''Conspiracy Series with Shane Dawson'' is an American documentary web series created by

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

Shane Dawson. The web series was officially announced on January 18, 2019, through a video teaser uploaded to his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. The series premiered on January 30, 2019, on his YouTube channel, followed by the second and final episode on February 11, 2019. However, on February 4, 2020, Dawson announced another episode set for release the following day. The series is presented by Dawson, who presents and investigates various conspiracy theories. It is edited by Dawson and cameraman Andrew Siwicki. The first episode included two of the

2018 California wildfires The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in List of California wildfires, California history. It was also the largest on record at the time, now third after the 2020 California wildfires, 2020 and 2021 Ca ...

, the Woolsey Fire and the Camp Fire and their causes; deepfakes; whether children can be brainwashed by dark themes in cartoons;

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

being cryonically frozen; and Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch using subliminal messaging. As part of the episodes, Dawson and friends explore and test iPhone theories involving Live Photos, phone calls, FaceTime, and

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

app Zepeto. Dawson also visits for himself the damage caused by the wildfires. It received critical acclaim for its direction, mature themes and dark tone. The first video achieved over 22 million views in the first week. The second episode received over 10 million views in the first 24 hours, and featured Dawson investigating YouTuber Brittani Louise Taylor's struggles with domestic abuse and

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

, Adobe Voco and Lyrebird voice manipulation, and Chuck E. Cheese pizzas.

Cast

* Shane Dawson: The host and creator of the series * Brittani Louise Taylor: Dawson's friend and a family-vlog YouTuber * Andrew Siwicki: The co-director, co-editor, and cameraman of the series * Ryland Adams: Dawson's fiancé (then boyfriend) who is also a YouTuber * Morgan Adams: Ryland's sister and a fellow YouTuber * Garrett Watts: Dawson's friend and a fellow YouTuber

Episodes

Responses

Dawson's video on Chuck E. Cheese's leftover pizza garnered a response from the company's spokesperson: "The claims made in this video about Chuck E. Cheese's and our pizza are unequivocally false ... No conspiracies here—our pizzas are made to order and we prepare our dough fresh in restaurant, which means that they’re not always perfectly uniform in shape, but always delicious." Dawson's videos also created a response from YouTube, who said "as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the user experience across our site, we'll begin reducing recommendations of borderline content or videos that could misinform users in harmful ways." Initially the video was demonetized by YouTube, however this decision was later reversed. The company announced that "after manual review, YouTube reinstated Dawson's ability to include ads on the video, saying it wasn't in violation of the site's advertising guidelines. It was also able to appear on the front page and be recommended to other users."

References

{{Shane Dawson American non-fiction web series 2010s YouTube series Conspiracy web series Shane Dawson 2019 web series debuts 2020s YouTube series