Captain Disillusion

Submission 10,317

About

Captain Disillusion is a viral video and internet hoax debunking series on YouTube hosted and created by filmmaker Alan Melikdjanian, which is centered around the analysis of various digital effects.

Online History

The channel was created on September 17, 2007.^[1] Its first episode was released the next day, debunking a popular video of a penguin slapping another penguin. Alan plays as the titular character, wearing a vintage tracksuit, black t-shirt, gloves, gray sweatpants, and silver paint covering his lower face's skin and the rest of his body.

As of January 2018, the channel currently has 55 episodes.^[2] His debunk on popular "Miss Ping" video (below, left) was uploaded on November 7, 2013, and has over 2.21 million views. On May 31, 2016, he released his special collaboration with Beakman's World host Paul Zaloom with over a million views.

In September 24, 2016, he debunked the concept videos of the Cicret bracelet's crowdfunding campaign. He also donated $250 via their website to try out the bracelet itself. He later released an update on January 16, 2017, stating that he hasn't received the bracelet on the initial shipping date (Late 2016 / Early 2017) from the site's deleted timeline, but is still patiently waiting for the final product.

Besides his main videos, he also has shorter debunking videos under his "Quick D" series (below, left), along with videos on visual effects work in popular films under the "VFXcool" series (below, right).

Reception

The series has gained a large following on YouTube, with over 530,000 subscribers and 35.4 million views as of January 2018.^[1] Some of his videos have also been featured on news sites such as Miami New Times,^[3] Huffington Post,^[4] and Slate.^[5]

Reputation

Alan has been known to be active within the skepticism community, being featured in sites like The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe^[6] and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.^[7] He has also participated and given talks in conferences focused on critical thinking and skepticism (shown below).

Prior to the series, he was also filmmaker. He was the director, producer, editor, and composer of a 2006 Russian direct-to-DVD film Citizen Mavzik^[8], and later founded his own video production company Amelik Entertainment, LLC in 2009.^[9] He also co-created filmmaker-centric video sharing sites Openfilm (defunct)^[10] and FilmNet.^[11]

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