Dan & Phil Part 83: Where in the World is Daniel Howell

[Stakhanov]

If the calendar date is genuine, the tweet obviously isn't and it's very much planned. Since he knows people speculate endlessly about his feelings and whereabouts whenever they think Phil is away, he might have just given the content people wanted. Dan feeling sad and lonely because Phil is away is the content people want and a planned tweet with "photo evidence" like this would be a great joke played on the audience

[glitterintheair]

I just remembered that the 16th was also the day Phil had the encounter with a drunk lady in Tesco. Not sure where I'm going with this. Maybe Dan was the drunk lady all along.

[Stakhanov]

That would explain a thing or two. Pictures posted with a two week delay, a window we haven't seen before...interesting.

[alittledizzy]

Phil being cute on instagram

[Ablissa]

Ben replied to Dan's tweet from yesterday:

One of the fans responded 'are you dating', and I've been seeing some ~mild discourse about that on tumblr/twitter, and just... like...
I can't wrap my head around disbelieving Dan and Phil being together, while also assuming that Dan is dating a 20 yo from the US??

[sonicgreen]

if we’re going to assume dan is in a relationship with anyone he frequently interacts with on twitter im betting on seth everman. #DETH forever

[alittledizzy]

Ben's been a big fan of theirs since he started youtube (presumably before) and has - for literal years - regularly liked and replied to things Dan posts. Dan has also liked his replies on a fairly regular basis, I think the only difference this time is that Dan actually replied on instagram.

Ben would have been 14/15 at the time they first met so the idea that people are so restless they're latching onto Dan and Ben dating now - on the basis of that one reply and, I guess, just because they now know who Ben is and are noticing the likes - is really ridic to me.

If there is an uptick in Dan liking and responding, I think it's just what someone else said on a previous page - that a lot of queer youtubers are feeling very older sibling proud of what Benny's accomplishing. (He was the first explicitly gay character on Fuller House a few months ago, and he got cast as the non-binary lead in a new CW show.)

[kavat]

Five instastories within 24h? I feel like we haven't seen that in like six months or something. I feel well fed today.

if we’re going to assume dan is in a relationship with anyone he frequently interacts with on twitter im betting on seth everman. #DETH forever

Yes, please. Considering Seth seems to thirst over Dan on a regular basis this seems just as plausible.

[George]

So, any guesses what they'll do for April's Fools day? Nothing? Idk if this is an unpopular opinion, but I wholeheartedly hated Pigeon fest, it was the most lazyass content they could've made. I really hope this year we don't have to watch paint dry and feel as stupid as we are. Don't we almost deserve something good after this hiatus? Return of dapg or dapc or a new channel all together, those are all options I'd be happy to roll with.

(I really hope Dan isn't home alone to take care of the pigeons....At least that would mean they haven't moved...just yet. )

[Ablissa]

if we’re going to assume dan is in a relationship with anyone he frequently interacts with on twitter im betting on seth everman. #DETH forever

Yes, please. Considering Seth seems to thirst over Dan on a regular basis this seems just as plausible.

I'm up for this ship. #DETH is real, everyone. Should we start a ship war against all the... #DENNY fans?

Re: April Fools - hmm I kind of think they might skip it. I feel like until Dan returns with a main channel video, not much is going to happen other than Phil vids (and apparently, an increasing amount of tweets/ig stories is possible too? We're finally being fed and it's great.)

[Stakhanov]

If we're going by social media interactions, my money would be on Phan But deth would be the most on brand.

[alittledizzy]

So, any guesses what they'll do for April's Fools day? Nothing? Idk if this is an unpopular opinion, but I wholeheartedly hated Pigeon fest, it was the most lazyass content they could've made. I really hope this year we don't have to watch paint dry and feel as stupid as we are. Don't we almost deserve something good after this hiatus? Return of dapg or dapc or a new channel all together, those are all options I'd be happy to roll with.

That's definitely what made it a prank, though. In fact, the lack of pigeons makes it an even better prank, because it was very much a 'gotcha! you watched that whole thing for nothing' type of event. It wouldn't have been nearly as effective if something had actually happened during it.

I think if they do another prank it'll be along those lines, just something super low effort that doesn't interfere with their day and hits the spectrum somewhere between amusing us and annoying us. But I also won't be shocked if nothing happens, especially if one or both of them is away still.

[George]

I think if they do another prank it'll be along those lines, just something super low effort that doesn't interfere with their day and hits the spectrum somewhere between amusing us and annoying us.

Yeah, I guess pigeon fest was just disappointing compared to gold that was dapc. Last year my expectations were kinda high, but now I'm all prepared to watch their houseplants grow.

[Catallena]

I thought Pigeon Fest was hilarious, I watched the whole thing. But the lack of liveshows this year so far makes me think that it won't be another streaming type prank like that. Still definitely something low effort like that though.

[Stakhanov]

PIgeon fest was so low effort I would hardly even call it a prank. A prank usually has some unexpected twist or involves some kind of trick. Phil pretty much gave us 'pigeon fest' as advertised. I wonder if they expected thousands would actually turn up and watch. I guess they can't have been to surprised, given all of the past indications that people are glad with any kind of content. We'll know tomorrow if anything was planned for this year. Maybe some kind of instant story or tweet. I'd be very surprised if an april fools vid on youtube would be Dan's choice comeback.

[glitterintheair]

I loved Pigeon Fest because it was so ridiculous. I mean, people stared at a balcony for 5 hours waiting to see some pigeons... I just... I LOVE THAT, I love the non-sense.

Not sure they'll do something this year, tbh. Maybe making us wait for something only not to give us anything at all will be the prank this time around, who knows.

[knq]

Most pranks rely on your being upset for a moment before it's revealed that it's a prank. Dan and Phil are really good at coming up with 'pranks' that don't do that. They're zany and they either make you laugh or roll your eyes, but they're probably not going to actually fool you or inspire anger or anxiety if they go over poorly. Which I assume is their goal.

I thought pigeon fest was hilarious. I've heard Phil say a few time since then that he doesn't want to mess something up (holding his merch in front of the camera for a sneak peak) like he did pigeon fest, which I think he means the lack of pigeons by, but the lack of pigeons truly made it funny.

If they don't do an April Fools prank this year I think we might get an early tweet from one of them acknowledging it's April Fools day, like Phil tweeting that Martyn tried to prank him or something, so that people aren't waiting around all day.

[kavat]

I loved pigeon fest, I thought it was hilarious. No one really knew what to expect after the satanic ending of dapc, and they just showed up with a 5h livestream of their balcony, not including birds? Amazing. That's how you handle the wild theories of what people were coming up with while also winking at the "I could watch you read the phone book" type of comments, without making fun of them. It was basically a longer version of charlieissocoollike's video of him eating cereal for 10 minutes and I thought it was brilliant.

[liola]

Pigeon Fest was peak content, it was so hilariously absurd. It played so well on the absolute desire for April fool content, and the fact that there were no pigeons at all made it ten times better, and the reaction of the phandom was even funnier.

I'm not expecting anything for tomorrow but who knows. Maybe this hiatus has been a prank all along. Maybe we've been having dnp fest without us realizing, only they never showed up together on our feed just like the pigeons.

[autumnhearth]

A limited release of ‘I Survived Pigeon Fest 2018’ t-shirt’s. Nothing aesthetic, just black on white, maybe in comic sans...

[alittledizzy]

A limited release of ‘I Survived Pigeon Fest 2018’ t-shirt’s. Nothing aesthetic, just black on white, maybe in comic sans...

tbh that would be a pretty epic 'prank' if they did something like that - a line of really shitty basic merch and donate the proceeds to Young Minds or something. (because you know people would actually buy it.)

[missemma]

Tbh yet again I’m not really here for feeling lied to, even if most everyone else finds it understable/funny/still cute. I can understand it all I like, assuming I’m even understanding correctly because not a mind reader, but if I feel a bit taken the piss out of I get to work through my thoughts and feelings, which I don’t have all the spare energy and time for cos who does, and still be here anyway cos not knowing them really means I have no clue the reason, if it definitely is an old photo, if he was even in London last night, etc. Boy, do these boys have a privileged place in my heart

I agree with your post a lot. I don’t feel “lied to” as you put it but I don’t get the point of posting an emo tweet pretending to be home alone when it was from 2 weeks ago and we know he definitely wasn’t home alone. I just don’t get the rationale behind it. Why make up a lie, surely if you wanna tweet just do it, no need to say something that isn’t true. I know he is Mr Jo King but still it just feels weird that he would go to that length for a lie.

I am here for the nails though, I guess they made me feel less salty when people started finding the date on twitter. Also I saw people saying they could see Phil in the photo and I’m like HUH WHERE!

[lefthandedism]

While contemplating April Fool's pranks, don't forget to contemplate suggestions for a new thread name! (Appropriate that we got an answer to this one near the end of the thread. )

[Stakhanov]

I don't really think he's willingly trying to deceive us (because what would be the rationale?) but I think he considers it a way to create some "content" that he think people like. Created at a time that's convenient for him. The emo tweet might not be be an accurate reflection of what he was doing right then but it's 'truthful' in the sense that it offers a (dramatized) version of how he might have broadly felt, some evening. I don't really consider it remarkable and it just makes me smile a bit that we caught him out. He does this kind of 'branding' all the time imo. I thought the photo's were a good example of it. I find it odd people found that picture so honest, to me it's obviously a pose.

I saw Phil in the picture too. Or, I think so at least. It's very tricky as the human mind also has a proclivity to see faces where there are none. You would have to use advanced techniques to really see if the pixels do change colors and form a structure. Mayhaps it could be done by messing with contrast or other tricks in photoshop?
It's in the reflections on the wine glass. If you look between the two screens that get reflected, you can notice a subtle discoloration just left and above the right screen. I notice a face, black hair, and then a blue-ish dotted tshirt with possibly a red band? It looks like a t-shirt similar to this one to me:

[knq]

I agree with your post a lot. I don’t feel “lied to” as you put it but I don’t get the point of posting an emo tweet pretending to be home alone when it was from 2 weeks ago and we know he definitely wasn’t home alone. I just don’t get the rationale behind it. Why make up a lie, surely if you wanna tweet just do it, no need to say something that isn’t true. I know he is Mr Jo King but still it just feels weird that he would go to that length for a lie.

I am here for the nails though, I guess they made me feel less salty when people started finding the date on twitter. Also I saw people saying they could see Phil in the photo and I’m like HUH WHERE!

I don't think we do know those things?

There's plenty of ways to interpret what we see--and the phandom has been starved so each of those ways has probably been discussed ad nauseam somewhere--but to me, it seems most likely that his calendar app isn't broken, because he'd fix it, and he didn't curl up with his laptop and some wine to create a photo of something that didn't happen, because that's too much effort and pretty far-fetched.

It seems most reasonable to me that he wrote the tweet as a draft and took the photo on the 16th of some month because it was humorous and because he wanted to show off his nails, but he wasn't ready to show himself to the phandom until recently. That's obviously not the only interpretation, just one based on the many unknowns.

We don't know which month the 16th is from, we don't know whether 'alone' is meant to exclude Phil or not, and we don't know when Phil was or wasn't home, because both of them delay their tweets and IG stories. We don't even know if they still live there.

@Stakhanov Can you point it out on a photo? That's going to drive me nuts! To the left of the right TV screen/blue box I see a white column. Is that around where you're looking?