Viral Social Rule #249: Be Careful How You Treat People on Your Way Up
One day during one of the west-coast YouTube events I got a call from one of my YouTube friends Eddie. He hates when I call him Eddie because he goes by TheMightyThor1212, and using the name Eddie might compromise national friggin’ security.
Eddie knows I’m boo-hooing that I was missing the SanVegasFranAngelosDiegowhatever YouTube meetup and puts me on the phone with a number of YouTube peeps (including a somewhat perplexed LisaNova who kinda pretends she knows who I am, but is really thinking “I hope this bearded dude doesn’t grab my boobies… Nothing tastes as good as thin”).
Then Eddie puts a guy on the phone who has a spark to his voice- yeah a spark like the one that graced Joe Pesci’s tooth on Home Alone. The guy says he’s Shaycarl and I make him repeat the name about 5 times because I honestly wanted to see his videos after hearing this odd sincerity of his voice. I wrote it down and subscribed, but then (and this is unusual for me) I started eating his videos like cereal at midnight. Shay says something about Sxephil having mentioned him, and it got him a bunch of subscribers. I later find this video response to “YouTube is My Wife,” and my nuts still hurt from laughing.
Shay and I have spoken, collabed, and met a few times, and he’s punked me good. But now he’s eclipsed me and is in the YouTube Popular crowd, but not anymore affected by it than Buckley or HappySlip. He’s the rare YouTuber you’d take home to your mama. He’s deeply faithful and not nearly as annoying as I thought he’d be. I thought I’d have to fake laugh in his presence like I was meeting Robin Williams. But it turns out he’s as delicious in person (mind you this was pre-ZZ Top beard).
So this Shay turns out to be a mega star on planet YouTube (find him and his cult-like following at ShayCarl or Shaytards and he steals the show on TheStation). But he still has the sweet heart to reference Uncle Nalts and that book about YouTube Popularity I wrote and published for free on the Internets. Like, Scoob, it’d be worth my time writing that dated eBook if it had .05 percent of a role in taking Shay from a disk jockey gig in some state none of us have heard of (Nevada or Oklahoma or something) to 300 plus subscribers and WWF Dominator of YouTube’s most-popular page. 
Of course I can’t take credit, because then I’d have to take responsibility if he ends up getting sucked into the wild life of Venice Beach, and we find his bloated corpse all coked out on a beach like Belushi or Farley, his TV equivalents.
Oh shit I have to write a real book in about 20 days. WTF am I blogging for? Oh yeah- my car’s still warming up. So a long way of saying… be careful how you treat people when you’re hawt because they might eclipse you, and make you proud as an Irish mama.
P.S. Buckley said he saw me at the YouTube 777 gathering but thank God he didn’t approach me. Because I might have been all, like, “yipes! An unpopular gay guy!!! Zipster protect me!!!!” And then he’d never return my e-mails.
Shane Dawson is definitely not a dick, at least from what I’ve observed and from my somewhat limited interactions with him on Twitter. Very nice person.
^^I actually heard that ShaneDawson is a dick coz he has refused to do collabs or shoutouts for people who helped him on his way to the top and stuff but I dont know.^^
I<3SwiftKarateChop and I think hes probably still 'normal' after youtube, But hes not exactly at ShaneDawson status yet so we'll just have to see….
I watch Shay’s videos nightly as well. But I also watch most all the other popular YouTubers. However what I realized is that just because you’re popular doesn’t mean you’re funny. When it comes down to it I’d much rather watch a Nalts video or MediocreFilms rather a Fred or Station vid. All I’m saying is those people who are true about what they do and what they let represent them shine through the rest.
I love the fact someone like shay can go from small town to hollywood if they desire on youtube. Nalts- you da man 🙂
Peace, Ace77man
@Rebecca – have you actually interacted with him in any way? I would not use heresay to determine a person’s demeanor. He’s been quite nice to me and I’m pretty sure I’m nobody of any real consequence.
Heresay is for tabloids, and luckily there isn’t a YouTube one (yet).
I heard Peter Coffin calls subscribers his “bitches,” and told LisaNova her nose was ugly when she wanted to collab.
I love both ShayCarls and nalts videos. I sometimes log into YouTube an when I see videos from both of you, I get all happy inside. I can certainly tell from the way both of you interact/speak/joke that you are great people and down to earth. I can also certainly tell who is not. Sometimes I say it’s better to keep your mouth shut, because it can hurt you in the longrun, but I for what it’s worth, can’t disagree with this blog. You speak highly of Shay and he deserves that, just as much you deserve to be recognized, not just as a youtuber, but a great individual that means all the best for everyone around him. I’ve been thinking of making my own YouTube videos, mostly thanks to you and Shay. But I will hold off on the idea just yet. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t let the other nonsense distract you from it.
I must agree with Nalts. If now you’re the spider eating the tadpoles, later the tadpoles turn into frogs and might eat you (I couldn’t think of any worse metaphor). I also agree with Steven Hibbs; Once you’re up there on YouTube, you don’t need to be funny to be popular. Usually its the opposite; I have “discovered” a lot of small YouTubers for my entertainment who are a lot funnier than a lot of the Top YouTubers.
The best time in a career is on your way up, not when you’re up there.
Always be careful how you treat people whether on the way up or down. You never know who can be a great ally when you need it. Plus it just makes sense to be a decent human being and treat people how you want to be treated.
Even if you are having a shitty day.
Great blog Nalts!
Shay put this article on his twitter, and I have to say the only reason I watch your videos or know you is through Shay, same as David Spates and perhaps Tay Zonday.
I am new to the youtube party but it’s nice to follow one youtuber that refers you back to his roots.
I’m sure Davey Wavey is not a dick.
Shay is fantastic! I met him at the 789 gathering this past summer and he ran up to me (I had just joined the group) and gave me a hug and said “HI! I’m Shay!” like I didn’t know. haha I really didn’t expect that from someone with his status on YT! 🙂
He’s right though, that little PDF YouTube book is really good! I read it when I was just starting out on the tubes and ended up learning about Stickam, where I went and started socializing with other YouTubers. I met Todd (Toddly00) and Alan (fallofautumndistro) among others and now I’m working for Alan on the DFTBA Records Podcast!
Everyone should really give that book a glance at the very least! 🙂
@Nalts Yeah, because LisaNova is just ALWAYS trying to collab with me. Attractive women with good senses of humor JUST WON’T LEAVE ME ALONE.
I have to say i love your videos and shay’s videos…like alot.And i’ve heard from a few people that shanedawson isn’t actually that nice, but if i meet him ,i’ll be the judge.Also another thing about shanedawson was , i remeber when he had a bout 10k subs and some youtuber (forgotten the name) with 60k subs gave him a shoutout in a video . BOOM shane dawson gets a ton of subs, and won’t return the favour
Shay is the coolest. For realzies.
No need to go to gatherings… just have someone bring a blowup doll with a picture of your face on it.
Loved this! Shay is probably in my number 1 favorite youtuber. Not even joking. Especially after I met him this summer at the 789 gathering. He is the sweetest man ever and not to mention hilarious! He is def the youtube megastar and he is just amazing all around. Gotta love the shaytards <3 xoxo
shaytards page is easily the best/entertaining vlogs on youtube
I love ShayCarl!! He is such a sweet sincere guy, and his family rules.
(ps: ShaneDawson isn’t very friendly. I know personally. I’ll just leave it at that.)
@charlie Actually, in one of ShaneDawson’s recent videos, I remember him saying that you should subscribe to this guy (forget his name) because he gave a shoutout to Shane when he didn’t have lots of subs, so he wanted to return the favor… Just saying, we may not be talking about the same person…
Also, I think that SXEphil and CharlesTrippy (love his daily vlogs) are good people, although I haven’t met them… Also, I agree that Happyslip, MichealBuckley, and ShayCarl (love his vlogs, too) are good people. Again, I haven’t met them..,
I kid you not, I once talked to ShayCarl on the phone once from Yo-tube, thanks to good ol’ Pipustrello. Shay asked me if I had ever heard of him, and honestly, at that point, I had not. So HE asked ME to check out HIS channel, and then, a subscription was born.
Sometimes I laugh at the fact that ShayCarl actually had to ask me to check him out. That seems like a ridiculous notion looking at how successful he is now. It just goes to show how far that guy has come. Im very happy for him.
Now that I think about it, he never did come through on that promise he made me that he’d check out my channel, though, but whatevs. Like Bo Burnham, I forgive him. Shay seems like a real good guy.