Dustin Poynter is skyrocketing to YouTube fame thanks to his humorous reactions and hilarious one-liners. As part of Dexerto’s Rising star series, a collection of articles looking at the YouTube megastars of tomorrow, we spoke with Poynter about his success after 11 years of trying to make it as a content creator.
Dustin Poynter is rapidly approaching one million subscribers on YouTube, and it’s been a long time coming. He’s been making content for over a decade, but it wasn’t until recently that his channel really started to take off.
Poynter credits this surge in views to his reaction-style videos, where he reads out stories from subreddits like ‘Am I the A-Hole’ or watches viral TikToks. In between paragraphs or clips from a video, Poynter will race across a grassy field waving a massive red or green flag, all while blurting out gut-busting commentary.
Dustin pulls out phrases like, “I’m more nervous than a batch of earthworms in a morgue,” or “I am angrier than a bull in a field of fire trucks” in almost every video — and it’s these hilarious quips that have earned him hundreds of thousands of loyal subscribers.
Surprisingly, Poynter says that a lot of these jokes aren’t actually his. He got them from his grandmother, a classic Southern gal with a great sense of humor and sharp-as-a-tack wit.
“Those jokes are inspired by my grandma, who had so many phrases where I’m like, ‘What are you saying?'” he told us. “So many phrases too, where you can’t even Google them. She’s just insane.”
In fact, Poytner keeps a list of her sayings on his phone, which he’s carefully curated over the past decade and uses to inspire his own zingers.
“My whole family and I have been fascinated with them my whole life,” he continued. “It’s a very Southern thing. It’s very Southern to have these really insane, intricate jokes and one-liners like that. I thought it was really special and kind of unique, and it was a way for me to shout out my Grandma. …I’m really fascinated by these jokes. They’re funny to me, and it worked.”
Although he’s reacting to other people’s stories and experiences, Poynter certainly adds an original twist to the content. By racing across a field doing heel clicks, his physical comedy only adds to his Grandma’s hilarious quips—but it’s not easy.
“People don’t realize how exhausting it is,” he admitted. “I live in South Arkansas. It is very, very hot. It is a hundred degrees every single time I’m filming. My camera shuts off all the time because of the heat, because it just can’t like the sun beating down on it. It’s shutting off all the time.
“I am running for one to two hours at a time. And I’m doing short rapid bursts of running… but I’m also holding a 10 pound flag over my head as I’m doing it. So I’m always tired. It is very draining, but very fun. It’s a weird kind of thing I’ve stumbled upon, but it’s super enjoyable.”
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The giant flags are a necessity, though, given the prevalence of terms like “red flag” and “green flag” across social media these days. They really drive the point home, and they’re clearly a big hit with viewers.
“The terms ‘green flag’ and ‘red flag’ have really become super popular on social media over the past couple of years,” he explained. “And I’m a big fan of prop comedy and costumes and stuff. I was born on Halloween. So I just really enjoy costumes, props, and things like that.
“There’s so many opportunities to make something funny with that, without even saying anything half the time. I love being creative in that way. And I know this was a big thing on the internet, plus I love props. So, I just kind of combined those two one day, and it worked.”
Before starting his social media journey, Poynter had dreams of being a sports journalist, but ended up nabbing a job at a marketing agency after he took off on the now-defunct app Vine. He quickly realized the 9-5 grind wasn’t for him, so he started his own agency — something that eventually led to his career as a content creator.
“It was very stressful, exhausting and scary to be doing that completely by yourself,” he said of his agency. “I did that for several years, but it taught me so much about marketing myself and my brand and how social media works in general.
“I just kept doing videos, but I didn’t have consistent success with it, and I would get burned out and really down on myself. Then, the pandemic happened, and I lost so much money and I was in a really bad mental state. I just had this tipping point where I was like, ‘You’ve been wanting to make videos since day one. We either go all in on this now, or because you’re approaching 30, like this has gotta go.”
Dustin has been making content full-time for the last three years. It’s not a traditional job, and although his family had a difficult time understanding it at first, they’re supportive of him now that the cash is flowing.
“Everyone in my family is supportive, but you know, it’s not a traditional way of doing things. It’s getting promoted at a company. It’s weird, and making videos and just content creation is a very new profession.
“Certain members of your family are not gonna know how to process that or take it. Like, ‘You’re doing what? You’re making videos? Are you okay? Are you making money?’ There’s always gonna be a level of that. But I’ve been doing it so long at this point now where they slowly, over time, started to be like, ‘That’s Dustin, that’s what he does.’
As for the future, Dustin hopes to start making music and start a podcast. He’s got a ton of interests that he hopes to pursue — and given his breakout success on YouTube, it looks like this is just the start of his ambitious endeavors.