Written by Emma Canady. Media by Bekah Dothager.
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Sept. 12, 2015, marked a very special occasion for two people and their millions of fans: the Anniversary of DanAndPhilGames. One year ago, YouTube stars and best friends Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) announced a surprising new addition to their brand, a joint gaming channel.
For those of you who haven’t seen videos from either user, you’re missing out. Dan uses dark jokes, embarrassing anecdotes, existential crises, and skits to show his personality on his channel. Phil, on the other hand, pairs good nature humor, funny stories of interesting people he’s met, childhood stories, and a bubbly personality to show himself on his channel. (Recommendation for your first video: Audience Participation Fear and Phil In The Club)
The two have been friends since 2009, with individual channels that existed in the dark time of YouTube. Though they might have started their careers with long bangs that fell beneath their chins, and old heavy laptops stacked on piles of books, the two have come incredibly far. In addition to their YouTube careers, they co-host a BBC Radio One show called “The Internet Takeover”, and have co-written a book that will be released in Oct. 2015 followed by a UK tour. They have also recently released an app version of a game Phil created called The 7 Second Challenge.
While gaming channels are definitely not new to YouTube, Dan and Phil combine their unique senses of humor, great editing skills, and friendship to create dynamic and hilarious videos. The videos consist of boisterous laughter and witty banter that leaves the audience waiting for more.
DanAndPhilGames has accumulated over 1,535,000 subscribers in the past year with over 92,647,000 views. Their videos focus on diverse games from every genre. These games span from classics like Mario Kart, hilariously unheard of ones like Bishi Bashi, and even Three Legged DDR and Halo 3. While they often play together, the two also play a series of Dan vs. Phil where they compete against each other with the thick, borderline obsessive, competitiveness that can only be reached by best friends.
Two of their most popular series are Sims 4 and Spooky Week. The Sims 4 series currently has 18 videos, with more to come, and star a Sim character they made that is the mashed together characteristics of themselves, aptly named Dil Howlter. They put the Sim in shenanigans and pair it with amusing commentary to add a twist to the Let’s Play nature of the game. Quickly, it became a fan favorite and still is strongly loved today.
Their Spooky Week segment premiered in Oct. during the week of Halloween, where they played a multitude of scary games. The videos mostly consisted of Phil making terrible gaming decisions and cracking jokes while Dan screams loudly and falls from his chair. They have announced that they will be doing another Spooky Week to mark the 2015 Halloween season. In preparation for what will inevitably be a tear producing and gut-wrenching level of humor, I highly recommend using these few weeks before the end of Oct. to catch up on the videos the boys have to offer!
