The Tourettes Guy is a comedy web series created by Jared and Tony Six. The show is an inside view on eponymous character Danny, an angry, alcoholic, middle-aged man afflicted with Tourette's syndrome, and how his behavior and condition affect his everyday life. It began as a mockumentary focusing on the Tourettes Guy after his failed career voicing Frosted Flakes cereal mascot Tony the Tiger. Later episodes would see its evolution into something more of a sketch comedy format, taking a satirical stance as the series was gradually revealed to be fictional.

Footage of Danny, portrayed by actor Daniel Hempstead, first appeared in 2002 on the independent website Elbow World housing the creative works of brothers Jared Six, the camera operator for the majority of the show's videos, and funded by Tony Six who plays Danny's Son. Six videos were posted on a page titled “Tony the Tiger With Tourette’s Syndrome". For almost two years, the videos sat dormant until a fan-made website by the name of tourettesguy.com was launched. tourettesguy.com quickly became the official source for all new Tourettes Guy videos, which gained considerable popularity thanks to legions of fans reposting the videos to sites such as YouTube.

Sometime in 2007, the official website was taken offline after posting an announcement Danny had passed away in a car crash. However, on December 25, 2009, a YouTube channel by the name of “Tourettes Guy” posted a new video entitled The Return of the Tourettes Guy (Part 1), featuring an aging Danny sporting the same signature t-shirt and neck brace, along with a link to the website thetourettesguy.tv. Additional videos were released Christmas Day 2009 and 2011 before the site mysteriously shut down for the second time. However, the Return Of The Tourettes Guy series continued to be posted on YouTube annually until 2013. On Halloween 2014, a single short clip was posted to the same channel with a followup episode uploaded Christmas Day of the same year, this time with no link to an external website. The channel uploaded yet another episode on April 1st, 2016, indicating that the Tourettes Guy is still releasing new content. The latest episode, Tourettes Guy Gets The Hiccups, was posted on Christmas Day the following year.

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History Edit

The Tourettes Guy is run by various members of the Six family whose ages and identities have been confirmed via public records and social media. Jared Six is the man behind the show's presence and the primary cameraman for the videos, commonly mistaken to be Danny's Son. Danny's Son is, in fact, portrayed by the show's producer Tony Six, believed to be Jared's brother and mislabeled as the name of the actor who plays Danny. Shirlena is portrayed by actress Shirlena Six, sister of the aforementioned Six brothers. Danny, the star of the show, is portrayed by a man by either the names of Daniel Hempstead or Dan Smith. The former name matches public records associated with Danny's appearance, whereas the latter is the name found on the actor's Facebook page, possibly as a generic title to retain anonymity. The most accessible and highest profile actor of the show to date is the man who plays Danny's Dad, known as Sal Lizard. He is the only one of the cast to acknowledge his presence in the show.

Origin (2001-2002) Edit

The first six Tourettes Guy clips were most likely filmed in 2001 & created sometime in 2002, posted on elbowworld.com under the title “Tony the Tiger With Tourette’s Syndrome.” The description, which didn’t mention any of the characters by name, referred to the protagonist (who we now know as Danny) as “the guy that used to do the voice of Tony the Tiger,” before leaving the business to live off of “The Voice Of Tony The Tiger Residual Checks.” A twenty-second clip of a "banned" Frosted Flakes commercial was posted as footage of the voice actor going off script, and the character appeared to speak profanities to the children in the advertisement. Additional footage of the man himself was posted. Much like the succeeding videos, these clips were presented as a documentarian look into the life of a Tourette’s syndrome sufferer that were designed to “observe [Tourettes Guy’s] behavior and try to educate the public on what Tourette’s Syndrome is.”

Original Episodes Edit

Elbow World initially hosted six videos, most of which share descriptions with clips found in the later compilation-style “episodes.” The videos posted did not have proper titles, and were simply identified with single-line descriptions of the plot. These videos, in order, were titled:

Cussing out a bottle of “Head and Shoulders” in the shower. (2:02) Trying to watch TV, but he can’t stop cussing. (1:29) Trying to play Nintendo, but he can’t stop cussing. (1:26) So drunk he falls into a bathtub (0:46) Trying to order a pizza, but he can’t stop cussing. (0:50) 4 very intense episodes of Tourette’s Syndrome. (1:01)

Interestingly, Trying to play Nintendo, but he can’t stop cussing. does not appear to refer to any existing Tourettes Guy clip, and since the video files were not publicly archived it is possible this video, along with each clip except for the first, contains lost footage.

The footer of Elbow World’s homepage declares that “Everything [on this website is] created and copyrighted by Jared Six,” who is likely related to Anthony Six, the man believed to play Danny's Son. Jared is credited on the Tourettes Guy DVD as “Writer and Director,” and is uncredited but confirmed to be the cameraman. Danny's identity had remained uncertain for most of the show's longevity, however fans have found through public records and social media website Facebook that he is portrayed by a man by the names of one Daniel Hempstead, username Dan Smith, of Columbus, Ohio.

Official Website & Rise to Fame (2004-2006) Edit

In September of 2004, the now-defunct website tourettesguy.com was launched, featuring eleven clips. This included many of the initial Tourettes Guy videos, along with a few more which were also posted to Elbow World. tourettesguy.com was initially a fan-created website, and was in fact the first to coin the Tourettes Guy moniker. It soon became the official source for Tourettes Guy videos and information on Danny’s life.

The Tourettes Guy began to spread through Ebaum’s World in 2004. The videos were uploaded to YTMND by user maikeyboy in April 2005, where they became immensely popular on the site and spawned numerous memes and other derivatives. On November 2nd, 2005, YouTube user viciou5 posted the first Tourettes Guy video, entitled "Tourettes Guy" to the site. On December 8th, 2005, YouTube user sistrenliz uploaded two more Tourettes Guy videos. The second of which, "Tourettes Guy- Bob Saget", has since amassed almost two million views, and began a craze of similar posts where people uploaded Tourettes Guy videos to their own channels, sometimes with famed classic watermarks (examples: hacksawsvlogger used moyea software flv to video converter pro. leanolin used effectmatrix's total video converter. cob32187 used video downloadhelper etc.) Some of these gained tens of millions of views and were actually linked by the official website as a show of appreciation.

This craze was boosted further thanks to Danny’s inclusion in numerous YouTube Poops, including the works of Deven247 [now known as Pooper], his antics and lewd actions being a particularly good fit for the humor. The advent of these parodies and sound clips would cement the Tourettes Guy's place in internet comedy, and would continue to be celebrated to this day. Danny's fame would eventually lead to a brief instance in the mainstream, when he filmed an advertisement for thrash metal act Fear Before the March of Flames' new release The Always Open Mouth.

Danny's "Death" and the Tourettes Guy's Return (2007-2009) Edit

On August 4, 2007, a post was made to the Tourettes Guy website by its main administrator, The Big Admin, reporting the news of Danny's passing. He was said to be involved in a car crash, and while he did have the health to make his way out of the hospital, his life ended about a month later after complications from the accident. A DVD compiling Danny's antics was to be released in tribute to the fallen internet celebrity, with proceeds made out to his surviving family members.

Countless fans mourned and embraced the legacy of Danny, convinced that he was all but gone. However, many of the Tourettes Guy faithful refused to believe the reports of his passing. The mystique that surrounded the videos, as well as the show's creators, was reason enough for the fans to believe the news of Danny's death, but also sufficient reason to disregard the announcement. Thus began the scramble to find any hard evidence to either confirm or deny the account.

The earliest form of evidence disproving Danny's death was found in a 2008 video titled "Valentine's Day Get-super-drunk-and-forget-its-valentines day-a-thon 2008!" This video, parodizing aphrodesiac infomercials commonly found on public access channels and late-night programming, features the very same man who portrays Danny playing a similar character as the Tourettes Guy as denoted by his frustration, exclamations, and substance abuse. The notorious compilation was posted to YouTube in 2009 by user hcpeter under the title "TOURETTES GUY IS ALIVE-NOT DEAD" where it would amass nearly half a million views. hcpeter was certain the man found here was Danny and that his passing "was fake like [the] role he played." His claim was supported as much as it was disputed, with 1.5 thousand likes and 1.3 thousand dislikes on his repost as the fanbase continued in its comment section and beyond.

Another investigation looked into a meeting with Danny (provided he was alive), headed by Brian Manchen, who posted his findings to his blog brianmanchen.net on a page titled "A Visit to Tourettes Guy's House". The page's footer indicates its most recent update being September 4, 2009. Motivated by an eyewitness account of Danny found at the same grocery store from the show, Manchen began his collection of evidence to see the Tourettes Guy in person. His search began with several lines and images from the videos, from the local Jolly Pirate Donuts chain to the aformentioned grocery store's identity being revealed as a local supermarket known as Kroger in order to determine Danny's location. Comments additionally found in the videos themselves came to a consensus that the show was filmed and inhabited by the showrunners at Whitehall, a town in the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. Whitehall contained a significant multitude of the locations present in the episodes. Manchen's pursuit proceeded to finding the Tourettes Guy's house by using scenes in the show alongside Google Earth create a rough floor plan of Danny's dwelling. He claimed that his findings were confirmed, not by the interior shots of the house, but a single instance focusing on the exterior when Danny was attacked by bees and runs up to the deck. However, several of the surrounding homes featured this layout, and his hopes seemed to fade until he noticed a shot from the garage window looked toward a small intersection. This all but confirmed the location of Danny's home, and Manchen began his visit to the area.

Manchen arrived in Whitehall and began his sightseeing at the local Kroger store. He noticed a haphazard "Employees Only" sign taped to one of the store's double doors, which could very well be the result of Danny's antics. He then made his way to one of the Wendy's locations in the area for lunch. While it was close to Danny's home, there was no confirmation whether it was the one from the video. After a stop at the shady Jolly Pirate Donuts, Manchen found the church used for Danny's Son's driving lessons, only to find that they were filmed at two separate chapels: the steeple was at the Catholic church, and the rest was of the East Baptist. Crowning Manchen's search was the Tourettes Guy household itself, featuring a brown façade and an attached garage à la his Google Earth findings. Lastly, he captured images of the Holiday Lanes bowling alley, including the area of which Danny and his son had played. The page ends with a light warning to visiting fans, urging their discretion on the basis that "if Danny really is dead, I’m sure the last thing the family wants is a bunch of drunk jackasses wandering through their yard shouting profanity for everyone to hear".

The evidence found in the Valentine's Day video, Manchen's search, and various sightings across Whitehall ultimately concluded that Danny's death was a hoax. Reports indicated that he instead served a sentence in prison. Currently there are no clues to support what he was in jail for--or whether he really was sent to prison for that matter--but it was nonetheless attributed to the character. Finally by the end of the year, the new and official Tourettes Guy website announced the show's return, headed by the pioneering episode of The Return Of The Tourettes Guy saga.

The Return Of The Tourettes Guy (2009-2013) Edit

The first episode documenting the Tourettes Guy's return was posted to the official website on the official website on Christmas Day of 2009. Its inevitable spread to YouTube generated rejoice among fans, bringing the show back to its former glory. Episodes would commonly be released on holidays. Another new episode was posted on April Fools Day the following year and the first to feature a competition for the fans with the Tourettes Guy Look-A-Like contest. The Return Of The Tourettes Guy (Part 3) was posted on Christmas Day 2010. For two years to the day, there wouldn't be a new episode until Tourettes Guy 2013 in 2012. This video would eventually be renamed The Return Of The Tourettes Guy (Part 4) to complete the saga documenting Danny's return.

Sporadic Episodes (2014-Present) Edit

In the years since the show's revival, the official Tourettes Guy website would be shut down yet again. The creator of the show, Jared Six, was spending his life in Costa Rica disconnected from the internet at the time. Instead, a YouTube channel (orignally that of reposter waynebarnhart) would become the official source for Tourettes Guy content, organizing the majority of the footage featuring Danny into the episodes that we see today. Just as before, episodes would primarily be released on holidays; this would begin a popular trend with anxious fans waiting for a new episode especially throughout the Christmas season. The Halloween special FREDDY vs. TOURETTES GUY was posted on Halloween 2014, and the succeeding episode Speak English!!! would be released on Christmas Day the same year. Make Confidence Your Bitch!, posted on April Fools Day 2016, would be the first to feature Danny's graying hair, showing his age yet no sign of slowing down. The latest episode to date, Tourettes Guy Gets The Hiccups, was published on Christmas Day 2017 and dedicated to late YouTube personality Angry Grandpa, star of The Angry Grandpa Show who followed a similar format to The Tourettes Guy.

At present, there has been no confirmation nor denial on the production of new Tourettes Guy episodes, although sightings of Danny continue to be reported. A comment on CrimsonStudios' YouTube video "Where Is The Tourettes Guy Now?" by user RellivaRaven has stated "I live in Ohio, the state that he lives in, and I actually do see him every so often, never interacted with him though, so yeah. He's fine, and they do upload once a year or so."

Trivia Edit

Some of the show's most famous characters share the names of their actors. Danny, played by Daniel Hempstead/Smith. Shirlena, played by Shirlena Six.

