Dan & Phil Part 80: You're my plinth of life

[fancybum]

My one wish was that instead of trying to be vague or mysterious they would give me what I want which is an idea of their thoughts for next year. They can keep their personal lives to themselves but as a fan it would be nice to know if they have thoughts about their channels - what direction they are thinking of going in and how their liveshows and series are going to look going forward.

I've had so many ideas about dnp this year - at the beginning of the year I was still in my feels about them spending Christmas with the Lesters and then Feb/March happened and I wasn't sure what Dan was going to do or if DnP were going to continue as a duo but then the tour started and we got instagram stories and joint liveshows and so much content that I convinced myself that things were just going to continue to get better but now that ii is over I'm just not sure of anything. Is this blank slate going to get them back into a creative mindset? Are they going to stop playing flash games and start giving us original content on dapg? Is Dan ever going to release his mug? Is the dnp shop going to release any new joint merch that isn't a christmas card? - Clearly I have a lot of thoughts and am confusion but hopefully something is said in the next 2 weeks that shows me that we are going to have a good 2019 to look forward to

That would be so nice, but I'm not going to trick myself into that line of thinking. I'm sticking to February 2019 being the earliest possible time to get anything approaching concrete answers about the direction(s) they plan to take (and I'm not even expecting that info to come from their own mouths, but their actions). They've promised dilmas and that was probably difficult enough for them to commit to lol. My expectations for them have all been used up this year, I've got none left.

I'm definitely one of the people who says I don't need Dan back solo, but reading your reaction to II made me realize that while we're reacting to entirely different things your description of how it makes you feel is actually how i feel watching Dan liveshows? I think the reason that I don't crave Dan solo stuff is because I associate it with the liveshows where he's most viscerally uncomfortable with the audience, where he doesn't seem to trust or like us, and I have such a strong distaste of how much I leech anxiety from watching it that I've enjoyed Dan through the filter of Phil more than I did by himself because it makes me personally less tense.

What I do think I'd love is Dan making videos and doing liveshows in 2019 that he felt comfortable with and seeing that reflected back, without losing the core of what makes people love Dan content - his passion, his opinions, him getting 30-45 minutes to ramble about whatever he wants and fondly shit talk some premium questions.

(I realize I'm picking the point of conflict to reply to, but I loved your whole post - and I have zero defenses of II, the parts you thought were probably cringe were just as cringe in real life. It was entirely just audience energy that made it palatable irl.)

II doesn't need defending! Irl cringeing as a group activity can be a great time, hence The Room continuing to show regularly in theatres. I'm just saying the cringe would have been more fun in person (and wouldn't have felt so overwhelming compared to the lonely little dvd experience) and the experience of the show, in the moment, was the point of it. Doesn't translate so well (IMOOOOo) after the fact. Also with the whole Dan thing: WHY NOT BOTH is not just a meme, but the key to more people being happy. Dan not doing anything on his own (but continuing to do things he would be doing anyway: Phil collabs and dapg) screws over the audience that really likes HIM (and not just him as an accessory to Phil), whereas him doing his solo stuff AND Phil-accessory stuff gives everybody plenty to choose from. If you need to be a completionist (which I know you do lol whoops) then it won't be great to have to subject yourself to content you might (MIGHT) not love, but there's always the option to skip Dan vids and ls and enjoy the D&P stuff only. Which there would most likely be the exact same amount of either way. But him just fully opting out of any solo material is a loss of ~2/5 of their overall possible content. I'm going to be honest, I've skipped quite a few solo Phil videos the past year, but it's still nice to know that they're there and people who really enjoy them got them (for some reason I haven't even watched the gym one (2017?!!) yet, I keep thinking 'I'll get to it' and never getting to it). And just in case I'm saying everything terribly: I love them together. I generally love their content together, heck yes, give me all of it. BUT I NEED SOLO THINGS TOO. And them just scrapping that aspect of their content with no explanation has been a garbage time on top of an already garbage time. Seeing them separately makes me appreciate them more together, and seeing them together makes me appreciate them more separately. Va. RI. ET. Y.

I think the reason that I don't crave Dan solo stuff is because I associate it with the liveshows where he's most viscerally uncomfortable with the audience, where he doesn't seem to trust or like us

Ok so this might be a weird thing to say, but I like this. It's not always comfortable to watch, or flattering, but it's honest, and I appreciate it. When creators admit and are frank about when their audience creeps them out or pisses them off, I love it. But so many are afraid to bother because they'll just get a barrage of 'you should be GRATEFUL I'm x/y/z to/about you, I pay your rent' or any of that garbage. It's a fine line between being honest and just being (perceived as) a dick though, so I get why D&P tend to ignore or play off their negative emotions/experiences with fans. But the over the top saccharine attitude that comes out when they're shilling for the tour (even if they mostly mean it) puts me off more than Dan being in a bad mood every 3rd liveshow (if that). And his videos tend to (imo) inspire more interesting conversations than just how cute they were in a gaming video, and I like that too. But that doesn't mean they won't also be constantly adorable in gaming videos with plenty of commentary to cover every second of it, so again: why not both.

[Ablissa]

#SPON (I haven't caught up with the discussion yet but ugh I love when the forum is active. IDB is my addiction tbh)

So as I said earlier, we're hosting a special Festive Watch Fest this Sunday, December 16th, at 1 PM and 7 PM UTC.
We are once again using rabb.it due to popular demand, but will still try to discuss the videos here on the forum afterwards.

You voted for videos and we narrowed down the suggestions. We also added the idea for Phil's Christmas adventure game - would be super fun on rabb.it with all of us voting.

Please vote for which combo of videos you want to watch with us on Sunday!

[flarequake]

Q&A really did start slowly and then deliver with a bang, love some sincere answers amongst the cute. I loved Phil choosing Chris Evans, great taste there. That landmark one, though, if Dan’s 27 and old, sheesh I love the UwU/OwO, the way Phil says UwU and Dan raising his eyebrow when he said the other one. The last promo photo has a great “ha!” “ugh” vibe, good snapshot of them, though I wonder who hard they were tugging at that mic cable. Couldn’t believe Dan threw that fricking DVD again, but his face was hilarious as he realised it had crashed down the stairs or whatever that noise was. That Spyro jumper looks enormous for Phil, maybe he’ll post a selfie cos I’m curious whether it fits or will swamp him.

On the deeper things, I hope the break has helped Dan, they’ve been home a while now so hopefully he’s had some time to think. I’m not expecting him to upload again for a few months yet, but solo liveshows would be amazing. I always loved Dan’s for feeling like the most connection of all their content and I didn’t pick up on him feeling uncomfortable with the audience very often, only when it was obvious like him actually saying “stop spamming ‘soft and ‘neat’” or the one after “trying to live my truth” where he was explaining what he said as if we didn’t get it/gave too much attention to the wrong part. In his videos, I can only think of the meme ones where he was joking. Anxiety from watching them is awful, though, no one needs that.

I’d love Phil to be more open, still feeling so glad each time he gives one piece of insight like the urge to scream in silent places comment (anyone want to analyse that one?), but his liveshows were always a nice time and the candle hauls/help me clear out my wardrobe/has the lava lamp blooped yet were great. It seems they might both be happier doing just one for 30 minutes, though, and at this point I don’t expect them to go back, but maybe that’s been more for all the ii promotion rather than a big change.

The whole message of the show that Dan keeps explaining and especially the audience being in control, I didn’t really get that from the show. I loved the ending of each half and the very end absolutely made it, I wanted piano and before I saw it I might have had some other wishes, but I forget now. I can see where they’re trying to go into those different questions, carry the thread through the show and gave a few answers eg they’re real people with feelings, we’re all different, some get drowned out, but the activities were all so cute, it wasn’t that deep. As a fun show with some deeper bits, it delivered, though.

[goodbants]

I think people aren't putting themselves in Dan and Phil's shoes enough. I agree that the tour didn't "give us what we want", but we tend to forget that they have millions of people saying different things that they want from them. Can you imagine how much pressure that would be? The tour to me seemed more like an exploration for them. As Dan and Phil said in their post

who are ‘the people’? what do you want from us? do you all want the same things? why do you want them? who are dan and phil anyway? why do people like them?

I can't imagine trying to figure out what 6 million people want from me, and trying to please them all. I think we are too hard on Dan and Phil sometimes.

[Catallena]

Don't mind me, just telling all you lovely people here that IDB's Compilation Queen (that's me lol) compiled all the video answers from the Answer Time into one video. Because we can.

[BuffyFiona]

@Catallena I've been meaning to praise your incredible work!!!! Thank you so much for compiling all the fleeting D&P moments!!! This summer I was busy moving to a new city and starting a new job, so I was only really keeping up with their videos, but not really the tour after the UK leg was over, and definitely not all their individual instastories, so lately I've been binge-watching the playlist of all the lovely daily compilation vids of their tour stories!!! So thank you SO MUCH for keeping on top of those and making it super easy for me to catch up!!!!

[starwatersong]

Thanks so much for the compilation!! Made my day when I saw it on YouTube.

[LtrllySusan]

Depending on the professor, Dan would either do amazing or fail at uni for his waffling skills.

In my opinion, we can never have a straightforward conversation about that ""dan and phil' thing" with the phan elephant present in the room.
As I've said before, to me, "giving the people what they want" means "bants and innuendos and dangling the phan carrot". Which is fine. I personally don't need an essay about the deep meaning of a comedy show.

So, I agree with whoever said that all those big words and long texts mean a lot more to them than they mean to us. I hope they understand that and don't feel insulted that we "don't get it".

[Tottrie]

I think people aren't putting themselves in Dan and Phil's shoes enough. I agree that the tour didn't "give us what we want", but we tend to forget that they have millions of people saying different things that they want from them. Can you imagine how much pressure that would be? The tour to me seemed more like an exploration for them. As Dan and Phil said in their post

who are ‘the people’? what do you want from us? do you all want the same things? why do you want them? who are dan and phil anyway? why do people like them?

I can't imagine trying to figure out what 6 million people want from me, and trying to please them all. I think we are too hard on Dan and Phil sometimes.

Yes to this!
I loved the show, when I saw it live and when I watched the movie. But I didn't go in to it thinking that I would get everything I wanted. Or maybe what I want is just for Dan and Phil to make me smile and that they certainly did.

Remember in the show when they named us? We all had to scream out our names and Phil listened and chose a name. And I think that's it, 6million people are screaming at them, they want different things from them and they explore that in the show.

I don't think it's supposed to have a "this is what you want" summary at the end. It's more of a discovery that just is and you make your own conclusion of what they talked about.

For example, my conclusion was that even though you try to put everyone in the same box, the phandom, Dan and Phil's audience, we will never want the same things because we are different people. That's why we scream for different things in the simulation, or say different things when we get the ball.

And I just think that's what Dan and Phil want to show us. Is it possible to give the people what they want? The answer is no, but they try their best.


(I don't know if this should still be under spoiler but I just wanted to be sure)

Side note: So many people have wanted Dan to play piano for so many years and he did do that. And Phil's disstrack

[flarequake]

Definitely, @goodbants and @Tottrie, and I love to hear what they think, their experience of all this is so different from ours. I found the show a bit underwhelming cos the lighthearted/not too deepness didn't match what I had in my head after the hype, but the basic message did come across, I just didn't know if they had something deeper they were trying to get across. It probably is just the things they've said, but they didn't go into all the depth or detail of their thoughts. That, I would be interested to hear.

Their kind of performance comes under comedy and, somewhat, standup, but if they did an hour or two of acerbic jokes with a lot reflecting on us, it might be interesting, but it could be a lot less fun, possibly hurtful, especially if some was a surprise to us. They obviously don't do that kind of thing, I was just thinking about it since I saw a comedian's show the other week and his interactive bits were mostly fine, but a few comments got a bit close to the edge.

I'm so looking forward to the director's commentary and reading all the spoiler-tagged posts here. Just had an email from the DnP shop that the DVD has been shipped so yay, pin suppliers! I hope everyone else's are on their way too. I guess the date they gave of 18th was their hope of the latest date it would happen.

+1 to the thanks to @Catallena, that compliation video was great to watch this morning. Still at Dan launching that poor DVD down the stairs and then being surprised.

[susan2]

Almost forgot that London Festive Pop-Up Shop thing was happening today...

Any word on what the "exclusive items" are?

[rizzo]

I recognize they've done two world tours, a DVD distributed by BBC, 2 best-selling books, they were on the radio for a few years, and they've been the online hosts of the Brits........

But idk, y'all. Something about a fully-decorated pop-up shop with themed areas/rooms really makes me realize just how huge these 2 are (popularity-wise, but also their size lbr)??? They spent good money on renting a space because they know they'll see a guaranteed profit margin. A whole-ass physical space just to sell shit with their names on it.

Wild.

[flarequake]

It sure is something, boys done good. I love that they've got a fricking 8 foot tall snowglobe people can go and stand inside for photos.

[starwatersong]

[Grumpybisexual]

Aww the pop-up shop looks really cool! Dan's area looks so dark though! Reminds me of the first time I stepped into a Hollister store, I felt like I was in a night club I wonder what the exclusive items are!

Also I just got an email from dnpshop saying my dvd has been shipped so yay!


(Edit: also can we talk about Cornelia's latest Instagram post with Martin in the snow globe!! They're so cute wth?? ? )

[Amiaw]

I've seen some tweets of some of the merch being sold at the pop up shop. I'll put it under a cut so i'm not spoiling it for others.

And there are also some photo cards of pictures from the calendar shoot that didn't make it into the calendar. There may be more items but those are the only things I've seen floating around

[Ataraxia25]

(Edit: also can we talk about Cornelia's latest Instagram post with Martin in the snow globe!! They're so cute wth?? ? )

i just came here for this! IT WAS THE CUTEST SHIT IVE SEEN TODAY OH GOD

for dan's mug, i hope they'll sell it later on the dnp shop

[alittledizzy]

[itasca00]

@alittledizzy Thank you! I was hoping someone would do this sooner rather than later.

[starwatersong]

More pop-up store merch close ups (bless people for sharing on Twitter).

[Ablissa]

More pop-up store merch close ups (bless people for sharing on Twitter).

Omg. I need these in my life. Why do I not live in London??
Does anyone know how much these cost? If anyone is going there, can you buy me a set and I'll pay you + shipping? I'm serious, I really want them.

Edit: an angel already stepped up and offered! Thank you

I suggest deppy put these things in the damn store because this is what the people want.

[flarequake]

Wow, that is quite a text. Thank you for typing it out and phew, that’s some thoughts, Dan. There are some kinds of legal documents that have to be written without commas so they don’t change the meaning, so that amuses me.

[glitterintheair]

More pop-up store merch close ups (bless people for sharing on Twitter).

The April one is my favourite, oh my god

[flarequake]

That one is lovely, it’s all cosy and together. My favourite’s the yellow one, I love that moment in the video and their reactions, Phil is so pure.

[alittledizzy]

Youtube is going to clear spam accounts (source link) today/tomorrow.... I wonder how much of a drop Dan and Phil will see for that?