'Dodgeball Thunderdrome': Host David Dobrik is controversy's favorite child, here's a look at all his drama
YouTuber and social media sensation David Dobrik is about to make his debut as a television host with 'Dodgeball Thunderdrome'. The show will begin airing on Discovery Channel on August 19 and before it does, here's what you should know about the 24-year-old host who enjoys immense popularity for his crazy giveaways (read Teslas and thousand of dollars). Dobrik's name has also been associated with a lot of drama, the most popular one being with YouTuber Trisha Paytas.
Dobrik is the leader of a popular YouTube ensemble called 'The Vlog Squad' and has a number of members who appear in his videos on a rotational basis. Some of the names include his best friend Jason Nash, Liza Koshy, Brandon Calvillo, Dom Zeglaitis, The Antonyan siblings (Nick, Vardan and Suzy) and Corinna Kopf. Paytas was one of the members of this group and was also dating the now 47-year-old Nash, who broke up with her sometime in 2019.
Trisha since then posted numerous videos on her YouTube channel accusing V-squad members of inappropriate behavior and has been demanding they be canceled. In a recent video, she said, "Why is everyone taking accountability except David Dobrik, Jason Nash, and that whole Vlog Squad for being racist, homophobic, and for supporting their friend dating minors. Dobrik has a fan base of frat guys and young girls who think he's cute, so he can get a free pass? All his friends are cute White guys so they get a pass? It's insane."
In an earlier video that has now been deleted, she also blamed Dobrik for her break up with Nash. She claimed that Dobrik forced Nash to break up with her as he didn't want her to be a part of the squad, according to a Distractify report. Trisha also expressed concern over one of the clips that was a part of Dobrik's video. In it, he joked that Nash should get Tana Mongeau to hook up with him and Trisha and the latter expressed discomfort over it. Trisha was 30 at the time, Nash was 45 and Tana was just a 20-year-old but the joke continued across a few vlogs. Trisha had asked for the joke to be dropped but it still made to the final cut. She later clarified that she did reach out to him once again after which she got an apology from him.
Dobrik was also under the scanner after a number of past videos surfaced on the internet with him using the N-word and being insensitive towards Black people. Following days of silence on social media, Dobrik issued an apology in early July on his podcast 'VIEWS with David Dobrik and Jason Nash' where he said he was "ashamed and embarrassed" by some of his old videos and vines, according to Insider.
Dobrik also married his best friend Nash's mother, Lorraine. In a bid to get back at Nash who poked fun at him saying he'd never find someone to marry, Dobrik flew to Boston to ask for Lorraine's hand in marriage, and they got married in Vegas in May 2019. The divorce was announced a month later on his Twitter and all of this was documented on his YouTube channel. He received a ton of criticism from fans who accused him of ruining the sanctity of marriage for the sake of content for his channel.
As of today, Dobrik's YouTube channel has 18.1M subscribers and his Instagram has 14M followers.