Rob Gavagan

Robert “Rob” Gavagan (born: ), formerly known as Rob Dyke, is an American YouTuber and internet personality. Rob has two series' called "Seriously Strange" and "Why Would You Put That on The Internet", both horror/true crime and comedy based, respectively. Seriously Strange has a number of subseries' called "Twisted Tens", "Serial Killer Files", "Truth or Tale", "Caught on Camera", and "Into The Dark". In March 2020, Rob created a new channel called Smiling Pariah.
==About==
Rob Gavagan created his YouTube channel in September 2012. He started off making vlogs and comedy sketches, before starting his two currently running series, "Seriously Strange" and "Why Would You Put That on the Internet." To this day, Seriously Strange remains as Rob's most popular series, one of its videos being the first to hit one million views on the channel. In January 2019 he legally changed his name to Rob Gavagan. Gavagan is a name which used to be associated with the strong Irish ancestry in his family, but went extinct several generations ago. He changed his name due to YouTube targeting his old name as non-advertiser friendly, as "Dyke" is also an offensive slur for a lesbian, Rob changed it for other reasons, as well, stating that he didn't want his old last name to hold him back professionally in avenues outside of YouTube, such as becoming an author under his real name. With the amount of serious-based content Rob makes, he didn't want his old last name detracting from that.
==Life and career==
Rob dropped out of high school, earned his GED, and then pursued a degree in Criminal Justice at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Massachusetts. He worked as a Private Investigator, Executive Protection specialist, a counselor for sexual offenders (most with developmental disabilities), and then did undercover store security for JCPenney before quitting to pursue his passion of comedy and film/videography. Rob first experimented with the Rob Bob YouTube channel that garnered little attention; the channel has been inactive since the creation of his main channel. Rob currently has another inactive channel called Zombie Horse, where he did comedy, gaming, and sketches. Rob Gavagan has a third channel that has been inactive for years called Your New Best Friends (formerly known as Internet Pariah) which was used for vlogging. Rob claimed that he didn't continue vlogging because he personally felt his life wasn't interesting enough and that he wasn't "narcissistic enough" to feel people should be interested in his life outside of the shows he produces on his main channel.
Rob mentioned in March 2019 that comedy would be removed from his channel entirely due to YouTube's algorithmic changes forcing him to specialize in one form of content for the health of his channel, but that he would likely start a different channel solely for his comedy and opinionated content, as the latter is often infused with humor, such as black comedy.
Rob Gavagan, with good friend and former YouTuber, Cayleigh Elise, started a horror and true crime podcast called Shadowcast, which later changed its name to The Seriously Strange Podcast. Rob moved on from podcasting in the true crime space and reinvented the show to become The Bitter Pill Podcast, which focused on discussing opinions on a number of popular topics. The Bitter Pill Podcast has been inactive for a couple years now, but Rob has eluded to starting it back up when he feels he's ready to take it on again.
After the first YouTube Adpocalypse, Rob Gavagan took a stand for the horror community on YouTube, creating the hashtag #KeepYouTubeCreepy to try and unite creators and viewers together to get YouTube to stop demonetizing horror and true crime based content for all creators in the genre.
Rob is also writing a novel to fulfill his nearly lifelong dream of becoming an author and to diversify his aspirations. He has mentioned a number of times that becoming an author is more important to him than even being a YouTuber. Rob has been writing fiction works since he was around nine-years-old. Rob is also a poet, posting much of his poetry on his Instagram account. He plans to publish a book of his poetry as a response to high viewer demand for it.
He has been an outspoken advocate for breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health and has admitted to suffering and being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder. He has suffered with these disorders almost his whole life, with each becoming substantially worse after the YouTube Adpocalypse.
==Videos==
===Earliest Videos===
Rob started out his channel doing small comedy sketches, and started the mini-series Uninspirational around the same time as WWYPTOTI.
===Why Would You Put That On The Internet===
Why Would You Put That On The Internet? is a series by Rob Gavagan made on January 8, 2013, where fans send Rob things they've found on the internet, which are ridiculous and probably should not have been made. This series is the main comedy series on Rob's channel, with one new video being uploaded every Friday or Saturday. Although Rob has gotten bored with the series and plans to end it on its 100th episode, he replaced it with Social Autopsy. However, with the release of the 100th episode, he announced the series would continue, and he is now, once more, a "comedy and tragedy" channel.
===Seriously Strange===
Seriously Strange is a series by Rob Dyke made on February 2014, as his main horror or fear series with artwork made by TheJoopis. A new episode of the series gets uploaded every Wednesday. There are three sub-series of Seriously Strange called "Twisted Tens", "Serial Killer Files," and "Caught on Camera." The sub-series, Twisted Tens, is a countdown type of series, where Rob Dyke will talk about 10 different things relating to the series. The sub-series "Serial Killer Files" is a series that talks about serial killers that may or may not still be out there right now. And finally, the sub series Caught on Camera is where he acquires mysterious camera footage and discusses it, what he thinks about it and what other people thinks about it.
====Seriously Strange Primary====
The primary series is where he picks any creepy or disturbing topics and discusses it. He picks a random number of examples of the topic to discuss in the video. Rob Dyke uploaded episode 100 of Seriously Strange on January 4, 2018; it's the first one of his creepy series, which obviously doesn't include Why Would You Put That on the Internet?, that reached 100 episodes.
=====Anatomy of Murder=====
This is a series Rob started in 2016, an "upgrade" as he puts it to Serial Killer Files, which is basically the same series but allows him to cover more topics than just serial killers.
====Caught on Camera====
The sub series Caught on Camera is where he acquires mysterious camera footage and discusses it, what he thinks about it and what other people thinks about it.
It's uploaded very occasionally, commonly on Wednesdays.
====Truth or Tale====
Truth or Tale is a sub-series which focuses on urban legends and real events. In each episode, Rob tells five stories, and asks the viewer to decide which ones they think are real and which ones they think are fake, before he reveals the answers. This series is based on Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, a TV series with the same concept which ran on Fox from 1997 to 2002.
===Social Autopsy===
In 2015 Rob created his newest comedy show Social Autopsy, where he dissects society. This show has received much less attention than WWPTOTI and Seriously strange. Rob later ended it after only six episodes, reasons because of lack of attention and fans.
===Seriously Ask===
A Q&A series Rob does where he answers questions that his fans ask. To ask questions, one has to go to his Twitter and tweet the question with the #SeriouslyAsk.
===Zombie Horse===
Rob Started his second gaming channel Zombie Horse in 2014. He did gaming videos and Crappypasta readings, though he eventually took a four-month hiatus, where no videos were posted. Eventually, he returned and continued to post gaming and Crappypasta videos.
===GREYLOCK===
GREYLOCK is an analog horror series produced by Rob, along with MattReevesProduction, hosted on a separate channel in January 2023. The series focuses on VHS tapes exploring the strange and disturbing occurrences around Mount Greylock, Massachusetts.
==So You Wanna Be A YouTuber Contest==
For two years, Rob Gavagan hosted a YouTube-wide contest called "So You Wanna Be a YouTuber?" where he asked participants to create and submit videos using whatever equipment they currently had or could get their hands on. Rob often judged the submissions with friends Justin Bonitz and Bob Pfeiffer and the winner would receive thousands of dollars worth of brand new equipment, from a DSLR camera, to a microphone, to a lighting kit, and more. The one winner would be able to choose one "award package" that contained items that best catered to the content they wanted to produce on YouTube, like a film package, a gaming package, and a musician package. Regulations for the contest were often open-ended in what the videos needed to be of, allowing for full creative freedom for the participants. Rob held this contest in order to fulfill a promise he made to himself when he first started YouTube, where he said that once he was successful on YouTube, he would help another aspiring YouTuber reach their own success.
Rob's close friend, Cayleigh Elise, was the winner of the final "So You Wanna Be a YouTuber?" contest. The two were not friends before Rob chose her as a winner, nor did Rob even know of Cayleigh before that point. Rob, Justin, and Bob found her submission to be the most creative and entertaining, and following her win, Rob took Cayleigh under his wing due to the fact that she was into creating horror and true crime content like he was. He aimed to help bring her channel success through collaborating on a number of Seriously Strange episodes for Rob's channel together, which garnered her a considerable amount of attention in a short amount of time. Rob also offered Cayleigh the opportunity to quit her job and start co-writing Seriously Strange scripts for him, which she accepted. The two became close friends after that point. Cayleigh eventually moved on to become Rob's head writer, overseeing a team of script writers working beneath her. Cayleigh resigned as Rob's head writer in May 2017 so she could put more focus onto her channel, which had gained hundreds of thousands of subscribers by this time.
Rob has since discontinued the "So You Wanna Be a YouTuber?" contest. It's unknown if this decision is indefinite, as Rob hasn't mentioned anything regarding the contest in the years since it ended.
== Controversy ==
=== Feud with Dhar Mann ===
On June 6, 2021, "motivational" YouTuber Dhar Mann uploaded a video titled "Dhar Mann actor quits while on set, what happens is shocking"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJo1n_uTvgo where he talks about the people who critisized him. In the video, Ayden Mekus (who is one of Dhar Mann's most prolific actors) is confronted by two "haters", who call Ayden's acting cringe and mock Dhar Mann. Because of this, Ayden feels disheartened and tells Dhar he wants to quit, only for Dhar to tell Ayden about the critiscm he receives because of his videos, and then telling Ayden to focus on the people who love him instead of listening to the haters.
This video was heavily critisized as well, due to Dhar Mann's manipulative editing, as he portrayed PewDiePie as a "hater" and deliberately did not show him calling out Dhar for hosting giveaways of iPhones/PS5s (which Pewds considers buying subs)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbYo_L8hfbEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXvlFxt26II. Many people commented under the video, quoting Pewdiepie, that "just because your intentions are good, it doesn't absolve you of critiscm". He also used a part of Rob's video (from his Smiling Pariah channel) where he called Dhar a "cringe factory", but clipped out Rob calling out a video of Dhar's where he teaches a lesson of staying with a spouse even if they are abusive towards youhttps://youtu.be/gsW8siu56Ws?t=1539. Adam Johnston called out Dhar for using Ayden as the scapegoat for the brunt of the comments, instead of focusing on the actual critisms people had of his videoshttps://youtu.be/dIAMPRBaZYo?t=895.
The video was also critisized as when Ayden claimed that he was receiving hateful comments, the comments shown were obviously fake. Because of this, more reaction channels have satirized and reacted to the original video. On September 1, 2021, Pewdiepie reacted to Dhar's video as wellhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBs0KYf5WY.
Rob himself commented under the video, saying that he refused to apologize for his remarks, and called out Dhar for using the story of a girl who was bullied for having Down's Syndrome without the consent of her or her mother. He also called out Dhar for his toxic positivity.
Rob Gavagan 2.jpg|Rob's comment under Dhar's video
Rob Gavagan 2a.jpg|
==Quotes==
* "I think I'd rather rail a cat than catch whatever crotch rot that your rocket socket has waiting for me"
* "Remember, you may not believe it, but anything's possible in a world so seriously strange."
*"Happy facepalm Friday everybody."
*"Let's open the serial killer file."
*"Let's explore the anatomy of murder".
== Subscriber Milestones ==
* 1 million subscribers: March 23, 2015
* 2 million subscribers: October 31, 2015
* 3 million subscribers: October 15, 2019
== Trivia ==
* He is of Dutch descent 
==Gallery==
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== References ==
Category:Users who joined in 2012
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Gaming YouTubers
Category:One million subscribers
Category:Two million subscribers
Category:Three million subscribers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:Film YouTubers
Category:Educational YouTubers