Mikey: Well uhm that's because I... went in the girl's room. Principal Danvers: You did WHAT? Principal Danvers: If you had the key to the boy's restroom then how did you get in the girl's room?
May is a cheerful and sweet girl who has a love for unicorns.
A lot of Shaun Dixon’s roles are like this due to his excitement and Large Ham status.
Jayden from the Jayden and Mikey videos is a cheerful boy who’s kind and always tries to lead Mikey in the right path. Bonus points for being The Woobie in the videos.
In general, most of the time, the protagonists are ridiculously forgiving of the antagonists and easily get over whatever was done or said to them, even when being angry at them would've made more sense. This is especially noticeable in cases when the antagonist was repeatedly going out of their way to harass them or when the antagonist's bullying is more akin to cruel emotional abuse. This is very much prominent in the earlier episodes when the channel was just starting up.
In "Gay Son Forced To Marry Girl Parts 1 & 2", despite also having a non-Indian secret lover that she's hiding from her family as Dev has with Andrew, Latika doesn't show that much worry or anxiety over her situation. Her mom is also shown to not be supportive of her career goals at one point and even then she reacts with mild annoyance in that scene. This is very clear in the ceremonial scene if one compares her reactions to Dev's. Whereas Dev actually begins crying due to the Arranged Marriage, Latika looks only slightly conflicted during the scene. Also, her big reveal to her mom about her secret boyfriend and wanting to pursue her own career goals was not as dramatic and is very much in sharp contrast to Dev's tearful confession to his parents. Granted, she, unlike Dev, was in a straight relationship, but that doesn't make her situation any less angsty in its own way.
In "Dad Abandons Wife And Teenager", Amelia easily accepts the fact that her father wants nothing to do with her and her mom and has no reaction when witnessing him being a better dad to his other kids. Case in point, when her mom shows her the papers of her dad officially planning to terminate his parental rights on her, she's not upset at all and states that she's just happy that he's a better father to the other kids and that she's glad to have her mom. Her mom, who acts a lot more realistic about the situation, is understandably bewildered at Amelia's behavior throughout the whole thing, so this may be the Intended Audience Reaction.
Leslie's daughter from "Tattooed Girl Shamed in Church" witnessed a trial between her parents in a courthouse about her father abusing her mother and the former lashing out when getting caught with a disturbing picture as evidence, yet despite all the family drama she most likely had to go through offscreen due to her parents' conflicts, aside for being very quiet until the trial ends, as soon as Emily goes to talk to her, she brushes it off immediately and cheerfully bonds with her new friend as if nothing happened. Sure, this all of this happens at the closing of the episode, but still.
Chris, Eliza, & Owen from "Students Break Into the School" take the revelation that their teacher Mrs. Brownell has been stalking them throughout the video (under the assumption that they were plotting to deface the school as part of a senior prank) unbelievably well. Their only reaction to finding out about her borderline obsessive endeavor to get them expelled/arrested—which continued even after they proved they weren't up to anything criminal—is to mildly chide her for making assumptions about them.
Anvilicious: Virtually none of Dhar Mann's videos are subtle with their messaging. Almost all of them have characters outright state the moral of the story at least twice.
One especially egregious example comes in the form of the video "GREEDY Boss FIRES Staff By Using AI" in which the clients that Deandre (the titular greedy boss) are trying to get to endorse his cookie product reject the AI generated version of it by calling it "generic" while also calling the human version of it "passionate and personable".
In general, most of the Contrived Coincidence(s) that serve as plot twists, such as certain characters being related to each other or knowing certain information beforehand, end up coming across as this.
Sloane being revealed to have been the one sabotaging Zara's dress in "Student Destroys Girl's Dress" is barely even hinted at or foreshadowed until near the end where Libby states that she'd never do that to Zara. This is even more shocking considering how Sloane seemed like a genuine friend to Zara beforehand.
Latika revealing she had a secret boyfriend the entire time comes off as this in "Gay Son Forced To Marry Girl Parts 1 and 2", considering how, unlike Dev, aside from a few comments and disagreements with her mom and some surprising reactions, she doesn't really show that much angst and worry about her situation, nor does she look that conflicted during the ceremonial scene.note Granted, she's more of a supporting character, but still. Also, unlike her mom not supporting her fashion dreams, it was never even hinted or implied in the first part that she, like Dev, was also hiding a secret partner from her family. So much so that this little bit of dialogue could be replaced with Latika simply saying that she's not interested in Dev or marriage and nothing much would be changed to even affect the ending in the first place.
Captain Obvious Reveal: One of the main problems of the channel. If the video reuses a plot from a past video, don't be surprised to see the same twist or at least something similar.
"Girl Catches Guy Cheat on 4K Camera". The premise is that Tara, a school journalist, discovers that basketball player David, a student recently out of probation and has a 4.0, mysteriously gets straight A's in his classes even though he isn't very smart. There are hints of Principal Martinez absolutely hating Kennedy High especially with his estranged brother as the school's principal. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Martinez was the one that changed David's grades and have him part of the basketball player so that his school would win.
Cliché Storm: Every episode is filled with this. Expect a plethora of well-worn catchphrases that are supposed to be seen as deep and profound, and if an episode has a plot twist, expect to be able to see it coming from a million miles away.
Critic-Proof: Despite the majority of opinions on the series being negative, and many of the actors striking due to rights violations, the series still has a gigantic fanbase that keeps it going.
Designated Monkey: Mikey, despite being a bit of a troublemaker, most of the time receives punishments that seem like pretty Disproportionate Retributions (e.g. Mikey getting grounded for an entire summer for using a cheating website his teacher made, which technically counts as entrapment, Jay's mom snitching to Mikey's mom because Mikey helped Jay fake a broken arm, and Mikey being the victim of a gaslighting prank at the hospital just because he faked having a peanut allergy, then being forced to go to school immediately after getting traumatized as further punishment) to the point where his peers look just as bad, if not worse, than Mikey himself. The plethora of Suspiciously Similar Substitutes with the same problems doesn't help.
Designated Villain: In SINGLE DAD Dumped For Having A KID, Mindy is portrayed as the villain because she was angry at her date for hiding that he was a dad, even rightfully calling him out for deceiving her. Later, when she asks her friend Colleen why she set them up knowing that she was childfree, Colleen reacts by saying "he's a good guy" and that Mindy should weave her standards for him. And in true Dhar Mann fashion, Mindy faces Karmic Overkill by her date cheating on her.
Mikey was well-liked enough to be a recurring character.
Shaun Dixon’s characters have become this due to him putting in a funny and good performance with some awesome line delivery and for the fact he usually doesn’t take anything from his antagonists.
Elliot from "Mean Lady Destroys Gender Reveal" has become this as well, mainly for the fact he's one of the very few villains who managed to get away with everything he did with no punishment at all, which is extremely rare for a Dhar Mann character who has done anything bad. It also helps that he's ultimately a nice kid and doesn't antagonize anyone other than Patty, who is a Bad Boss.
Eva in "Nerd Shames Girl's Bad Grammar" is fairly popular due to being a genuinely caring and supportive friend to the main character Hannah. She encourages Hannah to move on from Justin and even knuckles down to help her get into Cornell despite not fully agreeing with her reasons.
Harsher in Hindsight: Dhar Mann's collaborations with SSSniperWolf have become this as of October 2023, as she posted the doxx of fellow YouTuberjacksfilms. This is despite the collaboration videos she appeared in having the Aesop that cyberbullying is bad. Months before this incident, SSSniperWolf was involved in another controversy for reacting to Tiktok videos, but removing the usernames/credits of those who posted them originally.
In "Babysitter Abandons Kid" Brittney and Carla's father is seen as justified for plotting an elaborate scheme to teach his irresponsible daughter Brittney a lesson. But it's never acknowledged that he basically terrorized Brittney by making her think her sister was being held for ransom by a dangerous criminal. What's more, the father could've taught Brittney the lesson she needed on taking responsibilities seriously in a way that didn't involve gaslighting her into thinking her little sister was in grave danger because of her. But when Brittney calls her father out for scaring her, she's treated as if she's just trying to avoid punishment, despite her having every reason to be angry at being terrorized so severely by her own father.
This happens again the the two sequels, "Babysitter Loses Kid at The Park" and "Babysitter Loses The 5-Month-Old Baby." In the first sequel, Britney is shamed by her father and Carla for not taking the kidnapping seriously at first and for being careless, hypocritically ignoring how their actions were what led Brittney to initially dismiss the kidnapping as another set-up. In fact, Brittney actually does a better job than last time watching Carla, even if her behavior is still a tad rude and dismissive (Watch Unintentionally Sympathetic for more detail). In the second sequel, both Carla and their father act like Britney lost Carla at the park, ignoring the fact Carla told her dad that it was her idea to go to the ice cream truck (an unappreciated Pet the Dog moment on Brittney's part). It doesn't help that both Carla and their dad once again refuse to admit how their past actions led to Brittney's mistake and seem a lot harsher to Brittney than normal. While Brittney is very reckless with the baby to the point of neglect and thus deserves more punishment than in the previous videos, Carla and their father still come off as hypocrites and largely responsible for their family's dysfunctional dynamic.
Following the titular incident of "Movie Star Slaps Host at Award Show," Elijah's son Wesley ends up slapping school bully Ben in the midst of a confrontation. It's treated as though Wesley was in the wrong to hit Ben and as proof that Elijah has been setting a bad example for his son and his impressionable fans. However, what Wesley did isn't at all comparable to what Elijah did. As opposed to Elijah's unprovoked act of violence, Wesley only hits Ben in response to Ben pushing him against the lockers and refusing to let him go. So instead of playing into the "violence is not the answer" message, it comes across that Wesley is being unfairly punished for defending himself from a bully. The fact that only Wesley gets taken to the principal's office over the incident while Ben is apparently let off the hook due to having a Freudian Excuse (his parents' divorce) adds insult to injury.
Karmic Overkill: A fair amount of viewers feel that some of the punishments that the villains and antagonists get in the end is quite harsher than what they deserve, as they often involve Real Life abuse like gaslighting. Especially if said character happens to be a child (or teenager). See the Unintentionally Sympathetic page for more specific examples.
The formulaic nature of his video thumbnails and titles are very easy to parody. In particular, the phrase "Instantly Regrets It" is synonymous with Dhar Mann video titles.
In "Evil Babysitter Mistreats Kid", one of Elijah’s lines is, "Are you kidding! when my parents get home, I’m singing like a canary." This line became so popular that it's been referenced in multiple Dhar Mann comment sections and live chats. There are many meme videos using the line as well, with many of them getting thousands of views in a short time.
"What happens in the dark always comes to light." This line has become very popular as an Ironic Echo to one of Dhar Mann's favorite morals, after Dhar Mann himself was accused in early 2023 of not paying his cast and crew enough money to even pay their rent, making him just like one of his own villainous characters.
Dhar Mann porn titlesExplanationSome of the titles of Dhar Mann's videos such as “Little Sis Blackmails Big Bro” and “Babysitter Tries To Seduce Husband” sound like porn titles out of context. Cue YouTubers like ImAllexx making jokes that "they've seen this video before, but on the other website"
In "EVIL NURSE STEALS BABY From Hospital", the kidnapper who abducted a nurse and her child and forced the nurse to steal a newborn was bad enough, but the moment he decided to not give the baby back after the deal was the moment he crossed the point of no return.
In the first episode of "Mischief Mikey", while Mikey had no right to steal from his mother's safe deposit in a bank or blackmail Jayden for breaking a vase and taking part of the heist, his mother becomes a full-blown psychopath when she decided to leave Mikey in prison with an adult inmate that was likely going to beat him up or worse, despite her son only being thirteen years old.
Eva in "EVIL Stepmom MISTREATS Her STEPDAUGHTER" when it was revealed she straight up hid Lizzie's father's will that said that Lizzie was entitled to his restaurant, Dharla's just to that she could take it over and be an overbearing and abusive monster towards Lizzie and the staff. Made even worse when she rips up the will to destroy the evidence before she gets arrested.
Alastor Emerson in "Dad Favors One Son Over The Others" was already a bad father for forcing two of his sons, Marcus and Gabriel, to become fighting champions to make up for him not making State Championships himself (only winning second place), but forcing Tristan, his third son, to start training right when he becomes 18 even though he wanted to be a musician than a fighter was going too far. Alastor really crosses the line when he shows no remorse for Gabe's death and even smashes Tristan's guitar for being soft (even though his brother died), AND openly shames Tristan in front of his entire family (including Marcus's girlfriend Harley) for losing his one and only match, leading to his suicide to which, again, he shows no sadness at all.
Overshadowed by Controversy: On January 5, 2024, Dhar Mann uploaded the video Hot Girl USES Co-Worker To BUY Her THINGS, She Instantly Regrets It | Dhar Mann Studios. The video prominently features the main character, a haughty, snobbish Gold Digger frequently declaring her love for Starbucks Peppermint Mocha, and the Nice Guy she leads on also admitting he buys Starbucks everyday and calling himself a "Starbucks addict". Unfortunately, this episode aired when many people were boycotting Starbucks. The backlash was so severe Dhar Mann had to issue a public apology in the pinned comments.
Dhar Mann: Hi, for clarification this video is not sponsored by Starbucks and we have never been sponsored by Starbucks. We typically write our scripts months in advance of shooting and this was written prior to any Starbucks controversy.
Padding: Many of Dhar Mann's videos in 2023 are prone to this, especially those that clock in at more than 10 to 15 minutes.
Rooting for the Empire: Many people find the antagonists more entertaining than the protagonists in some videos, usually due to how over-the-top their acting can be or because they come off as a Designated Villain. The many amount of times where the villains are more sympathetic than the heroes in the more recent storylines don't help.
Seasonal Rot: Many fans have felt that the quality of videos had dropped in 2023. What does not help is the greater number of videos with the same, particularly Wangst filled tones.
Squick: In "Girl Trades Real Life for Virtual World", Charlotte has a boyfriend via VR named Clayton. Only thing is Clayton's avatar is that of a teenage boy. It's later revealed that said boy actually never played VR before and it was actually his Father posing as him in the VR world to get close with Charlotte. The revelation is so vile that is makes prior scenes with Charlotte and Clayton VERY uncomfortable to watch (especially when they Almost Kiss) and even had the appalling nerve to ask if she is still his Virtual Girlfriend. Charlotte is understandably upset and even his son is disgusted by his pedophilia.
Sam and Tyra from "Roommate Sabotages Guys Date". Both are stated to have met and known each other for three weeks and have only been seeing each other since then. Despite that, both act as if they've had past history together with their first scene, with Sam planning a very expensive date for her on Valentine's Day. Also, some of the things he planned to give her happen to be over a hundred dollars worth. Then, at the end, right after agreeing to be Sam's girlfriend, Tyra plans on moving in with him as well. After. Three. Weeks. Even Carlos Chavez, the actor who played Sam, admitted that he thought the characters moved too fast, and thought them being together for maybe something like six months would've made the plot make more sense.
Allison Day and Eric from "Guy Uses TikToker For Followers Parts 1 and 2". While both were best friends and went to prom together (as friends), most of the interactions between the two felt more platonic than anything. Also, besides Allison's mom pushing the possibility of it onto her daughter and Allison later accusing Eric of trying to ruin her relationship with Kevin, both never really showed a hint of liking one another romantically. When Allison decides to take her mom's advice in the end, Eric seemed to genuinely enjoy his date with Brandy. However, he then dumps her for Allison anyway. If anything, the ending with the two finally getting together seemed rather forced and was only there to make Allison's mom happy and to give the episode some sort of resolution and happy ending.
Mario and Julie end up getting together at the end of "Popular Girl Shames Nerd on Valentine's Day," despite the two having hardly interacted in the video outside of Julie sticking up for him to Raji. In the end, it comes across that the relationship was just meant to allow Mario to have a happy ending and to be another stop on Raji's Humiliation Conga.
The Scrappy: Ernie in "Girl Finds Out Long Distance Boyfriend Is Blind" mainly for the fact that he basically caused the conflict by pouring brandy into the frying pan and blinded Jamal when he turned up the heat and flames went into his eyes. Ernie also never gets punished for this.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Many of the actors, especially the ones who portray villains or have emotional scenes, still gave some strong performances despite the series having a ton of bad writing, inaccurate details, problematic lessons, and cringey dialogue.
The channel builds itself as a life lessons series for kids, and refers to itself as family-friendly in one of its YouTube banners. However, some of the content and storylines include rather mature topics and themes such as racism, addiction such as alcoholism and drug addiction, drug dealing, death, assault, homophobia, types of abuses (parental or relationship), mental health, stalking, and some mild swear words (apart from a background character saying a small F-Word in a Jay & Mikey episode).
An unusual example as many of the life lessons are shown to be badly handled, are Broken Aesop(s), or as of recently, don't even make sense in the context of the storyline, often coming off as Moral Sociopathy. Most of these involve the main characters getting away with doing bad deeds or doing the same things as their attackers, and the villains getting either a harsh punishment for mild offenses, or to a lesser extent, a slap on the wrist for way worse misdoings. Yet each video portrays the scenarios as a good thing, and a proper punishment with a satisfying ending.
Despite Dhar Mann claiming on his site "All of our content is meaningful, intentional and kid friendly", as of 2024, he has started to make videos parodying movies that are definitely NOT for kids like Clueless, The Iron Claw and John Tucker Must Die. Dhar Mann's The Iron Claw parody even has the main character successfully commit suicide, a first for his channel!).
WTH, Costuming Department?: The costumers for Dhar Mann Studios seem to have it out for regular actor Katherine Norland, frequently putting her in unflattering wigs. Her wig and wardrobe in "Mom Won't Let Girl Be a Mechanic" are egregiously awful, making her character look like a time-displaced Renaissance housewife.
, Mindy is portrayed as the villain because she was angry at her date for hiding that he was a dad, even rightfully calling him out for deceiving her. Later, when she asks her friend Colleen why she set them up knowing that she was childfree, Colleen reacts by saying "he's a good guy" and that Mindy should weave her standards for him. And in true Dhar Mann fashion, Mindy faces Karmic Overkill by her date cheating on her.