A university student who became a viral sensation aged seven says his dad was trolled for his ‘David After Dentist’ video which amassed 141million views.
Groggy David DeVore Jr. was famously filmed by his father after tooth removal surgery.
The clip, which was recently sold as an NFT for $11,600 (approx £9,500), showed the boy in a loopy state from anaesthesia treatment which included ketamine.
READ MORE: 'David After Dentist' kid unrecognisable 15 years after viral video – despite baby face
But David DeVore Sr. recorded his son's hilarious reaction because his wife could not make the appointment – and he only shared it online seven months later so friends and family could view it.
Attracting millions of views within days shocked the dad who initially didn’t even have the monetisation button clicked on YouTube.
David is now 22 and he recently spoke withDaily Star about how life has treated him since.
And remembering the backlash, he told us: “There was a bit of trolling at the beginning.
“Some people thought my dad was doing it to take advantage of me to make money but it was just so my family could see it.
“You could tell it was trolling because people would say ‘oh you are filming your son in a moving car’ when you could see in the background that the car was parked.
“Every once in a while someone would send an email to my dad with a genuine email of concern and he would take the time to answer those and say ‘hey I promise you there is nothing to worry about’. ”
David is in his fourth year of studying computer science at the University of Florida and is hoping to graduate in the summer.
And despite the odd bit of trolling, he said the clip blowing up is not something he would ever change.
Money from the exposure helped pay for him and his brother's education and he has also walked the red carpet for the Ralph Breaks the Internet movie premiere in LA.
He said: “It has been the biggest blessing.
“There are nothing but positive experiences. We have gotten to do things, see things and go to places we never would have.
“And some of the most bizarre interactions with strangers were a lot closer to the time the video came out.
“When we were in New York for the Today show people were spotting me across Times Square. Then when I was 13, like six years later, my family was at a restaurant and the chef in the kitchen saw me through the kitchen window and recognised me somehow. It was crazy stuff like that.”
The video – where David famously asked ‘is this real life’ – was recorded 15 years ago before the emergence of TikTok and Instagram.
And he described it as a blessing that he became an overnight internet star when he was just seven.
He said: “It definitely could have gone to my head if I was a bit older.
“I think that is what happens a lot now to people, especially when they are older. Look at anyone who was viral for a video from when they were younger, they are not really like that.
“It is the people who are viral for something in their teenage years or older that are the ones who are trying to make a music career out of it or whatever and that is like their whole personality.”
David added: “When it happened it was such a new thing and not only was it new in terms of the internet and the technology but I was only seven, eight, nine, ten.
“So you can only comprehend so much. The video got three million views in three days but I couldn’t comprehend or understand how big of a deal that was.
“So because of that I was able to just go with the flow. It didn’t become a bigger part of me than it was.”
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