Jason Lee story

 

That all changed when skateboarder-turned-actor Jason Lee, known for his role in My Name Is Earl, hired Duncan as his personal trainer. During their sessions, the two would humorously riff back and forth. Eventually, Lee encouraged Duncan to try acting — and mentioned that YouTube could be a great way to get more acting roles. So Duncan took his advice, started uploading, and the rest is history.

Content Over Cash

Duncan’s videos range from crashing his sister’s car into a lake — only to surprise her with a new one — to hitch-hiking across America and his most viral video to date, “Falling With 30,000 Pennies.” His videos are a one-of-a-kind cocktail of pranks, vlogs, stunts and a general sense of comedically timed chaos. While Duncan’s YouTube tenure has earned him over 1.6 billion views, many of his videos are not eligible for monetization due to violating content guidelines or including copyrighted music.

“I wanted to be myself,” Duncan said.” I didn't want to have to hold back and filter every word I say or filter any thought I had.”

This choice has meant Duncan giving up millions of dollars in potential revenue, but at the same time, it’s given him complete creative freedom. Duncan doesn’t worry about using Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” or Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” in his videos. He doesn’t care as much about the consequences of crashing golf carts into trees or staging a tag-team WWE-style wrestling match.

Leaving money behind for nearly 1.6 billion views may seem baffling to some, but it’s led to a core audience that knows Duncan won’t change in the limelight. It’s also the reason why Duncan doesn’t need to care about the perfect thumbnail, title, or even his subscriber count.

“I don't care how big someone is, I'm gonna outsell them,” Duncan said when discussing creators who may have more subscribers. “If [I] did a meet and greet, I’m gonna have more people show up. If we sold a merch collab, I’m gonna have more sales.”