What Happened to Popular YouTube Channel Zebra Corner? Inside the Details

It only takes one video to go viral and become an overnight internet sensation with a loyal following — and that’s exactly what happened with the popular YouTube channel Zebra Corner. However, things changed for the worst due to illegal activity.

Zebra Corner consisted of YouTube personalities Dave Irwin and Ali Shahriari. The channel garnered fame and millions of views through videos that poked fun at big consumer brands, such as their viral clip about Chevrolet.

The channel went dark after David was arrested and convicted in 2019 in Manatee County, Fla., of “lewd or lascivious molestation victim under 12 years offender 18 or older,” per the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

He is currently listed as a registered sex offender and sexual predator. Additionally, he has been arrested for a host of other crimes since, including repeated parole violations and removing his ankle monitor upon release.

Some fans took to Reddit to voice their opinions and takes at the news of Dave’s arrest. “Well that explains why he just suddenly disappeared. I had figured that they just needed to get different jobs to make ends meet,” one Reddit user wrote. “The weird part is watch the subway commercial parody where he calls 'Jared' a fahking weirdo. He’s convicted of the same thing,” another user added.

In a 2017 interview with AdWeek, Dave and Ali, who had been friends since high school, shared how they decided to become content creators.

"We’ve always made fun of commercials during our weekly Sunday football games,” Ali told the outlet at the time. “We kind of did our own version of Mystery Science Theater, but for commercials instead of B-movies. It wasn’t until we saw this trend of ‘real people’ commercials that it clicked. We were watching TV and a DealDash commercial came on. It was awful. The acting was horrendous, and they weren’t acting like normal people would act in that situation.”

“So, we asked ourselves: ‘What if a brutally honest jerk was in these commercials?’ Well the commercial came back on again, and we started making funny comments to make each other laugh, except this time we wrote it down,” Ali continued. “Then I mentioned I’d been messing with a little greenscreen work recently, and that I could put Dave right into the commercial. That’s how the magic started.'"

Since Dave’s very serious legal issues and prison time, the channel had effectively become defunct, with no new content posted in several years. Neither Dave nor Ali have publicly addressed Dave’s arrest and convictions.

While internet sleuths have done their investigation regarding Dave’s current and highly disturbing status, things appear to be rather quiet on Ali’s end. He has seemingly stepped away from the spotlight and creating the content that made him and his childhood friend internet-famous, if only for a short time.