When my high school best friend gifted me tickets for Dan and Phil’s newest tour for my 21st birthday, she did so largely from a nostalgic perspective. We’d spent our preteen years obsessing over these two grown men so it only felt right to see them in the flesh nearly ten years later.
Most of the tour content was as expected, focusing on nostalgic discussion going from when Dan and Phil first met. This was to both reminisce with fans on the last fifteen years and to fill in the ‘chaperones’ that came in the form of very confused-looking parents and boyfriends. There was even a boxing match skit, a play on the phenomenon of YouTubers competing in charity boxing matches to stay relevant, and an in-depth look at whether the two men’s lives would’ve had a more positive impact without becoming internet famous.
One unexpected thing was the average age of audience members. Dan and Phil have long been associated with a young fanbase, beloved by angsty teenagers and fans of Twenty-One Pilots, and their pages became a place of self-acceptance for young perusers of the internet. Surprisingly, as I took my seat and looked around, I noticed a much larger lean towards those in their early twenties to thirties, those of us who would have grown up alongside Dan and Phil, rather than new fans. This situation, a room full of people who have been involved in the lives of Dan and Phil since they first became internet famous, was a unique one in a world where people can hide behind profile pictures and usernames.
This is especially significant when explored with another fact: The Terrible Influence Tour is the first set of shows for Dan and Phil since they both publicly came out as gay in 2019. It was this fact that dictated what stood out to me as the most influential parts of the show, the discussion of how fans’ obsession with their sexualities had led to their multiple-year hiatus, and how this had now affected how they navigated this new era of their careers.
For anyone reading who was not on this side of the internet, the Dan and Phil fan sphere was undeniably unique, there was a deep obsession with the idea of ‘Phan’, the rumoured relationship between the two men that manifested into conspiracy videos, fanart and a deep internet cavern of fanfiction. It was this plethora of content that fans generated about the two, that was brought up without hesitation in the show. This was exactly what caught my, and everyone else’s, attention.
For many years, fan obsession has been downplayed on the internet, mistaken for teenagers just being teenagers. However, on this tour, Dan and Phil didn’t shy away from calling out the behaviour that was exhibited towards them, with Dan calling the experience ‘re-traumatising’ after what he had already struggled through with his sexuality during his high school years. What made this even more cutting, was that this was being recounted in a room full of people who may very well have been responsible for these actions. Even from my perspective, from an old fan who was certainly more than healthily interested in the two as a teenager, Dan’s analysis led to a real reassessment of my own place within a toxic culture of parasocial relationships with celebrities.
What I hope can be learnt from this brave move by Dan and Phil, is that it is time to call out this unacceptable form of obsession, which has for so long been understated and undermined. By bringing up this uncomfortable subject directly to fans who may have been responsible for their negative experiences in the limelight, the two have illustrated how these discussions do not make for an angry audience, but instead allow them more authentic access to the feelings of their heroes.
The internet is not getting any less prominent, and the position of an influencer is becoming no less influential, but if this attitude of accountability and honesty can be brought into the mainstream, there is a real chance that fandoms can be a place of celebration, not simply fixation.
BEAUTIFUL ARTICLE, PERFECTLY EXPLAINS WHAT THIS TOUR WAS ALL ABOUT!