Dan & Phil Part 88: orbit of uranus

[Puffy]

(I feel like it’s very bad live-streaming etiquette to offer to stream something and then.... scream and shout over it)

[Puffy]

I'm from close to Reading and feel the need to defend that it's an expensive place to live. The average house price is £450k (double the UK average) whereas the average salary is ~£30k (a little under the UK average). My mum struggled to feed me and my siblings at times when I was a kid but from an outsider we would have still looked like a comfortably middle class family.

(Also, his family could have struggled when he was younger but be stable now.)

So that must be where the "no money" thing comes from, that the Howells didn't have much money to spare, though they would have if they lived cheaper.

Sorry for the double post, but I think that’s a little bit classist. Judging how any family spends their money or what social class they consider themselves to belong to, especially without any actual context, is not okay.

[OhItsElliott]

(I feel like it’s very bad live-streaming etiquette to offer to stream something and then.... scream and shout over it)

I am having SO much trouble not rage quitting the stream for this very reason. Hoping they'll calm down.

[Puffy]

(I feel like it’s very bad live-streaming etiquette to offer to stream something and then.... scream and shout over it)

I am having SO much trouble not rage quitting the stream for this very reason. Hoping they'll calm down.

My boyfriend found a Periscope stream by DemonPhillie on Twitter, it’s much better!

[goldenskin]

(I feel like it’s very bad live-streaming etiquette to offer to stream something and then.... scream and shout over it)

I am having SO much trouble not rage quitting the stream for this very reason. Hoping they'll calm down.

My boyfriend found a Periscope stream by DemonPhillie on Twitter, it’s much better!

literally made an account to say this! i really couldn't watch the other livestream.

[Phanshy]

Being poor is a relative thing, maybe he felt poor compared to kids at his school and it's always stuck with him even if in comparison to a lot of people he was relatively comfortable (just from my perspective the holidays and things he's talked about doing and having)

[alittledizzy]

I really enjoyed that gaming channel answer. I appreciate that he - like Dan yesterday - confirmed the hiatus was so Dan could make his video. He sounded so warm when talking about it, reiterated that people reacted badly to hiatus but it was a pause, and then talked about the idea of it coming back but not as gaming because they know what people like is just watching them. I'm honestly all for the idea of DAPG just being a joint channel and them getting to try some new stuff without being boxed in by it having to be video games. Like, bring on that future. I'm so ready for it.

[Ablissa]

I don't have the full quote but it seems like they're gonna bring back the gaming channel as "something else" because they know people watched gaming just for their bants and not so much the games. I'm good with that!

[socksparadox]

Surprisingly very satisfied with the gaming channel answer! I'm glad his answer seemed really in-touch with the phandom (him saying that he knows people have been wanting answers about it & that he knows people mainly just watch for the bants and not the gaming lol)

[Catallena]

I'm not watching and just enjoying watching my tl freak out, but I would be more than okay if DAPG was rebranded into a general collab channel. I've been saying that that's what they should do for years now anyway and with the end of PINOF there are no collabs that HAVE to be on the main channels anymore so I'll be sitting here waiting I guess.

Also from what I'm hearing Phil deserved a better interviewer.

[alittledizzy]

I'm not watching and just enjoying watching my tl freak out, but I would be more than okay if DAPG was rebranded into a general collab channel. I've been saying that that's what they should do for years now anyway and with the end of PINOF there are no collabs that HAVE to be on the main channels anymore so I'll be sitting here waiting I guess.

Also from what I'm hearing Phil deserved a better interviewer.

He definitely needed a better interviewed. She literally asked him what his fans are called. Also, her questions at the start were just... the most bland ever. She asked something about what Americans should know about England? Bless Phil trying to take those seriously.

[knq]

I'm not watching and just enjoying watching my tl freak out, but I would be more than okay if DAPG was rebranded into a general collab channel. I've been saying that that's what they should do for years now anyway and with the end of PINOF there are no collabs that HAVE to be on the main channels anymore so I'll be sitting here waiting I guess.

Also from what I'm hearing Phil deserved a better interviewer.

He definitely needed a better interviewed. She literally asked him what his fans are called. Also, her questions at the start were just... the most bland ever. She asked something about what Americans should know about England? Bless Phil trying to take those seriously.

I’d repressed that by the end of the interview. I’m thankful she asked him about the gaming channel, but some of those questions, why? She had him rate dogs that no one could see. Why.

[Amiaw]

I loved how Phil came across in that interview. He was so confident and charming and he is well-spoken too. A lot of the interview was typical Phil questions but I did love that he talked about his coming out video, the scripts that he’s pitched, the little bits that he mentioned about social media and how he keeps positive and then of course I love how Phil always tells us things with the “we” very present.

Also: Phil is extremely good at giving us answers to difficult questions that don’t really tell us anything. He may not be the best in delivering news in a tweet but he’s just so nice that when he says things in person it’s really easy to take

[mathsniel]

So that must be where the "no money" thing comes from, that the Howells didn't have much money to spare, though they would have if they lived cheaper.

Sorry for the double post, but I think that’s a little bit classist. Judging how any family spends their money or what social class they consider themselves to belong to, especially without any actual context, is not okay.

Thanks for this Puffy!

For some extra context of money for people, I can do a weekly shop at uni (in the Midlands) for £15, and the same shop costs £40 near Reading.

Don't get me wrong, the Reading area is middle class, the education is good, the NHS is good, transport is good. It's a lucky area for that. But the class system is messed up around here and money has less value.

Someone mentioned Dan having 6 Xbox controllers as a sign of his family not being poor. Xbox controllers are what, £20 each? That's the cost of going out with a friend for a cuppa and a bit of cake down here. Yes, Dan's family might not have been poor if they lived somewhere else in the UK, but down here they easily could have been. He might have been middle class anywhere else but basically be lower class because of the way money is around here.

Also, poor people are allowed to save up to go on holiday. My parent's neighbours are going to Spain on holiday this summer after saving up for 2 years. They're not shopping at Waitrose and splurging day to day, they're saving everything possible penny so they can lead a fun life. Why can't Dan's family have been the same?

[philliebillie]

Phil just talks to my soul and pats my back like telling me everything's fine in the world. I love his answer about the gaming channel, like yeah he didn't really say anything concrete but he said it in a way that makes me feel hopeful for the future.

The interviewer, yeah I can't believe she just perked up when feel mentioned her favorite show. Girl.

[blahblahblah8]

I was only able to watch the first half but yeah the interviewer was not prepared :/
Excited about joint content coming back tho! Also I wonder what he’s been pitching?

[hello9217]

What a lovely way to spend an hour. He just seems like such a nice guy. Very satisfied with that gaming answer. I’m glad he’s aware that people care so much about the dynamic between them. Gave me hope for joint content. And yes the constant we’s were so sweet bc we all know he means dan. Also that script he’s writing and pitched out v interesting.

[Catallena]

I'm not watching and just enjoying watching my tl freak out, but I would be more than okay if DAPG was rebranded into a general collab channel. I've been saying that that's what they should do for years now anyway and with the end of PINOF there are no collabs that HAVE to be on the main channels anymore so I'll be sitting here waiting I guess.

Also from what I'm hearing Phil deserved a better interviewer.

He definitely needed a better interviewed. She literally asked him what his fans are called. Also, her questions at the start were just... the most bland ever. She asked something about what Americans should know about England? Bless Phil trying to take those seriously.

Her bio on the Vidcon website said that she writes about internet culture and stuff for news outlets like The Atlantic and a bunch of others, but then I really wonder what the fuck her work looks like? I sure hope she does more research for her articles than she did for this interview. Yikes.

[alittledizzy]

I also just want to give some real appreciation to his answer about fanworks. I couldn't entirely hear the question itself but his answer came through clearly. He talked about how he checks his at mentions and enjoys the art, but he doesn't look at things he's not tagged in because he thinks it's better if we as a community don't feel like he's constantly looking in on us. He even explicitly said that he thinks we probably wouldn't want that, either.

Also, also - I know this isn't new info but I'm not sure Phil has ever said this as pointedly as he did in the panel, but hearing him say "I do suffer from anxiety myself" just made me proud that he's comfortable talking about that to whatever extent he chooses to.

[fairylights]

i really enjoyed the q&a! i just really like listening to him talk (and now i’m reminded again how much i miss liveshows)

i’m also glad he answered the gaming channel thing the way he did.

[sparkle]

All I want for Christmas is a Philip Lester and Safiya Nygaard collab please and thank you.

To not do so is homophobia and I will sue.

[yellowsubmarine]

I also just want to give some real appreciation to his answer about fanworks. I couldn't entirely hear the question itself but his answer came through clearly. He talked about how he checks his at mentions and enjoys the art, but he doesn't look at things he's not tagged in because he thinks it's better if we as a community don't feel like he's constantly looking in on us. He even explicitly said that he thinks we probably wouldn't want that, either.

Also, also - I know this isn't new info but I'm not sure Phil has ever said this as pointedly as he did in the panel, but hearing him say "I do suffer from anxiety myself" just made me proud that he's comfortable talking about that to whatever extent he chooses to.

It surprised me as well, hearing him say that. Acknowledge his anxiety in public like that. Well done, Phil.

Thank god the gaming phase is over bc i was never really invested in that anyways xD i'm sorry it just bored me to watch them play such bland games. I'm really excited now for the future. Nicee.

[icedcoffeestan]

Re: at Dan mentioning that his parents was/are poor (and not for the first time)... I gather from the context he’s just making a (exaggerated) point that if his career failed he wouldn’t have the safety net of relying on his (rich) parents? A bit of an odd statement for a 28yo to make whose been self sufficient since 18 and is a millionaire—like he’s going to ask for a loan or crash in his parents basement if he stops making videos...?

And no idea about his parents real financial situation, maybe they struggled with money (pretty typical for most to some extent), or are in a lower tier of middle class, but to describe them as poor seems out of touch... poor compared to what... London millionaires? They vacationed regularly, had a nice modest home which they still have (Adrian’s vlogs confirms that), and what did he have like 6 guitar hero controllers in AmazingDan?? I know poor is a relative term, but c’mon... either they have a money problem (that maybe Dan shouldn’t be broadcasting), he’s out of touch, or is exaggerating for effect (bullshitting).

Yeah I also thought that was such a strange thing for him to say. There’s no way he would have “nothing” and have to turn to parents even if he never made another video again. Him using the word poor has always kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t wanna say anything about it yesterday bec I thought it would be too negative when everything else he said at the panel was great but I do agree with you.

Hi sorry I know this conversation has well moved on at this point but I feel the need to comment on this because it's a mindset that I encounter at my job a lot that I really really don't like. I currently work in the same Title 1 school that I went to as a kid (which for non-Americans: Title 1 means that more than 75% of the student population exists within an economic status that qualifies them for free or reduced price school lunch). The kids I teach (and myself when I was young) very resolutely fall into the category of "poor." However, when outsiders come into the building they're shocked (and sometimes weirdly angry?) that these poor kids have things like new iphones or nice shoes or that they get lunch from mcdonalds sometimes or whatever. People often have this weird idea in their head that in order for someone to be "poor" they have to live in abject poverty with nothing but that's not the case. My family never went on trips but all of my siblings and I got to go all out for our proms because it was important to our mom that we had one magical night. She saved all year so we could have insanely nice experiences but we were still very much poor at the time. I could go on and on about how classist this mindset is but I don't want to come on too intensely which I know I can easily do with this topic.

Like some others have already pointed out, what he's said about his family having nothing for him to fall back on could mean a number of things. It could be that he just had less than the kids he went to school with and that completely skewed his perception. It could be that his family had relatively humble means in an expensive area. It could mean that his family had money but the flow of that money was inconsistent or unreliable. It could mean that for whatever reason, he felt if he ruined his career at 20 after dropping out he didnt think his family would share any resources they had with him if he went back to them (regardless of whether or not that would have actually been the case). It could very likely be related to one of the factors that he yadda yadda'd over in his coming out video to explain why his home didn't feel like a safe space that I don't feel particularly comfortable speculating on further (violence, addiction, & health issues).

I know Dan can exaggerate a lot but since he's brought up not having a lot of money as a kid during two seperate moments where he was otherwise being very open and transparently honest - his coming out video and the mental health panel - I'm inclined to believe he's not doing that here.

--

Also hi I'm sorry I know its probably super weird for someone's first post on a forum to be a long and occasionally overly personal essay but this is topic I care so much about (generally speaking - not just in a way that's related to Dan and Phil lol) that it drove me to abandon my forever-lurking tendencies.

[GalaxyDarling]

Dan's family might not have been poor if they lived somewhere else in the UK, but down here they easily could have been. He might have been middle class anywhere else but basically be lower class because of the way money is around here

Living cheaper means exactly that what you just said there. Of course they can spend their money as they wish, but my only point was that they would have had more money to spare from living costs if they lived elsewhere or rented a place. I'm sure they had their reasons to live there where they did (and do); that's totally fine. It's just that when Dan says they had no money, he should clarify that they had no money to spare. If they really had none whatsoever, they would have lived in public housing.

[dontpanic]

Thanks icedcoffeestan for putting into words what I was feeling, great first post!!