Mighty Mike Plays Dad Refunds AI Shirts, Says He Owns 12 Companies

Remember the dad who went viral after claiming his son racked up $118,000 in YouTube ads? Well, he's back with a lengthy explanation—and some refunds.

Dave, the father from the Mighty Mike Plays saga, uploaded an hour-long video titled "Allow me to Explain" last week. In it, he promised that everyone who bought one of those controversial AI-generated T-shirts would get their money back, whether they asked for it or not. "Everyone that got a shirt got refunded," he said. The video has since been deleted and re-uploaded on a new channel called Coffee Time with Dave.

If you missed the drama, here's the quick recap: Dave originally went on YouTube to vent about his son allegedly using his company credit card to buy over $118,000 in video ads. He said he was fired and had just 30 days to cover the debt. The story blew up, and when he tried to sell merch with AI-generated designs, the internet wasn't having it. Now, Dave admits he was wrong about the AI shirts. "In retrospect, was AI and the merch the way to go? Was the price the way to go? No," he said. "I shouldn't have used AI." He added that about 100 people got free shirts.

But that's not all. Dave also clarified some details about his employment situation. Instead of being fired in the traditional sense, he said the contract between his company and another company was terminated. "Isn't that the same thing?" he asked. And as many suspected, he doesn't just own one company—he owns 12. "Some of them are just collecting dust," he admitted. "Just because someone has a company or is a CEO doesn't mean they're actually conducting a profitable business."

Dave also addressed why he made the original video. He thought he was just venting, never expecting it to go viral. "I remember thinking, I wonder if this video will hit 10,000 views," he said. "That's kind of where I thought it would cap." Obviously, it went way beyond that.

As for the refunds, Dave said he didn't want scammers to take advantage of people who wanted to be involved in the story. His official merch page allegedly put him another $10K in the hole, and the AI designs drew heavy criticism. Now, he's owning up to his mistakes. "I'm going to admit when I was wrong: That was not the move," he said. "If I could go back, I'd do it differently."

It's unclear if this explanation will satisfy the internet, but Dave is trying to set the record straight. Will you be picking up any of those refunded shirts? What do you think about the whole saga? Let us know in the comments!