivating, as Phil calmly tweeted another YouTuber about how "a few people" seem to be having subscription box issues and he hopes hers are resolved soon.
  • 3:40 PM - The video was deleted from YouTube, so we can assume that that's approximately when Deppy found out about it.
    Before 3:58 PM - Dan posted two replies to a Tumblr post containing the link to the video. His replies basically said that the video was made to troll people but they decided not to upload it.
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  • 3:57 PM - Dan tweeted something innocuous about playing Mario Kart (presumably to flood people's timelines with replies to that, rather than any discussion of the video).
  • About 4:15 PM - Dan replied to a tweet about Voldy, saying something like "no" (though I can't figure out what exactly he said, and he may have deleted that tweet quite quickly).
  • By 4:37 PM - Dan had DM'd the person who downloaded the video, asking her to take down all links and stop sharing it. (So like, while publicly he was tweeting normal fun stuff about playing Mario Kart, he was privately tracking down who exactly downloaded the video and ensuring that it didn't spread any farther.)
  • About 5:30 PM - Dan tweeted another harmless tweet, which said- phil: *bursts into the room* "What's wrong??!!" dan: "...i was singing the ketchup song.." phil: "i thought you were having a stroke."
  • About 9:00 PM - Dan made his "Truth or Dare" video available to watch (it had been uploaded a while ago, but apparently there was some kind of problem where you could only watch it if you had an account? So he finally fixed that).
  • About 9:15 PM - Dan went on Vyou and answered a bunch of questions for the next two hours.
  • 10:04 PM - (six hours after Deppy presumably figured out about the unprivating), Phil broke his silence, so to speak, tweeting about a weird ad on Facebook:
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    And he replied to five tweets -
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How did Dan and Phil respond the second time the video leaked (31 October 2012)?
Initially, Deppy's efforts to squash discussion and sharing of the video were largely successful - the first leak didn't gain widespread attention in the phandom, and knowledge of the video remained under the radar for about a year. The Vday video did not actually become well-known in the phandom until it leaked a second time, on 31 October 2012. It was reuploaded by someone, and began to spread through the Tumblr tags, causing, to put it lightly, a major shitstorm.

This time, Dan addressed rumors/discussion of the video on his tumblr, and on his recently-created customerservicedepartment tumblr blog:

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megangorex asked:
Daniel I’m afraid to ask, but I’m going to. I’m slightly fairly new to the Phandom and I’ve heard nothing about this Valentine’s Day video until now. I completely respect that it is a video that was taken down a long time ago and shouldn’t have been circulating a few days ago, but I just don’t get the joke in it. What… is it, exactly? *braces for Dan to hate me forever*


danisnotonfire:
the joke is the whole thing. we we’re going to ‘accidentally unprivate it’ on april fools day and watch all the shippers poop themselves and explode then in phil’s next video go ‘PRANK’D U!!!! ahahahahahaha’ but then we decided it’d be too mean and it wouldn’t go down well so we didn’t

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xyz asked:
(6) I just want you to know that IF you are still a couple (or whatever you were back in the days) I hope you know that all of your fans will love you forever and it won’t change a thing. And if you’re not as close anymore or have turned that thing from the past in a friendship then that’s fine too. As long as you’re happy we’re happy. No one is going to judge you. But I fear despite your ask title you would judge me so I made this account to tell you all of that. I love you guys :] Bye. <3


danisnotonfire:
okay right. i promise to be polite but you have NO IDEA how INFURIATING this is. we ARE NOT and NEVER WERE dating. okay?! the valentines video was a prank!! 'formspring answers' 'skype pictures' - they don't prove anything! it's just what you want to believe. people always ask me why me and phil don't joke around like chris and pj or other people do when we’re shipped together and the answer is we used to until people started taking it too far. the truth and reality is clouded by your craving for it to be real but it's not. we are two p-l-a-t-o-n-i-c friends who used to joke around like anyone else would without a second thought until we decided the Internet is too creepy. and the reason i get so defensive is that when people like you (no offense) exist it shows there is a network of people effectively spreading lies about me behind my back. and if i don’t respond, what’s stopping the majority thinking it’s true? it just isn’t. you have no idea how ridiculous the idea of 'phan' is to our friends and everyone we know in real life especially considering no one on the internet has any idea about our private life or what we do when we aren’t online. it really annoys me and phil and honestly it has changed how we act on the internet after seeing what people think. please show this answer to anyone else who thinks the same as you because it really stresses out about secret crazy shippers as well as all the other stresses of life. thank you!

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Anonymous asked:
Just thought you should get a warning that people are having a minor dilemma over the new years video, and a ‘secret’ valentines video that may/may not exist. I feel for you Dan, I really do. I mean, it’s basically all irrelevant to your life in general, and having to acknowledge/explain such things must be tedious, but I thought I’d provide you with an ask that isn’t “OMG U PHIL KISS WAT” to address the situation, that is, if you want to. :)


customerservicedepartment:
Oh my god you spoon we made that video to troll people but didn’t make it public as it’d have caused an alpacalypse that would have never ended. *facepalm* As for the video Georgie filmed at new year.. do you actually think we would kiss in a room full of people if we were secretly gay for each other? No it as pretty bloody obvious I was talking to him in a loud room. I know that unlike Larry, Phan shippers have to desperately cling to any moment we make eye contact to convince themselves they aren’t wasting their time, but unfortunately they’re wrong.

:D

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xyz asked:
Heyy So theres some drama going on the dan and phil tags and i d k what the hell is going on something about a thing called the 'Valentines video'? Do you have any idea?


customerservicedepartment:
yay tumblr tags!! for the fifty billionth time. *bangs head against desk* back in the prehistoric era when youtubers first started finding out about slash fiction, me and phil thought it'd be funny to april fools people with a video confessing our undying love for each other. however we then decided it would be a bad idea to be mean to people and so phil never unprivated it. however one day youtube just casually unprivated it without phil noticing and a bunch of people took it seriously. if you really think phil would upload something to youtube and it's real you are tremendously dense.

look. i really don't have enough time or fucks to give about any of this. i know that some of you that ship phan desperately cling to the most ridiculous crap to try and prove that i'm secretly bumming my friend, but i'm not. whatever conclusions you've come to are wrong. it isn't real and it never will be and yes it's a bit annoying so everyone causing drama is doing it unnecessarily and everyone rabidly foaming all over the internet trying to prove teh phan is reelz!1! is wasting their time and should probably get a better hobby. that is all :]

~back to liffeeee back to realityy~

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xyz asked:
please could you explain the valentines day video?


danisnotonfire:
we made it as a prank to troll the creepy shippers and we we’re gonna ‘accidentally unprivate it’ on april fool’s day - but then we thought it’d be a bit mean and people wouldn’t get the joke (as everyone kind of proved with that photo of me and bryony the other week) but then youtube legitly accidentally unprivated it and now a bunch of insane dumbwads actually think it’s real. haha (i mean seriously how stupid do you have to be to think phil would upload that to amazingphil if he wanted it to be private *headdesk)
Was there a "second Valentine's day video"?
The rumor of a "second video" of a romantic nature that was unprivated at the same time as the infamous Vday Video is a persistent one.

It seems almost certain that indeed, the YouTube glitch did cause more than one private LessAmazingPhil video to be made public. Here are tweets from the day of the first unprivating that link to the URL youtube.com/watch?v=ioAmF2OLCP0, which is different from Voldy's URL (youtube.com/watch?v=C7pdhZ1HHfc):

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The comment "Aw" seems to imply that the second video was at least cute, though probably not as overtly romantic/sexual as Voldy. However, the same people make comments about "the video" and "that video." I feel like if the "second video" had been really juicy, she would have said "those videos" or something.

As for the contents of the "second video," rumor has it that it involves Phil holding up signs. Here is one description, posted on GG:
D-A-V-I-D wrote:I can't substantiate much about Glich-Gate 2011, but there were several unprivated LessAmazingPhil videos that were made public, with Voldy obviously taking the lion's share of attention. And yes, there was talk of another very private video that blinked out of existence before anyone managed to save it. In it Phil doesn't say a word. He simply holds up a series of papers or cards with handwritten messages meant for Dan's eyes only. One wonders how their stories might have changed with two videos to explain away, Would they have just come clean and move on, or find another dubious explanation to satisfy unquestioning followers?

I never saw the video, and can't even say I know it ever existed. Does any part of what I've written ring any bells for other long time phans?
Ultimately, unless someone downloaded that video and it surfaces one day, we'll probably never know exactly what it was.
Are the comments under the video real?
Yes.

Here are tweets from the day of the first unprivating that reference them:

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And here are tweets from September 2012 (i.e. before the second "leak") that summarize the comments, which proves that they weren't photoshopped to be more romantic or anything:

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Is the video actually a prank?
Here is a very long PDF which goes into great detail about the video, and correlating various parts with matching tweets/Dailybooth pictures/etc. It is linked to by phandirectory, and comes from a now-deleted tumblr called phanlentine (since the blog is deleted, the links in the PDF don't work; you just have to scroll). Note: It is written from a pro-phan point of view.

Here is another PDF of a now-deleted Tumblr post (this one is by Lavitaricca) about the Valentine’s Day video. The post takes some common arguments regarding the video and provides counter-arguments to them. (Though take some of it, like the eye movements bits, with a grain of salt).

Here is an explanation of the videos from phanswers (note that it’s quite biased in favor of the video being real).
The-question-that-shall-not-be-named:
Where the do I get my hands on a copy of this infamous Vday video? I've searched everywhere I can think of but have either been told to stop looking, or that it's super easy to find if I just look a bit harder. I'm also new to Dan and Phil so I didn't experience the earlier period of the phandom firsthand, and also don't personally know any older fans who might be willing to share that information with me.

Answer: It's there. It's around. I promise. Image And sometimes it shows up in the Tumblr tags. It’s pretty much the worst-kept secret in the Phandom, don’t worry.
busy being happy~
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