YouTubers are as prone to controversy as dogs are to fleas — even with proper care, its almost inevitable.
Shane Dawson was, for years, considered among the rare early-day YouTubers with nothing major to hide. Sure, he’d made a few questionable videos, but overall he was a funny, charming creator who’s success was directly tied to the video-streaming service. He was, after all, one of the very first YouTubers to ever reach fame on the site. He helped harken in a new era for YouTube, but it all came crashing down in 2020.
That’s when several controversial comments from Dawson’s old videos and, in particular, podcast, started to crop up. Those nearly saw his career as a creator come to an end, and they did massively impact Dawson’s ability to make money online. He still makes videos, and those videos still collect millions of views a piece, but Dawson’s YouTube channel is a shadow of what it once was. Even if he tried to bounce back, at this point it seems the 35-year-old’s moment has passed.
His moment on YouTube, at least. There’s plenty more to life than sharing videos on the site, and Dawson’s been living up his off-screen life for a while now. He’s branching out as a husband, and now father, focusing in on his personal life instead of his professional one. Those past controversies will never stop shadowing Dawson to some degree, but with a pair of freshly-born twins joining his family, we doubt he’s got much time to spare for the mistakes of his past.
What did Shane Dawson do?
Dawson first rose to prominence on YouTube back in 2008, when he was still in the tail-end of his teens. He became one of the site’s go-to stars in the years that followed, collecting followers and fame via his range of comedic sketches and reaction videos. As YouTubers were making the transition from small-scale fame to broadly recognizable, Dawson was at the front of the pack.
Until several past comments and problematic language came back to bite. This occurred in 2020, and saw the once-popular YouTuber fall, and fall hard, from his position at the top.
It started with the resurfacing of several old skits, in which Dawson donned blackface while poking fun at several prominent Black stars. That would have been bad enough, but when paired with a thoroughly creepy video of him simulating masturbation to a poster of Willow Smith — who was 11 at the time — and his repeated use of the N-word, Dawson’s time was ticking.
If Dawson’s YouTube controversies were the beginning of the end, his 2013 podcast was the actual end. The podcast, Shane and Friends, ran from 2013 to 2017, and in 2020 became the straw that broke Dawson’s back. It was discovered, as online sleuths dug into Dawson’s history, that he’d made several inappropriate and downright unacceptable comments while on the podcast, most notably about pedophilia. Pedophilia is never funny, and neither is animal abuse, and Dawson’s decision to joke about both between 2013 and 2015 led to his eventual downfall.
Following his jokes about having sex with minors and cats, as well several uncomfortably racist comments and skits, Dawson’s YouTube channels — all three of them — were demonetized by the site, and Dawson took a several-month break from uploading fresh content. He did eventually return to YouTube, and he occasionally uploads fresh content, but his days as the King of YouTube are long since passed.
Where is Shane Dawson now?
Dawson’s moved on to a new era of his life, and it seems far less likely to land him in trouble. After coming out as bisexual in 2015, Dawson started dating fellow YouTuber Ryland Adams a year later, and — in 2019 — the pair became engaged. They officially married in January of 2023, and a few months later announced that they were expecting several new additions to the family, born by surrogacy.
In early December 2023, Dawson and Adams welcomed twin sons, Jet Parker Adams Yaw and Max Chandler Adams Yaw, into their family. They announced their growing family via Instagram, and hinted that they’ll be taking a big step away from the spotlight as they adjust to fatherhood. We probably won’t be seeing much of either YouTuber for the next several months — and probably years — at least, as they learn about being dads and enjoy the many beautiful moments to come.