-Why David Dobrik Laughs So Much

Back in the car, back with another breakdown. This time, it's about David Dobrik. If you watch as much YouTube as we do, then you recognize this laugh. It is none other than David Dobrik. He is one of the biggest creators on YouTube right now and quickly becoming one of the most influential entertainers, period. Please welcome David Dobrik. At first, I had a really hard time watching his videos. They're filmed in these little bits that seem sporadic and random. We love you. Oh my god. But over time, I got totally addicted. And I started to wonder, why are they so addictive? And why is he laughing all the time? But when I looked into it, Dobrik's vlogs are actually familiar. And it's based off of one of the most successful entertainment formats ever, the sitcom. So before we get into that and before we get into the laugh, first, if you do not know who David Dobrik is, we're going to give you a quick history in 30 seconds or less. All right, let's put the timer on and go. David Dobrik is a 23-year-old YouTuber who got his start in entertainment on Vine at the age of 16. And a few months before Vine died, he started his own YouTube channel. This is my first vlog. I don't know how long this is going to last, but I'm going to give it a shot. His videos pair real-life relatable moments with loosely scripted comedy scenes. Jason spent, like, almost $1,000 on this suit. Dobrik acts as the leader and is often behind the camera as a voice and a director. Be a little more sentimental. You're pissing me off. He's also featured mainstream celebrities like Kendall and Kylie Jenner, John Stamos, and more. Most recently, he plays a role in Angry Birds 2, was the host of the Teen Choice Awards, featured on Kelly and Ryan, and is hosting a new show on Nickelodeon. And the most common thing we hear from anyone who watches Dobrik is, I just want to be his friend. You know what? I'd be a little afraid to be his friend. You're going to start back on the bricks. I'm going to sit here with my rifle. You know, I'm totally cool with it. Because you'd probably get a car and a nice car at that. Whose is that? Yours? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Friendship is a key component of every David Dobrik vlog. He's cited friends as a huge inspiration. One of his merch drops even used the same font as friends. He recreated the intro for one of his episodes. And articles around the internet have alluded to Dobrik's vlog being the modern day friends. Courtney Cox was even in the vlog, which is pretty wild. So this is not necessarily a new concept. But what is it exactly about David's vlog that makes it the TV sitcom reimagined for the modern era? Well, let's define what a sitcom is. A sitcom, or a situational comedy, is centered upon a fixed set of characters that show up from episode to episode. The world of these sitcoms is relatively small. Like in Friends, you have the apartments. You have Central Perk as a main location. A lot of David's vlogs are centered around the friends just hanging out on a couch. And you would be amazed how many TV sitcoms start with friends sitting on a couch. And a huge part of sitcoms is the laugh track. You're going out with the guy. There's got to be something wrong with him. If you think about it, David's laughter throughout the episodes kind of operates the same way as a laugh track. Oh, damn, I need to take a nap. Studies have shown that people are more inclined to laugh when laughter is present. He'll kill me. I'm willing to take that risk. Another thing that we see in major sitcoms, as well as in Dobrik's vlog, there's always romance within the group of friends. But the thing is, this romance can never break up the friendship. Friendship always wins. So you see that across sitcoms like Ted and Robin, Cece and Schmidt, Ross and Rachel. I mean, romance is such a massive part of sitcoms. And you look at the vlog squad, it's kind of the same thing. I mean, David's most viewed video is his breakup video with Liza. And they're still great friends. So we know that you're still friends with your ex, David Dobrik. He's doing amazing things, and I'm really proud of him. The Todd and Corinna storyline, though, that was just fantastic. Phenomenal. That's just good TV. For the internet. Take your pieces. Oh! Oh my God! Reality TV producers that would f***ing kill for that moment. Another element of sitcoms that we see in Dobrik's vlog is that the audience knows the most. This is like in The Office when you know that Michael is dating Pam's mom, but Pam doesn't know herself. I have recently taken a li— Who's the lucky lady? Pam's mom. What? This is kind of like when David married Jason's mom. I married your mom. You didn't. I proposed to her in Boston. And because you know more than some of the characters in the show, you now feel like you're a part of it. But the thing is, like in most sitcoms, and like with David's vlog, you can't really become a part of the friend group unless you're a celebrity. What it do? It's your boy, Big Snoop Dogg, hanging out with David Dobrik. Celebrity cameos have been a massive part of sitcoms since sitcoms have been around. If you look back at Friends, you saw Brad Pitt, George Clooney, all kinds of celebrities getting onto Friends as the show started to grow. That's the exact same thing with David's vlog. Kendall Jenner DM'd me. Shut up. Open it! What is it? What is it? We love you. Can we all be friends? What? If you're a celebrity and you're watching this and you want to hang out— Send us a DM. —DMs are open. You know what? A laugh track on this channel would be really great because sometimes I don't know if the audience is laughing at a lot of my jokes. You know? They're probably not. Cue laugh track. So although Dobrik's vlog has all the traits of the sitcom, honestly, it is a new beast, totally reimagined for the modern era. He's producing these vlogs in real time and at a fraction of the price of a TV show. He's not so concerned with production value. He doesn't even use a mic on his camera or a tripod or anything. It's really just about friendship and the stories. And instead of 22-minute episodes, we have four minutes and 20 seconds, which is about all we can handle right now as an audience. I can't watch a video over three minutes, so I know that a lot of people don't like doing that. So four minutes is like the perfect amount. Instead of actors, everyone's just playing themselves. And all the relationships are real. Your YouTube channel has your accent. Oh yeah, it's everywhere. Isn't that weird? Yeah, it's so weird. Right? It's so weird. But I mean, that was, you know, that's what we signed up for. And like all popular sitcoms, no one really wants it to end. But in this case, it doesn't have to. The people that, like, have watched me from the beginning are still around. And like, that's like the best part. Even if there isn't a vlog, there are so many other ways to interact with all of the different characters on different platforms, whether it's TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram. There's just so many other ways to continue the story. All the other vlog squad members, their YouTube channels are kind of like spinoffs. Good morning, guys. Welcome back to my channel. One thing we noticed when we did all of this research was that sitcoms, as well as Dobrik's vlogs, are actually pretty edgy. They talk about sex, drugs, and incorporate a lot of violence. YouTube does this thing where they favor, like, they won't favor, like, my videos because they're very edgy. Jonah tased me earlier, so it's time to get him back. And Dobrik's vlogs take it even a step further. They're way edgier than a lot of the most popular sitcoms. He must just be hitting 2019 standards of what's acceptable because Dobrik is very mainstream. Showing up on shows on Nickelodeon. He just hosted the Teen Choice Award and won a Teen Choice Award. He's really getting recognized and adopted by mainstream Hollywood. Pat is going to chug three beers. We're going to spin him around in 20 seconds and he's going to try to shoot something off his girlfriend, Karina. On your marks, get set, go! Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Three, two, one, shoot! So those are our thoughts on David Dobrik and the vlog squad and how they've reimagined the sitcom format. A couple of questions for you guys to answer. One, do you watch David Dobrik? And two, what is your favorite sitcom? Mine is absolutely The Office. Colin? I'm going to think about it. OK. Comment below and subscribe to the channel. New Girl's great. New Girl is great. Yeah, you're right. Friends, obviously. Seinfeld. Yep. How I Met Your Mother. That is a phenomenal show.