Dan & Phil Part 91: A Decade of Deppy

[Megancita75]

To me the meme set up is what makes it both a genuine observation and what overlays it with humor. The meme format comes from the “that feeling when ...” set up which is a pretty common meme. It’s not a joke in the traditional sense of being a punchline or a play on words or completely absurdist. It is observational humor and the meme framework also signals that it isn’t deadly serious.

[Amiaw]

I can’t speak for dan and he may be feeling that way but someone pointed out that his tweet sounded oddly similar to this tweet from last month

So imo he probably was just tweeting a ‘relatable’ tweet and for some reason it landed differently with people this time

[knq]

This video should be a fandom primer to Dan's jokes/"jokes"

[Templeofshame]

Sorry for getting back to that Dan tweet, but I don't know where people see the joke there? That's a genuine question, I'm not trying to say that anyone is wrong here, I just want to understand other people's perspective but the only thing I see in that tweet is genuine sadness. I don't even see it as a half-joke, like where's the funny part? I don't know, I just can't stop thinking about how differently people perceive this kind of thing because I've seen some people being super concerned and others saying that it's just a joke and I'm quite baffled and feeling out of the loop.

I think it's a fairly typical, if not very funny, Dan joke format? It's the tfw setup, sure, but it's "i'm so imposter syndromey I have imposter syndrome about having imposter syndrome!" It read to me as #relatable humor, because pretty much everyone has imposter syndrome at some point, and he's just like, incepting it. It's hard to explain humor in a way that retains any humor, and I don't think it's very funny, but it definitely read to me as a #relatable joke that I could see myself trying to make if I was sort of calling myself out on being ridiculous with imposter syndrome. Not super funny, not creative, but I think personally, the fact that I related to it made me extra surprised when people got so concerned. (The Reductress one looks funnier.)

[flarequake]

I’d seen that tweet on tumblr earlier the day Dan tweeted, that’s what made it particularly seem like a joke, but I’d always taken his sad tweets seriously and a lot of people do, all the replies I saw are reassuring and lovely so I hope they help if he needs them. With it being his humour, I didn’t realise that at first and when I did I remember feeling a fool for having believed it, I’m ready to be sympathetic, but then that’s rejected like with many people I’ve known in rl. The notion that he’s protecting himself by being able to backtrack is more complex than how it all looks at first.

[spaceguitar]

I don’t think him joking means that he’s being insincere. It means that he’s being self deprecating, but in fact, not looking for any particular response from the audience- as might be expected if he said ‘ugh I’m struggling with impostor syndrome right now’. He said it in a humorous format which suggests to me that it’s something that he’s internally dealing with, not looking for concern, and expressing it in a deprecating and relatable way lightens it for him. I think it is a bit different from his usual dark humor in that this tweet didn’t really seem meant to be funny. To me it also read as pretty genuine which is what I want to see from him.

[alittledizzy]

Dan liked it already.

[madzilla84]

Hector is such a good egg.

[flarequake]

Oh, Hector, that’s lovely

[noodlebum]

Hector's so sweet

[parallel]

I'm aware of Dan's jokes, of course I am, however this tweet is significant for two reasons:

• It's a tweet, not just a throwaway line in a gaming video or liveshow that he came up with in the moment. He took the time to sit down, type the tweet, and hit send. Especially considering the relative rarity of a Dan tweet, he must have really wanted to tweet that.
• Dan also hasn't made this kind of self-deprecating Twitter joke in a while. Sure, he makes "Dan jokes", but none of them come across as sincerely (in that joking-not-joking manner) as this tweet. It's not even in reply to anyone; it's just a tweet standing on its own.

I'm not saying we should all be super worried about Dan or anything. I think he's fine, tbh, and he'll talk to his therapist and will be fine in the end. But I also don't think that the tweet can be brushed off as "just another Dan joke" or whatever; it definitely reads as more sincere than that.

[stufflizloves]

But I also don't think that the tweet can be brushed off as "just another Dan joke" or whatever; it definitely reads as more sincere than that.

the more i think about it, the more i wonder if it’s related to his next project? i guess it’s hard to speculate, not knowing what particular medium whatever project was meant to be connected to the merch drop last week. but for speculations sake, if it was indeed his next video, what sort of outside forces would delay it? (this is assuming the project is not something published or produced by someone other than Dan, aka outside forces) my thoughts immediately go to sponsor but that doesn’t seem right. so maybe...charity? i could see how launching something big for Young Minds/Stop, Speak, Support or even an LGBTQIA-related nonprofit might give him imposter syndrome, make him feel as if he wasn’t somehow qualified enough...

(pure conjecture!)

[knq]

Am I the only one who thought it sounded like the project getting pushed back wasn't recent? I think Dan chose to talk about it now because of the merch-without-content discourse (and to warn us that there will be one more merch-without-content drop coming) but I don't think it's actually news to him.

He said "There was an exciting project I’ve long been working on, originally planned to release this October" which to me sounds like it's not something he's working on now, otherwise he'd have said 'there is an exciting project" (I know, Dan and the past tense, always controversial) and the original plan was made so long ago that it had to specify October of which year.

Also he's said the merch was in the works for 'many moons' or 2 years, which again, sounds like the October 2019 release was planned when he started making the merch 2 years ago and the project being pushed back/reshuffled happened sometime in that 2 years but not, like, unexpectedly this month. On twitter Dan said he'd let us know when the project was "real" which doesn't make it sound like it's been developing at the expected pace until now; it sounds like it was planned 2 years ago and never happened.

I mean, I'm definitely over-analyzing a handful of words, but eh, that's how many words we have to analyze.

[flarequake]

Political Dan rises (when do we see Guy Fawkes’ face that much?)

And the obligatory joking-really

[noodlebum]

I don't even know what Guy Fawkes looks like, unless he's referring to the V for Vendetta mask.

[Philena]

I was just coming here to post Dan's reply, but @flarequake beat me to it. So, he considered it a joke tweet. Take that as you will.

[flarequake]

I think it might be Charing Cross station that had a mural of him and his pals on the wall of the platform, but otherwise I haven’t seen him anywhere, but that’s a good point about the mask, he might mean that.

Dan’s replies are quite something.

[alittledizzy]

I was just coming here to post Dan's reply, but @flarequake beat me to it. So, he considered it a joke tweet. Take that as you will.

That was referencing his MCR tweet (which said "I'm not okay" on a quote retweet of MCR coming back) not the one about imposter syndrome.

[Templeofshame]

He's gotta be talking about the Guy Fawkes mask (popularized in V for Vendetta) because it's a symbol of resistance around the world... Unless there's another Guy-Fawkes-based symbol of resistance around the world?

[Judearaya]

I was just coming here to post Dan's reply, but @flarequake beat me to it. So, he considered it a joke tweet. Take that as you will.

That was referencing his MCR tweet (which said "I'm not okay" on a quote retweet of MCR coming back) not the one about imposter syndrome.

Ever since he posted that MCR quote I've been so tempted to just tweet back "Trust Me" bc I legit listen to that song at least once a day LOL

[lefthandedism]

I don't even know what Guy Fawkes looks like, unless he's referring to the V for Vendetta mask.

I don't know if it's where Dan saw it, but this piece about the popularity of Guy Fawkes's face (the V for Vendetta mask) is in today's New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/opin ... detta.html

[flarequake]

Phil’s getting brave, or just reckless

[noodlebum]

Fun idea, I love his poses on their own haha.
I wonder if Dan will choose them for him again?

[Megancita75]

Oh god, I feel like every single one of us, most of all Phil, needs to brace ourselves.

[Amiaw]

I love Phil so much. He’s already having fun with this. Also if you think about it this is the perfect video to do in his new space

He just changed his header to a green screen image. He’s had too much sugar