[ad_1]
- David Dobrik is a famous YouTube vlogger known for his short funny videos with his friends.
- The “Vlog Squad” has brought Dobrik nearly 19 million YouTube subscribers.
- Now a former member of the team says the group was toxic and looked like a “cult” behind the scenes.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
YouTube star David Dobrik’s ‘Vlog Squad’ hasn’t always been the healthy group of friends it seemed to be on screen, former member said in explosive interview with H3H3 Production’s Ethan and Hila Klein .
Nik Keswani, better known as BigNik, appeared on the H3H3 podcast “After Dark” to explain why he stopped appearing on Dobrik’s channel in 2018. Dobrik has nearly 19 million YouTube subscribers, is highly regarded by Gen Z fans on YouTube and has been compared to reality TV hosts like Jimmy Fallon (he even picked up Fallon’s show for one episode). On his YouTube channel, Dobrik used to upload 4 minute videos featuring funny skits from his friends. He stopped posting daily quarantined vlogs.
Read more: Highest-paid YouTubers of 2020, according to Forbes estimates
Keswani has 1 million YouTube subscribers, and he first found fame on the internet on Vine, where he was initially even more popular than Dobrik. Keswani has dwarfism, and Dobrik often made fun of his height during Keswani’s “Vlog Squad” appearances.
During his recent appearance at H3H3, Keswani said the jokes actually hurt him and ultimately led him to quit the channel. He also said that the behavior of the group of friends towards him could be cruel and harmful to his mental health. Her candid interview shines a light on the reality of popular YouTube culture and the platform’s most loved and profitable stars.
Keswani joins other YouTubers who have spoken about Dobrik’s group of friends
During a recent episode of Ethan Klein’s “Frenemies” podcast with Trisha Paytas, Dobrik and “Vlog Squad” member – and Paytas’ ex-boyfriend – Jason Nash were discussed at length. Paytas said the group of friends were “toxic” as a whole. Keswani agreed that Paytas’ assessment of the “toxic” culture was correct.
“It’s kind of like a cult,” Keswani said. “I would come home so exhausted, just like mentally.”
Keswani said he still “loves” Dobrik, who he said he still talks to on occasion, and that he always loved Nash. But other members of the “Vlog Squad” would be chatting about him and others in private, Keswani said. He went on to say that the other members of the group of friends had a “superiority complex”.
Read more: David Dobrik said he was ‘ashamed and embarrassed’ at the clips that resurfaced of his racist-insensitive jokes
“I always remember talking to my friends afterwards, like ‘Yo, I have to get through this, I can’t do this,'” Keswani said. “It was me backstage all the time. I was constantly insisting on ‘How can I escape this.'”
Keswani said that when he first met Dobrik, Keswani followed Dobrik’s Vine three times. When Dobrik moved to YouTube, increasing his massive following through daily vlogging, Keswani said the relationship was more about Dobrik using him and his physical appearance as punchlines, which Keswani says helped him fight depression, including feelings of suicide.
“I allowed it, and it’s partly my fault, that David disrespects me in the videos, and then everyone got the idea of ’Oh, okay, we can also miss respect to BigNik, because our master is doing it, ”Keswani said. “I’m fully responsible for allowing it. I’m just a little disappointed that no one really thought it was wrong.”
Keswani says toxicity on camera is part of his real life
In public, Keswani said that Dobrik fans would approach him and make jokes about his height in the style of Dobrik vlogging. He also said his experiences with Dobrik’s group of friends were his first real experience with “some kind of bullying in high school,” which Keswani said he didn’t even experience when he was in high school. . He said Scotty Sire and Nash were two of the only members who stood up for him and were kind to him.
“For a long time I felt worthless in these videos, I was like ‘Man, why am I even here? What is the purpose of my existence? “Because I was just treated like that punching bag,” Keswani said. “Everyone was joking about me, laughing at me.
Read more: David Dobrik has denied rumors he is dating his assistant or singer Madison Beer: ‘There will never be a time when Natalie and I will ever meet’
When Keswani first approached Dobrik about not wanting his appearances on “Vlog Squad” to include jokes about his height, he said Dobrik had cut him off from the videos completely. Keswani also said he spoke to Dobrik privately in December 2019 about his feeling of being used and that Dobrik had apologized to him.
He went on to say that they were on good terms with each other, but that Keswani wanted to dispel the rumor that he had been “kicked” from the group when in reality he had left on his own. Although Keswani has said he will not ask Dobrik to remove videos containing Keswani’s height jokes, he has said it would be a good thing for them to be taken off the internet.
Keswani was not the only “Vlog Squad” member to be bullied in the group, he said. Specifically, Keswani said other members mocked Alex Ernst behind his back and made comments about how Ernst would “shoot” them all because he just wanted to live a normal internet life. According to Keswani, some of the group even chatted about Dobrik when he wasn’t around.
“I knew a girl who was in a relationship with one of them and she would hear conversations from people in that group who spoke badly about David when David was not around,” Keswani said. “Just because you’re popular doesn’t mean you’re a good person.”
[ad_2]
Source link