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[Macchiato]

From what I understand he's a generally good person, albeit one that's going through a creative and identity crisis and who tends to steamroll through the subtleties of what's an acceptable edgy joke and what's too far.

For a year or so now he seems to have been (unsuccessfully) trying to distance himself from his former kid-friendly, screams-at-vidya-games persona. I imagine this includes trying to garner an audience of older (at least, older than 14) people, or whoever enjoys Filthy Frank style content.

He's shown several times that he holds a lot of resentment towards different groups who try to mould him into roles he doesn't want (the media as misunderstanding him, his OG fans who want him to continue making Amnesia videos forever, etc). Right now he seems to feel like his current identity is Filthy Frank, except he's a lot more mainstream than him and as such can't get away with nearly as much.

Going back to the video in question, I absolutely do not think that he meant any harm in what he did. He just had very very poor judgement and allowed a knee jerk idea of "lol what if I asked them to write death to all jews would they do it OMG THEY DID LOL".

He seems like he feels remorse, and I don't think he deserves the vitriol from the community he's getting, but I do find it completely fair for companies to pull their support from him. Whether or not he was sincere in his antisemitism (which again, I absolutely don't think he was), I as a brand manager would not want an influencer who in part represents my brand displaying such a lack of good judgement.

 

[Bucca]

From what I understand he's a generally good person, albeit one that's going through a creative and identity crisis and who tends to steamroll through the subtleties of what's an acceptable edgy joke and what's too far.

For a year or so now he seems to have been (unsuccessfully) trying to distance himself from his former kid-friendly, screams-at-vidya-games persona. I imagine this includes trying to garner an audience of older (at least, older than 14) people, or whoever enjoys Filthy Frank style content.

He's shown several times that he holds a lot of resentment towards different groups who try to mould him into roles he doesn't want (the media as misunderstanding him, his OG fans who want him to continue making Amnesia videos forever, etc). Right now he seems to feel like his current identity is Filthy Frank, except he's a lot more mainstream than him and as such can't get away with nearly as much.

Going back to the video in question, I absolutely do not think that he meant any harm in what he did. He just had very very poor judgement and allowed a knee jerk idea of "lol what if I asked them to write death to all jews would they do it OMG THEY DID LOL".

He seems like he feels remorse, and I don't think he deserves the vitriol from the community he's getting, but I do find it completely fair for companies to pull their support from him. Whether or not he was sincere in his antisemitism (which again, I absolutely don't think he was), I as a brand manager would not want an influencer who in part represents my brand displaying such a lack of good judgement.

Extremely quality post.

 

[Timedog]

I'm gonna start a gofundme for him so he doesn't have to feel any economic anxiety.

 

[Myriadis]

Well, it's his fault and he should've known better.

 

[Reverend Funk]

Good. Just because you are trying to be edgy doesn't free you from the consequences of your words.

 

[Luminaire]

Not surprised, the guy made a career on being obnoxious and pushing limits and testing boundaries. An official apology and donations to various Jewish charities / memorials / museums would be a start if he wants to redeem himself in the eyes of anyone over the age of 13 (basically 1% of his audience).

 

[Loudninja]

Felix is a good dude who doesn't deserve the avalanche of vitriol he's receiving over this. Obviously Disney would cut ties and he should have known better. But youtube is over-reacting like most of these threads, pc culture gone way too far. Liberals turning into some fringe hard line group attacking anyone and anything seen as offensive. Even things done in jest, comedy when needed most right now is getting attacked by this hyper-sensitive fringe. It's sad. Not the way to get either a conversation going or point across. There absolutely are people trying to normalize nazi-ism and racism, but Felix certainly is not.

Nope he deserved it completely.

It was just a joke. Calm the fuck down, Youtube.

Not an a good excuse at all.

 

[Zakalwe]

From what I understand he's a generally good person, albeit one that's going through a creative and identity crisis and who tends to steamroll through the subtleties of what's an acceptable edgy joke and what's too far.

For a year or so now he seems to have been (unsuccessfully) trying to distance himself from his former kid-friendly, screams-at-vidya-games persona. I imagine this includes trying to garner an audience of older (at least, older than 14) people, or whoever enjoys Filthy Frank style content.

He's shown several times that he holds a lot of resentment towards different groups who try to mould him into roles he doesn't want (the media as misunderstanding him, his OG fans who want him to continue making Amnesia videos forever, etc). Right now he seems to feel like his current identity is Filthy Frank, except he's a lot more mainstream than him and as such can't get away with nearly as much.

Going back to the video in question, I absolutely do not think that he meant any harm in what he did. He just had very very poor judgement and allowed a knee jerk idea of "lol what if I asked them to write death to all jews would they do it OMG THEY DID LOL".

He seems like he feels remorse, and I don't think he deserves the vitriol from the community he's getting, but I do find it completely fair for companies to pull their support from him. Whether or not he was sincere in his antisemitism (which again, I absolutely don't think he was), I as a brand manager would not want an influencer who in part represents my brand displaying such a lack of good judgement.

Well said, friend.

 

[Keihart]

The overreaction dear lord.

Think about the children, arguments are ridiculous, he doesn't market himself toward children so that is on the parents.

Talking lightly about racism and xenophobia and making fun of it is good, the idea behind both situations is ridiculous so should be treated as such.

If anyone thinks that enjoying or making this kind of jokes make you a Nazi or something, well that is wrong no question about it.

Losing sponsors is pretty appropriate for this, but the hate on this thread is really shameful. But i guess it is no surprise since almost every thread about Felix good or bad ends up in hateful comments.

 

[see5harp]

I get that he released an ton of videos. I get that he's good looking. He's not funny. Fuck his audience.

 

[FlaygletheBagel]

From what I understand he's a generally good person, albeit one that's going through a creative and identity crisis and who tends to steamroll through the subtleties of what's an acceptable edgy joke and what's too far.

For a year or so now he seems to have been (unsuccessfully) trying to distance himself from his former kid-friendly, screams-at-vidya-games persona. I imagine this includes trying to garner an audience of older (at least, older than 14) people, or whoever enjoys Filthy Frank style content.

He's shown several times that he holds a lot of resentment towards different groups who try to mould him into roles he doesn't want (the media as misunderstanding him, his OG fans who want him to continue making Amnesia videos forever, etc). Right now he seems to feel like his current identity is Filthy Frank, except he's a lot more mainstream than him and as such can't get away with nearly as much.

Going back to the video in question, I absolutely do not think that he meant any harm in what he did. He just had very very poor judgement and allowed a knee jerk idea of "lol what if I asked them to write death to all jews would they do it OMG THEY DID LOL".

He seems like he feels remorse, and I don't think he deserves the vitriol from the community he's getting, but I do find it completely fair for companies to pull their support from him. Whether or not he was sincere in his antisemitism (which again, I absolutely don't think he was), I as a brand manager would not want an influencer who in part represents my brand displaying such a lack of good judgement.

Great perspective on the situation right here.

 

[GuitarGuruu]

He kind of deserves it for what he did. Did he seriously expect no repercussions for uploading this to basically his management?

Not that he probably cares though, I'm sure he has enough money for a lifetime.

 

[Galang]

Good riddance. Hopefully this is the end of his career

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I hope they also give a warning to some famous spanish youtubers that have the same children audience as Pewdiepie and make "jokes" like shouting allahu akbar after they do an explosion in a game or something similar.

Is sickeining hearing 12 year olds doing the same joke in public.

 

[Loudninja]

I dont get how he does not deserve the vitriol .

He made 9 vids of this stuff, not to mention paid people to hold up very nasty signs.

 

[OriginalNameGuy]

Damn biggest channel on YouTube taking massive losses this week.

 

[Easy_D]

Clearly an elaborate ploy to cull the amount of people subbed on YouTube

 

[malfcn]

He might not care. Could be testing the limits, and whatever happens.. happens.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

From what I understand he's a generally good person, albeit one that's going through a creative and identity crisis and who tends to steamroll through the subtleties of what's an acceptable edgy joke and what's too far.

For a year or so now he seems to have been (unsuccessfully) trying to distance himself from his former kid-friendly, screams-at-vidya-games persona. I imagine this includes trying to garner an audience of older (at least, older than 14) people, or whoever enjoys Filthy Frank style content.

He's shown several times that he holds a lot of resentment towards different groups who try to mould him into roles he doesn't want (the media as misunderstanding him, his OG fans who want him to continue making Amnesia videos forever, etc). Right now he seems to feel like his current identity is Filthy Frank, except he's a lot more mainstream than him and as such can't get away with nearly as much.

Going back to the video in question, I absolutely do not think that he meant any harm in what he did. He just had very very poor judgement and allowed a knee jerk idea of "lol what if I asked them to write death to all jews would they do it OMG THEY DID LOL".

He seems like he feels remorse, and I don't think he deserves the vitriol from the community he's getting, but I do find it completely fair for companies to pull their support from him. Whether or not he was sincere in his antisemitism (which again, I absolutely don't think he was), I as a brand manager would not want an influencer who in part represents my brand displaying such a lack of good judgement.

A lot of these YouTube/Twitch personalities seem like the new generation of child actors. Young people having a bunch of fame and money thrust upon them without really having the capacity or in a lot of cases the basic social skills to deal with it, and because it's on a platform that is far more direct to consumer, there is no standards and practices to tell them where the line is, or how not to sound like a complete shit heel.

 

[ZeoVGM]

I've seen this kind of thinking from a few people and I just want to say it's bullshit. If someone makes a racist joke against any other minority group, people don't try to explain it away as "Oh well I'm sure they arn't actually racist, they just made a bad joke." but it seems to be a thought lots of people hold when the minority group in question is Jewish people. I don't know if this is because people see Ashkenazi Jews as "white" so it's more ok to make such jokes, but believe me if he had paid those people to make the sign say "Death to all Blacks" nobody would be coming here to say how not-racist Pewdiepie is. Hell, this thought process of Jews being a more acceptable punching bag probably explains why he thought it was ok to upload these videos in the first place and why it took so long for any sort of action to be taken.

I understand what you're saying and I apologize if it came out like that. Let me try to explain myself a bit better.

Context is important. Yes, this guy is an asshole. But I don't personally believe he has actual hatred towards Jewish people.

I believe he did something "shocking" for attention (as he has done before, such as claiming he joined ISIS on Twitter) and not because he actually thinks that way.

That isn't a defense of him, I think he's a jackass and that is this ruins his career, it is completely deserved. But I just don't believe this was done from a place of hatred for Jewish people.

 

[doop_]

That sucks because he seems like a nice guy. It's a shame he made a mistake as big as this one.

 

[jstripes]

It takes a special kind of stupidity and/or ignorance to casually make anti-Semitic jokes in today's political climate and not expect there to be backlash.

Is he even aware of the state of the world?

 

[stupei]

I'm not sure what the "joke" was to everybody defending this as "satire" or "comedy". The punchline was "death to all the Jews". What is funny about that? Like, if there was a show where one of the characters was an idiot YouTube personality, and in service of trying to "push the envelope" he proclaimed "death to all the Jews" and in turn lost a bunch of money and endorsements and we could all laugh at how stupid he was, now that would be satire.

Didn't you hear the people saying that the joke is that those craaaazy poor brown people are so desperate for cash they'll do anything to amuse the multi-millionaire? Now that's funny!

I might get slack for this, but it warrants saying. I feel bad for the guy and it seems like the House of Mouse is throwing their weight around.

How could a guy who made an enormous fortune through being a media personality have any idea how major media companies work? They sure blindsided him.

Felix is a good dude who doesn't deserve the avalanche of vitriol he's receiving over this. Obviously Disney would cut ties and he should have known better. But youtube is over-reacting like most of these threads, pc culture gone way too far. Liberals turning into some fringe hard line group attacking anyone and anything seen as offensive. Even things done in jest, comedy when needed most right now is getting attacked by this hyper-sensitive fringe. It's sad. Not the way to get either a conversation going or point across. There absolutely are people trying to normalize nazi-ism and racism, but Felix certainly is not.

Major corporations protecting their brand is liberalism gone wild somehow? Isn't prioritizing profits a traditionally conservative perspective?

 

[Fliesen]

The overreaction dear lord.

Think about the children, arguments are ridiculous, he doesn't market himself toward children so that is on the parents.

Talking lightly about racism and xenophobia and making fun of it is good, the idea behind both situations is ridiculous so should be treated as such.

If anyone thinks that enjoying or making this kind of jokes make you a Nazi or something, well that is wrong no question about it.

Losing sponsors is pretty appropriate for this, but the hate on this thread is really shameful. But i guess it is no surprise since almost every thread about Felix good or bad ends up in hateful comments.

Do not mistake "making fun of xenophobia" with "using xenophobia jokingly".
huge difference.

 

[Granjinha]

From what I understand he's a generally good person, albeit one that's going through a creative and identity crisis and who tends to steamroll through the subtleties of what's an acceptable edgy joke and what's too far.

For a year or so now he seems to have been (unsuccessfully) trying to distance himself from his former kid-friendly, screams-at-vidya-games persona. I imagine this includes trying to garner an audience of older (at least, older than 14) people, or whoever enjoys Filthy Frank style content.

He's shown several times that he holds a lot of resentment towards different groups who try to mould him into roles he doesn't want (the media as misunderstanding him, his OG fans who want him to continue making Amnesia videos forever, etc). Right now he seems to feel like his current identity is Filthy Frank, except he's a lot more mainstream than him and as such can't get away with nearly as much.

Going back to the video in question, I absolutely do not think that he meant any harm in what he did. He just had very very poor judgement and allowed a knee jerk idea of "lol what if I asked them to write death to all jews would they do it OMG THEY DID LOL".

He seems like he feels remorse, and I don't think he deserves the vitriol from the community he's getting, but I do find it completely fair for companies to pull their support from him. Whether or not he was sincere in his antisemitism (which again, I absolutely don't think he was), I as a brand manager would not want an influencer who in part represents my brand displaying such a lack of good judgement.

yeah, this

a lot of people get a lot of unnecessary vitriol in the gaming community, so it's not like it's anything new tbf

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Not surprised, the guy made a career on being obnoxious and pushing limits and testing boundaries. An official apology and donations to various Jewish charities / memorials / museums would be a start if he wants to redeem himself in the eyes of anyone over the age of 13 (basically 1% of his audience).

Charities don't automatically absolve you of what you did.

 

[TheTurboFD]

I'm surprised that youtube cracked down on him but yet can allow an idiot like KEEMSTAR to still create content.

 

[Loudninja]

yeah, this

a lot of people get a lot of unnecessary vitriol in the gaming community, so it's not like it's anything new tbf

Again why is it unnecessary?

 

[Breakage]

Things are really starting to crumble for this guy.

 

[Kinsei]

I'm surprised that youtube cracked down on him but yet can allow an idiot like KEEMSTAR to still create content.

They don't. Keemstar was rightfully banned from Youtube but he has other people host his content.

 

[Catvoca]

A lot of these YouTube/Twitch personalities seem like the new generation of child actors. Young people having a bunch of fame and money thrust upon them without really having the capacity or in a lot of cases the basic social skills to deal with it, and because it's on a platform that is far more direct to consumer, there is no standards and practices to tell them where the line is, or how it to sound like a complete shit heel.

This is a good point, I hadn't considered that.

 

[ClosingADoor]

I'm surprised that youtube cracked down on him but yet can allow an idiot like KEEMSTAR to still create content.

He is not being restricted in his content. He is just dropped from the premium ad program, so he doesn't get the premium deals anymore. I doubt Keemstar is part of that program.

 

[GonzoCR]

yeah, this

a lot of people get a lot of unnecessary vitriol in the gaming community, so it's not like it's anything new tbf

Why unnecessary? If massive backlash is what gets him to stop with this "humor", then I don't see the harm. Not like he will when a lot of his audience is of the "just a prank, bro" type, but still.

 

[Sr. Wiggles]

I understand what you're saying and I apologize if it came out like that. Let me try to explain myself a bit better.

Context is important. Yes, this guy is an asshole. But I don't personally believe he has actual hatred towards Jewish people.

I believe he did something "shocking" for attention (as he has done before, such as claiming he joined ISIS on Twitter) and not because he actually thinks that way.

That isn't a defense of him, I think he's a jackass and that is this ruins his career, it is completely deserved. But I just don't believe this was done from a place of hatred for Jewish people.

Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious he didn't do this because he actually hates Jewish people. He was testing this fiverr thing or whatever the hell it was and wanted something shocking that he figured they wouldn't dare do and turns out, they did.

Him being dropped is deserved, but the overreactions from a lot of people over this are a bit ridiculous.

 

[karmakgb]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/13/pewdiepie-youtube-star-disney-antisemitic-videos

"PewDiePie’s comments have made him popular with neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, which has run a series of articles about the YouTuber, describing him as “our guy”.

“He could be doing all this only to cause a stir things up and get free publicity,” wrote the Daily Stormer.

“Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, since the effect is the same; it normalizes Nazism, and marginalizes our enemies.”

The site has even added a banner describing itself as “the world’s #1 PewDiePie fansite”.

His "intent" doesn't really matter. When Nazis think you're helping them, you're wrong. Dude deserves everything coming his way and more.

 

[Ultima_5]

good. people need to stop making light of this sort of shit.

 

[Cappa]

My only reaction to the situation is how anyone can defend his actions with "its just a joke bro."

Like, people are saying his target audience isnt children but his humor reminds me of the typical 13 year old kids calling everyone the N word and f----ot on Xbox Live Call of Duty....

I dont get it, again, I dont think Ive ever watched any one of his videos but if this is the sort of "humor" that goes down in his videos than Im glad I havent.

Its not even about being racist or anti semitic... its just fucking retarded.

 

[tearsintherain]

yeah this is definitely not a case of PC culture gone amok - you can't say and do shit like this and expect companies to support you. Do I think he's a racist, nazi white nationalist? Nah. Did he buy way too much into the 4chan trolling style? Yup. You reap what you sow.

Free speech means you are free to think and say those things as much as you want. It also means companies like Disney and Youtube can nope the fuck out of any associations with you. He is totally free to set up a new website and post his shitty videos on there with no censorship on youtube's part, but as long as they are paying for infrastructure and distribution and depending on ads and sponsors for everything they can totally censor anything however they want.

 

[Macchiato]

A lot of these YouTube/Twitch personalities seem like the new generation of child actors. Young people having a bunch of fame and money thrust upon them without really having the capacity or in a lot of cases the basic social skills to deal with it, and because it's on a platform that is far more direct to consumer, there is no standards and practices to tell them where the line is, or how it to sound like a complete shit heel.

Definitely, and that kinda makes me think of something slightly on a tangent. Acting is one thing--it's a talent that doesn't necessarily expire, though that's not to say that the appeal of a particular person can't wax and wane depending on industry trends.

For YouTube though, it inherently has a very short shelflife. I suppose you could argue that being a YouTuber nets you certain skills you could market to other roles and industries, but by and large "YouTuber" as a career has an expiry date due to factors on several different fronts. When its time is up, where do people like PewDiePie go from there? How can they stay relevant, and how much responsibility do they have towards their real (not aspired) audience?

I kinda turned this into a different issue, but it'd be interesting to discuss.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Damn losing Google money and Disney money in one week, who is his business manager Trump?

Ahahahaha

Feels good to laugh about this again.

Also: hey kids out there, this shit dont fly any more. We dont live that world any more.

 

[PBY]

JUST A PRANK BRO


Welp, own it now.

 

[Granjinha]

Why unnecessary? If massive backlash is what gets him to stop with this "humor", then I don't see the harm. Not like he will when a lot of his audience is of the "just a prank, bro" type, but still.

Again why is it unnecessary?

i don't mind a massive backlash, but people recently do tend to jump to conclusions pretty quickly

i'm pretty sure everyone is going with the mentality that he is a, i don't know, fasci/nazi/racist etc when in the video of the 'death to all jews' he is clearly shocked that the guys actually did it and doesn't find it ~so funny

pranks with bad tastes need to have a backlash, i just don't think some people going 'I HOPE THIS ENDS HIS CARREER HE'S A PIECE OF SHIT' (hyperbolic example) are, uh, actually right

i could be wrong and he's a piece of shit tho ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[Christhor]

I'm gonna start a gofundme for him so he doesn't have to feel any economic anxiety.

Don't worry too much, he'll still be making more money than the most successful person in your or my family, even after this has gone down.

 

[Ville Pukema]

He does some really stupid shit sometimes. But the good he has done outweighs any bad I have seen him do yet.

Going to believe he is some antisemitic when there is more to show then "edgy" jokes. If there is no serious intention behind these, got no problem with these. Some people get the jokes some not.

Still corporations are fully within their right to stop doing business with pewdiepie, though would be nice if they made these scandals out of other shit that goes on youtube also and not just with the easiest target.

 

[Sheiter]

I understand what you're saying and I apologize if it came out like that. Let me try to explain myself a bit better.

Context is important. Yes, this guy is an asshole. But I don't personally believe he has actual hatred towards Jewish people.

I believe he did something "shocking" for attention (as he has done before, such as claiming he joined ISIS on Twitter) and not because he actually thinks that way.

That isn't a defense of him, I think he's a jackass and that is this ruins his career, it is completely deserved. But I just don't believe this was done from a place of hatred for Jewish people.

I don't think that he hates Jews. I'm saying that Jews just straight up arn't treated like a "real minority". You arn't the only one to come into this thread saying that it was just a joke and he didn't mean it so I don't want you to think I'm trying to single your reply out or something, it's just something I've observed even here on Neogaf. The whole "He didn't really mean it" excuse would never cut it if this was any other minority group that Pewdiepie chose to make the target of his "joke" and that's bullshit.

 

[zeioIIDX]

Of all things he could have had them write, he thinks of "Death to all Jews"? Come the fuck on now. You had this shit fucking coming. Having 50+ million subscribers does not make you untouchable. It makes the shit you say and do online more visible.

 

[RedHill]

This happened a long ass time ago. They waited for it to blow up bigger and gain more attention? The incident itself wasn't enough?

 

[BobTheFork]

How many people does this guy have subscribed on his channel?

Seems like this 'prank' had already gained widespread notice notice some time ago?

 

[Milly Osworth]

He will shed a tear when he takes his daily moneybath today.

 

[4 is a cutie]

i don't mind a massive backlash, but people recently do tend to jump to conclusions pretty quickly

i'm pretty sure everyone is going with the mentality that he is a, i don't know, fasci/nazi/racist etc when in the video of the 'death to all jews' he is clearly shocked that the guys actually did it and doesn't find it ~so funny

pranks with bad tastes need to have a backlash, i just don't think some people going 'I HOPE THIS ENDS HIS CARREER HE'S A PIECE OF SHIT' (hyperbolic example) are, uh, actually right

i could be wrong and he's a piece of shit tho ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

But he's the one who paid them to do it in the first place and recorded it to use as new content. No one knows what anyone truly thinks, which is why actions will get you criticized regardless of intent

He will shed a tear when he takes his daily moneybath today.

The rich love losing out on deals. In fact, they're ecstatic when it happens!

I don't understand the point of cheerleading comments like this. I can assure you PDP wasn't thrilled to hear bad news from Disney and Youtube