Surprise, surprise, surprise.
If you have a ânon-racistâ friend who likes to make ironic-racism edgelord jokes: no, you have a racist friend. That shit ainât funny to folks who arenât arseholes.
TMBJ: thank you. Violent Femmes, Tears For Fears, The Smiths, nerdrock in general:
Saved me from a lot of indefensible shittyness.
Damnit. You beat me to it.
The reaction to his last round also provides little obvious incentive for him to behave any better(unless he actually possesses a reserve of moral fiber that has so far been carefully hidden).
The Disney deal is likely toast barring anything less than a full grovelling-apology-all-the-way-back(and quite possibly even then; but the penalty among his enthusiasts for making such an apology would be paid either way); and the especially-special-treatment from youtube is likely out of the cards for a while, though actually getting booted from Youtube entirely seems vanishlingly unlikely; so given that he has already paid the expected penalties, leaving minimal additional leverage; and the reaction of his fan base was mostly positive toward him and negative toward those calling him out on his shit; why not double down on it?
Because presumably heâll eventually want to do something other than being a racist clown on YouTube. The more he does bullshit like this, the more toxic he becomes to anyone who would be willing to pay him, and heâs not always going to be a 20-something dufus making 20 minute movies of himself playing video games.
But then his core audience can accuse him of âselling out.â I think it depends on whether he wants to have a larger audience, if he can get it, vs. not alienating his core audience of racist douches. I doubt heâs thinking much past the here and now, honestly.
But hereâs hoping heâs toxic and never breaks out of his racist little rut.
Whatâs the half-life of a YouTube megastar? How many years can he really rely on that core group of fans to continue to be interested in his antics? He should really consider whatâs the fate of Tay Zonday. It may be chocolate rain for Pewdiepie today, but itâs just as likely to be mud pies tomorrow.
Thatâs a good question. Time will tell, I suppose, not just about him, but the whole youtube star ecosystem.
Given his relative youth, heâs likely not thinking long-term. Heâs a guy with a lot of privilege, who has consistently had his worldview reinforced by his bubble. His reaction when he finally got some blowback seems to have been to double down, which shouldnât surprise us. People like him rarely get real consequences for spewing their hateful views in our society.
I guess if I ask who that is, thatâs the point?
But presumably Kjellberg would still be a millionaire and set for life if his income stopped tomorrow.
I have to admit that I care so little about Kjellberg that I only learnt how to pronounce PewDiePie a couple of weeks ago.
Maybe he wants to be President.
I canât get worked up about what someone who voluntarily named himself PewDiePie says.
Nice.
Minority opinion, but a little TMBG goes a very long way with me. But I could listen to The Specials all day.
Iâm not sure if this makes me an optimist or a pessimist; but Iâm inclined to suspect that, if he wants to make a lateral move into some other flavor of entertainment; he wonât have too much trouble finding someone more than willing to accept a âregrettable indiscretions from when I was young and stupidâ and focus the frankly astonishing audience he managed to acquire by basically jabbering like a moron in front of video games.
If he fancies a real job at some point; Iâd similarly imagine that anyone willing to overlook the âhas actually devoted himself for years on end to being a clown prince of youtubeâ CV gap would similarly be willing to take a âno, thatâs immature bullshit that I donât do anymoreâ excuse(so long as he was at least being honest enough in saying so to keep his mouth shut thereafter; I doubt that anyone not hiring an âedgyâ comedian is looking to take the PR hit involuntarily).
The world is certainly full of washed-up celebrity has beens; but they donât seem to wash up at some sort of justice-based rate, so he has no particular reason to expect that his career will last longer if heâs a better person about it; and he has already made enough excursions from good taste that anyone willing to drop him from consideration for that has ample grounds to do so; while anyone willing to take assertions that thatâs all in the past (or just not recognize whatever his real name is while shovelling resumes down in the bowels of HR), isnât obviously going to become less willing unless he ratchets it up far enough to create the impression of a new, distinct, even worse, period; rather than just a continuation of what he as been up to for some years now.
The âstingerâ at end of his apology video, regardless of whether or not he intended it to be humorous, pretty much killed said apology. I donât care for Pewdiepie and, aside from this infamous roasting* [Content Warning: PWDP shouting âRapeâ, grotesque innuendos, etc.] that supposedly he learned from and the âapologyâ video, I donât watch his videos. Just thought Iâd share this thoughâŚ
One of the guys who helped create said roasting (i.e. âslowbeefâ) wrote an article on Polygon about this whole notion of YouTube scandals and why major players, like Pewdiepie, seem to invite them or rather taking a risk than just adhering to their MCN and ultimately their subscriber base. One of the reasons is just the demand for uploads in general as slowbeef points out:
Most uploaders begin to believe they have to flood the site with videos for a chance one goes viral or to reach subscribers who arenât notified or to make up for losing them. And the numbers do go up when you start to do that, leaving many to believe itâs the only reliable way to keep relevant.
You need ad revenue if you want to make a living talking over video games, which means views and that means uploads. Or at the very least, you need brand deals which means you need clout, which means you need subscribers, which means views, which again means uploads. Most pros create at least one video a day, and itâs a punishing schedule. Some create as many as three videos a day.
Hereâs slowbeef on Pewdiepieâs failed joke:
PewDiePie ends up looking like the villain because he uses the old South Park âhaha anti-Semitism!â routine, but the whole joke is malformed. People are quick to dismiss it as merely an edgy throwaway when it couldâve been meant as a commentary on paid online services. But who can blame them? As it stands, the joke is really hard to read. It doesnât land cleanly at all.
You can actually imagine, if you like, PewDiePie doing a stand-up set and having comedian friends tell him at the bar that âman, youâve been leaning on the Nazi stuff a bit lately.â Or an audience groaning at a smaller venue, which signals to him itâs time to do a rewrite. Thatâs why there are workshops, writing sessions and smaller venues and drinks with fellow comedians. You have to fail often when the stakes are low to learn how to get the big wins. Itâs a process.
Online personalities canât really know that theyâve lost the goodwill of the audience, or that the material will gain mainstream anger if theyâre famous, until itâs too late. Theyâre already forming tomorrowâs video without even seeing the storm thatâs coming.
Even worse is that there is this air of âeveryone gets sooo offendedâ and, while thatâs a whole different conversation, some people use the reverse-outrage to mask the fact that they fucked up a joke and have to pay a price. Or they blame others for pointing it out.
I wouldnât doubt that Pewdiepieâs excessive use of shock humor caught up to him and heâs just making bad jokesâboth as in cheesy and culturally insensitive onesâto garner more subscribers without realizing that he just normalized nazism amongst those with bigoted attitudes. Again I donât watch his videos for the most part so I donât know whether or not he genuinely believes thisâaside from that âstingerââor if itâs part of his brand, which I personally donât get in the slightest. The layout on his channel plus the thumbnails donât convey much information as it is and his about page (at time of posting) literally has nothing on it.
Iâll never understand mainstream YouTube culture and Iâm fine with that. Iâll just keep liking better videos from my favorite YouTubers and donate to their Patreon(s) if I am able.
Same tune, different title.
