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"David After Dentist" Made $150k For Family 234

It turns out recording your drugged child pays pretty well. 7-year-old David DeVore became an overnight sensation when his father posted a video of his ramblings after dental surgery. To date that video has made the DeVore family around $150,000. Most of the money came from YouTube, but the family has made $50k from licensing and merchandise. From the article: "The one seemingly minor decision to make the video available all over the Internet set off a whirlwind of changes for the DeVore family. Within just four days, 'David After Dentist' received 3 million views on YouTube and the younger David quickly became an Internet celebrity. His father quit his job in residential real estate (did we mention they live in Florida?), and the family started selling T-shirts featuring cartoon drawings of their son post-dental surgery."

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"David After Dentist" Made $150k For Family

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  • by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@gm a i l . com> on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:27AM (#32745250) Journal
    This is the correct response when you become an instant global entertainer--not a $351,000 lawsuit [slashdot.org]. Or are you going to sue me now for teasing you about losing a lucrative merchandising opportunity?
    • by casings ( 257363 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:29AM (#32745298)

      Not everyone wants to whore themselves out for money.

      • by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:32AM (#32745352) Journal

        Not everyone wants to whore themselves out for money.

        No, just 99% of us.

      • Not everyone wants to whore themselves out for money.

        Oh so you're telling me that he works for free as a lawyer now [slashdot.org]? Or is being a paid lawyer not a whore compared to putting your image on a T-shirt and selling it? I accept large sums of cash to arrange ones and zeros on electronic devices, am I whoring myself out for money?

      • by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:59AM (#32745860)

        A lot of people who say they would never whore themselves out for money just haven't been seriously offered hard cash right there in front of them to whore themselves out.

        From the stories I've heard over my lifetime, the range seems to be $1,000 to $10,000.

        A girl I was talking to about this a few years ago said that a man once offered her $1,000 and she had an orgasm right there sitting in the chair in the bar.

        I think my figure is a bit higher. I have good circumstances so it would need to be high six figures.

        But who knows... confronted with a pile of $150k, tax free...

        • by ElectricTurtle ( 1171201 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @11:25AM (#32746318)
          There is an old anecdote attributed to Winston Churchill (though unlikely something he actually did):

          Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?
          Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill Well, I suppose we would have to discuss terms, of course
          Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
          Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!
          Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
          • by noc007 ( 633443 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @02:35PM (#32749140)

            Came here to post that. Seriously, everyone has their price. I find it funny when someone wont acknowledge that they are a whore or at least have a price. Walk up to any person on the street, present them with a large sum of cash, make an offer to exchange the cash for something from them, and they'd seriously consider it and may even take the offer if they feel it's worth it to them.

            casings, to expound on Maxo-Texas' post, take for example a young legal-adult lady with strong religious convictions to save her virginity for marriage. Offer her $5 million in tangible cash she could count on the spot to have sex with a dirty old man; she will seriously consider it. If she turns it down, offer her $500 million in cash and I'd wager she'd accept.

            Story time:
            I frequent an enthusiast forum for a specific car brand. Obviously the majority of active members are heterosexual males. One of the people that frequented the board was a chick who's career was modeling; on her website it stated what types of modling she did, including "tasteful nudes", and had a portfolio of her work. There were some shots of her clothed but in prvocative poses next to her car of the same car brand and these ended up being posted by her or someone else on to the enthusiast forum. Obviously those threads went down the path of comments of how hot she was and other generalized intercourse statements. She bitched about about how those kinds of threads always ended up becoming a "meat fest". I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that the modeling she does is only for innocent artistic value, but I didn't expect the offending comments to be anything different given the demographic. Through the various posts of her picutures people did over time, at some point, someone identified her porn stage name and a simple search revealed a number of hardcore porn videos of her.

            What I found hard to understand was her disgust over the typical "meat fest" that ensued over her in provocative pictures, yet she does porn. She can't be truly ignorant to the fact that millions of 13yo boys to wrinkly old men jerk it to those videos. I suppose I could accept it being her right to be offended at the reaction her pictures and videos create, but in my book it's moronic for her to be offended and she shouldn't expect anything less, especially from paying customers that fund her.

        • But who knows... confronted with a pile of $150k, tax free...

          Effectively this is exactly what actual prostitutes are confronted with every single day. And this is the problem with adopting the position that prostitution is always wrong.

          You can say its demeaning, or that greed should not justify selling yourself to others for the evening. But the reality is that most professional prostitutes earn more money doing what they do than they could otherwise. When you make prostitution illegal, you effectively tell these people that they must give up their better paying positions and take on often far lower paying ones simply because you disapprove of what they do.

          You're free to disapprove, but is it right to take away someones income for that reason alone? Going back to the topic, these people have made money out of this internet video. A lot of money in fact, that can be used to give a better life to David and the rest of his family. If we claim that David's misfortune is being exploited and that this shouldn't be allowed, will it be right to take away the benefits that this video brought to spare feelings?

          Who should be making these decisions? Society or individuals?

        • . confronted with a pile of $150k, tax free...

          Why on earth would it be tax-free?

      • Not everyone wants to whore themselves out for money.

        Ghyslain does, he's a lawyer now.

      • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        Not everyone wants to whore themselves out for money.

        Yup, and David didn't get a choice I notice.

        Just Pops there taking advantage of a drugged minor. Then uses him as a cash cow so he can quit his regular job.

        Sleazy parents are sleazy.

      • by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
        That's not something you do, that something that happens. Fighting it is ridiculous.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Feyshtey ( 1523799 )
        This guy rakes in a ton of cash because people buy useless crap related to a complete stranger, and he's a whore? I'd say he was just smart enough to exploit the stupidity of people with more money than brains.
    • by epp_b ( 944299 )

      This is the correct response when you become an instant global entertainer--not a $351,000 lawsuit. Or are you going to sue me now for teasing you about losing a lucrative merchandising opportunity?

      He became a lawyer, what did you expect to happen?

  • lulz (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pojut ( 1027544 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:29AM (#32745300) Homepage

    "IS IT GONNA BE THIS WAY FOREVER????"

    I know what you mean, kid...I know what you mean.

  • by novadragoon ( 746815 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:31AM (#32745334)
    Is this real life?
  • Finally! (Score:2, Informative)

    by chameleon3 ( 801105 )
    finally, we can fill in the rest!


    1. Record a video of your drugged 7 year-old.

    2. ?????^H^H^H^H^HExploit him by putting video on Youtube.

    3. Profit!


    I've been searching for that second step for ages....
    • by gr8_phk ( 621180 )
      Apparently AFV has been under paying for home videos for quite a while. Screw TV, do it yourself on YouTube.
    • 1. Record a video of your drugged 7 year-old.
      2. ?????^H^H^H^H^HExploit him by putting video on Youtube.
      3. Profit!
      I've been searching for that second step for ages....

      You mean you'd been sitting on the first step for a long time and you couldn't figure out the second one?!? Dude, seriously.

  • College Fund (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RafaelAngel ( 249818 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:41AM (#32745516)

    Hopefully this will amount to a nice college fund for the kid. But in reality, the parents will use all the money to buy TVs and a car. I can't believe the father quit his job over this. Does he really think this is really gonna support his family in 5 years time?
    Also, this kid is gonna have to live with this for the rest of his life.

    • Re:College Fund (Score:5, Informative)

      by RobDude ( 1123541 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:49AM (#32745674) Homepage

      He was a real-estate agent in Fl....so I mean, not exactly a big loss there.

      My brother in-law was a real-estate agent who didn't make a sale for a solid 18 months before he quit. Can you really call it 'quitting' if you haven't received a check in 18 months?

      I dunno if this guy was in a similar situation, but the market in FL is supposed to suck pretty bad from what I hear.

    • Hopefully this will amount to a nice college fund for the kid. But in reality, the parents will use all the money to buy TVs and a car.

      In California, I suspect the Jackie Coogan Law would have kicked in to prevent the parents blowing the money...not in Florida.

      rj

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pak9rabid ( 1011935 )

      I can't believe the father quit his job over this.

      Uh..not like that's really a job. Realtor's generally make their own hours and work whenever they see fit. Worse comes to worse he just picks up where he left off.

    • He didn't quit (Score:5, Insightful)

      by name_already_taken ( 540581 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:57AM (#32745826)

      I can't believe the father quit his job over this. Does he really think this is really gonna support his family in 5 years time?

      "Quit" is a euphemism for saying he wasn't making any money selling residential real estate anyway, so he decided to sell t-shirts, which turned out to be the right decision. I know a realtor who right now is decorating cakes at a local supermarket.

      It's not like realtors are "employed" anyway - they can be affiliated with a brokerage, but they're not employees in the classical sense. They can come and go as they please and work as much or as little as they choose to.

      He can go back to selling real estate any time he wants, it's not like he gave up tenure or something.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by muckracer ( 1204794 )

      > Hopefully this will amount to a nice college fund for the kid.
      > But in reality, the parents will use all the money to buy TVs and a car.

      150k will easily pay for the 1000 hours of therapy he'll need in a few years...

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Ruvim ( 889012 )
      Yeah, free booze will be guaranteed to him at any party! I am concerned...
    • by bgarcia ( 33222 )

      I can't believe the father quit his job over this. Does he really think this is really gonna support his family in 5 years time?

      Dude, if you had a one-time opportunity to earn $150k, wouldn't you consider quitting your job for a year or so to make it happen? You can always get another job when that opportunity stops paying dividends.

    • You missed something: dad was in *residential real estate*. That's probably equivalent to "jobless" these days anyway.

  • by soulsteal ( 104635 ) <soulsteal@EINSTE ... minus physicist> on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:42AM (#32745530) Homepage

    that they put some away in a 529 plan to pay for his future education!

  • by OzPeter ( 195038 )
    So what is he going to do in 6 months time when this little bit of internet trivia gets lost in the next big thing (tm)?? Will he schedule surgery for his kid? Or back to the dentist? Or will he realize that this was all a flash-in-the-pan and its back to a real job to support his family? And I wonder what the IRS thinks about all of this!
    • by JSBiff ( 87824 )

      Exactly my thoughts. $150k is a nice windfall - put some of it into a college fund for the kid, and the rest into an investment fund and let it get some interest.

      But, a one-time Internet success does not a career make. You can't live off $150k for the rest of your life, and as the parent points out, it's unlikely the father will be able to reliably create additional Internet video revenue on that scale.

      This sounds like another family heading down the path of "Balloon boy" - staging ever more elaborate stunt

      • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

        Bet you $100.00 that dad is out shopping for a new BMW 525.....

        All that cash will disappear into useless things that do nothing for the child.

        "daddy needs a BMW sweetie... Or daddy's friends will laugh at him."

    • by trashbird1240 ( 1149197 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @11:37AM (#32746512)

      This is how they should spend the money: a vasectomy for dad, therapy for the kid in twenty years, college fund, and a parenting coach.

  • Great... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Adys ( 1274540 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:43AM (#32745556)
    ... you guys slashdotted youtube.
  • Congratulations. Now, your 15 minutes are over. Please go away. Thank you

  • by cwtrex ( 912286 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:55AM (#32745804) Journal

    The article never fully explained how they received $100,000 from youtube. Was it the t-shirts they were selling? If so, I would say they earned $100,000 from selling t-shirts of their now famous son and not that they received the majority of their funds from the youtube video itself even if it was an direct cause of those t-shirt sales. To me, the t-shirts are an indirect stream of revenue caused by the video. Revenue directly from the video itself to me would mean ads before or after the video or some other means of revenue that is passively accrued after the video is viewed.

    I would love to have it cleared up for me as to exactly how "most of the money came from Youtube."

    • by canajin56 ( 660655 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @11:09AM (#32746044)
      youTube has ads on them. You may have noticed, those annoying boxes that float up from the bottom, that you instinctively click the X on? If you get a certain number of views, Google starts paying you a portion of the revenues that your video is pulling in.
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by MarkGriz ( 520778 )

        "You may have noticed, those annoying boxes that float up from the bottom, that you instinctively click the X on?"

        Nope, never have. ABP FTW

  • by ((hristopher _-*-_-* ( 956823 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:55AM (#32745808) Journal

    I kinda thinks it's exploiting the little boy. When I watch it all I see is a poor child mind struggling to understand what is happening, and can't understand to amusement, and therefore reason why this video is advertised.

    I'd also rather keep the image of kids on drugs out of the media.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by lawpoop ( 604919 )
      This seems like some anti-drug histeria in the vein of Reefer Madness.

      First off, they weren't giving the kid illegal drugs. This is something a medical professional gave him for a dental procedure. This is a good use of drugs. Using drugs properly promotes good health and reduces pain and suffering.

      Second, would you have any problem with a video of a kid, say, being fooled by a game of peekaboo, or startled by another kid in a mask? These are both normal parts of life. If you have problems with people
    • ... and therefore reason why this video is advertised.

      Uhm, because it's entertaining?

  • Nothing special. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MaWeiTao ( 908546 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @10:59AM (#32745868)

    I'd say they were smart in that they capitalized on this video's popularity but stupid in that they seem to believe they're going to be able to live off this.

    What I find surprising is that something so relatively uninteresting is able to garner this much attention. It's like on America's Funniest Home Videos when some crappy video would win $10,000 simply because it featured a baby. What kid doesn't say something cute or funny? The people compelled to buy a lame t-shirt about some random Youtube video are arguably the stupid ones.

    • The people compelled to buy a lame t-shirt about some random Youtube video are arguably the stupid ones.

      Hey, when your sister is married to an idiot who thinks he can support his family on T-shirt sales, so he quits his job, you buy T-shirts so she can eat.

      Anyone want to buy 5,000 T-shirts, you know, for the gym or something. I'll give you a good price.

  • I find they handled it all very reasonable. They could've milked the whole thing for way more money. Instead they saw to it that dave is shielded from creeps and griefers on the web, set up a small kitchen table business and generally where laughing along with the crowd, david aswell. He has a brief appearance in one superbowl commercial and went to ROFLCON with his dad. No biggie, imho, and certainly no unduely exploitation of him. And they've allready donated measurable sums of the generated income to cha

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @11:26AM (#32746332) Homepage Journal

    Whenever I have a crappy day, I go on YouTube and look for videos of laughing babies. Is that creepy or what?

  • Stupid question (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @11:46AM (#32746684)
    He made money from Youtube from this? How does that work? I thought the videos were put up freely and not for rent.
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      you can get a share from the ads profits

      http://www.youtube.com/t/partnerships_benefits

  • by sean.peters ( 568334 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @12:28PM (#32747392) Homepage

    Dad gave up his real estate job in favor of... selling t-shirts about this? How long does he think America is even going to REMEMBER this whole silly thing?

    • He probably gave up his real estate job because real estate doesn't sell that well in this period (have you heard about the crash?) not because he wants to dedicate his time to sell t-shirts. The description is most likely misleading.

      • by Cytotoxic ( 245301 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2010 @01:37PM (#32748398)

        I live in Florida - before the crash there were something like 8-10 real estate agents for every person in Florida. They caused traffic jams when herds of agents would cross the road. Airports installed propane cannons to scare real estate agents away from the runways. When we had hurricanes, real estate agents would pile up on the beaches in huge drifts. Now that the real estate bubble has crashed hard there's only about 3-4 real estate agents per person.

        It is pretty easy for a working agent to get a listing, particularly a condo listing, since there are about 5,000 empty condos per resident. Getting a sale is an entirely different matter. He's pretty candid that he made more money not selling real estate for the last year - that should tell you something about his success as an agent.

  • So the father violates his sons human rights by destroying his dignity,
    the son will probably be unable to live a normal life
    and on top of that, the father pockets all the money
    and uses it to quit working instead of using it for the sons college or something...

    what an asshole!

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