I’ve gone back and forth on what I think about this.
On the one hand, it seems like no one could possibly be as clueless, tone-deaf, and lacking in self awareness as Dave. Some of the awkward things he does, or mistakes he makes, can be chalked up to normal stuff that could happen to anyone... but when you combine it all together, it really does boggle the mind how any one person could be operating THAT far outside of the gravitational pull of reality. The rational viewer looks at Dave and thinks, “can one man really check so many of these ridiculous boxes?” It begins to seem like self-parody. Then you have the fact that he used to appear normal in Michael’s videos... and his education... and his snippy (if uncreative) clap-backs in the comments section... and it starts to seem like this MUST be an act.
...However...
Trolls do it for the attention, and that’s one thing Dave can’t seem to get. No matter what he throws at the wall — stock market tips, relationship details, theme park vlogs, food reviews, strange invented characters, music videos, awkward skits, cruises, health tips, karaoke, video games, his sister, international travel — nothing sticks. He has a low subscriber count and even lower views. If he really wanted to troll, he’d pick a lane and commit hard. Instead, he’s blowing thousands of dollars to film himself wandering around malls and speeding through museums, and it’s still so bleeping boring that not even his hate-watchers can sit through an entire video (I know I can’t). So what is the point?
Verdict: if he’s a troll, he’s only trolling himself. He genuinely thinks he has something interesting and valuable to offer, and this idea is reinforced by his mom and his goon squad of stans. He is too delusional and narcissistic to be convinced that he isn’t special, that this won’t just eventually work out and make him famous. He will continue to film himself doing pointless, embarrassing things until the very last Teresa loses interest.
