Why People Need to Stop Hating on Doug Demuro

Doug Demuro, popular Youtube car reviewer, author, automotive journalist, and a very successful internet persona. To me, Doug seems like one of the most uncontroversial figures in the community, but for some reason, he appears to get undue hate from some in the community. Most people have nothing to say about his content and just call him a d-bag a lot. Yes, even personality can be something worthy of critique when you run a popular Youtube channel and when you are in general a public figure, but most of the hate directed at Doug does not seem valid. It may, however, have something to do with people being jealous, even if that’s partially a cliche, and I think someone individuals are very salty about how he left Jalopnik. In this article, I’m going to debunk these baseless criticisms not because Autotrader paid me to do it (I wish), but because some people need to told how petty and ignorant they are being. So lets debunk some reasons why people dislike Doug, and call him a d-bag.

Reason #1: His Internet Persona (He's a D-bag!!!)

First off, it’s worth establishing that a Youtube persona is just that, a persona. That means that you do not know how Doug acts in his everyday life. Even ignoring this fact, I find little fault in Doug’s persona. Sure, he does have a pretty strict filter, and he is a little dry sometimes, but his persona does not dive off into being an absolute bore fest. He cracks jokes and does interesting things for his videos like drive a Hummer through a tight city, run over cars, and most of all buy/drive interesting cars and explore their quirks. Doug’s content is not asinine in any way, he is clearly just a regular dude who likes to have fun and has a passion for creating good content on cars in video or written form. I can also name tons of people who have much more annoying personalities, who I may have to tear down in the future. These YouTubers include Tanner Fox, Street Speed 717, and sometimes TJ Hunt. I’m sure there are more, comment below if you know any other cringy automotive related Youtube personalities.

Reason #2. He Doesn't Have a Journalism Degree / Is a Lone Wolf

In the Automotive Journalism community, often the biggest cultural divide is those who have a journalism or writing degree, and those who don’t. Now, tons of amazing people have their degree in the writing field including Car Throttle’s own Alex Kersten and some have a similar degree such as Mr.Regular, who has an English degree, but others do not have a degree in anything relating to automotive or writing and do just fine. The people who do have degrees though, often get jealous that with the money and time they earn no more or even less than an untrained individual. That’s just not a healthy way to think, If someone makes it on their own, they deserve a pat on the back, not scorn. If the guy next door bought his mansion after winning the lottery, and you bought yours after 40 years as a business man, you should be happy for him, not jealous. Doug did earn a degree, but in Economics, not Journalism which, consequently, is the same thing our very own Kyle Ashdown currently studies. Doug had great success working at Ferrari and then Porsche, even becoming Porsche’s youngest ever “Allocation Manager’’. According to Linkedin, this means he was, “Responsible for vehicle allocation at Porsche Cars North America, the exclusive authorized distributor for Porsche vehicles in the United States.”. Not content to just work in car sales, Doug started a Youtube Channel and joined Jalopnik as a staff writer in 2013. Since then he has seen exponential success. In the battle between honest car people who will accept anyone regardless of their politics or religion and pretentious money hungry ideologues, car people always win.

Reason #3. People Salty Doug Left Jalopnik

A surprisingly large sector of fans has these feelings. Secretly, I do think some Jalopnik employees are slightly salty about Doug leaving, but the die hard Jalopnik readers seem to be the ones who took the most offense. So the man left to work for a company likely willing to pay more, open to giving him more creative control, and a company who would also allow him more time to grow his Youtube channel? You see, with other Jalopnik writers, if they quit they lose their audience, but with Doug, he had his own Youtube channel, which gained off of his Jalopnik writing, and then took with him. Sure, some say that this was using Jalopnik to get money and promote his channel, but Doug’s videos were drawing people to Jalopnik too, which is something haters conveniently forget. Also, those videos Doug made were well edited and shot, unlike certain Jalopnik channel videos. David Tracy, I love your stuff man, but you need a better camera equipment, and possibly a film crew, and the low quality is honestly Jalopnik’s fault. So remember this, Doug had every right to leave and every reason to leave, so stop hating because he can survive without the platform he originally called home.

Reason #4. His Brand of Comedy and Opinions

Many people just do not find Doug to be funny, but I think that’s not the biggest issue. Doug seems to have some level of self-awareness and I believe realizes his brand of comedy can be cheesy. Even though it’s cheesy, it’s better than no jokes at all. Even if I’m not laughing, Doug has a way of making watchable videos with a lighthearted spirit. Besides the humor of his jokes, some also take issue with Doug’s controversial opinions that go along with his jokes. Once again, that lack of a relevant degree contributes to many distrusting his opinions. Even I don’t always agree with Doug’s opinions (the 996 is just not the best Porsche 911, I’m sorry), but they are just that, opinions, so don’t get so bent out of shape about it people! Some petrolheads treat jokes at a beloved car or car brand’s expense almost like it was a racist joke. People don’t like to be at the end of the joke, but if you get triggered by someone dissing your favorite car, maybe you should grow up. You might not approve of Doug’s antics, jokes, and controversial opinions, but that’s no reason to write nasty comments. Just move along, and find someone else to watch then.

Reason #5. People think he is ugly

Now of all the reasons to hate Doug, this happens to be the pettiest. First of all, he’s not that ugly. The only time it’s ok to criticize someone for being ugly is if they do it to themselves by not practicing proper hygiene, getting bad tattoos, wearing stupid clothing, getting too many piercings, or getting a bad haircut. Some even have crossed into bigotry, claiming he is an ugly big nosed jew. I do not personally know Doug’s heritage, but I do not see why it should matter. These critiques most often come from anonymous internet trolls who will make these comments about anyone and everyone. Sure, Doug is not going to ever be a male model, but he’s soon to be married, so someone sees something in him unlike most of the basement dwelling internet trolls.

In Conclusion

Well, that’s all for this post. I hope I had a positive impact on the online automotive community by addressing why people shouldn’t hate on people like Doug Demuro. Some people in the community do put out automotive content that’s lazy, uninteresting, and not worthy of community wide acceptance, but in my opinion, Doug has for a long time been making some very interesting content. I congratulate Doug on his recent marriage, and I hope there are many more years of Doug Demuro videos, Doug cars, and inciteful and fun car reviews. That’s all folks, for all the haters, please try to live with peace, love, and positivity, and that’s a wrap. #blogpost #dougdemuro