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Disney cuts ties with PewDiePie after he posts antisemetic videos

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SephCast

Brotherhood of Shipley's
For those who can't read the article, I've included a portion of it:

Millions of people have watched a Jan. 11 video by YouTube’s biggest star that included two men laughing as they held a banner that read, “Death to all Jews.”

The man behind the video is Felix Kjellberg, a 27-year-old Swede known as “PewDiePie,” who has amassed 53 million subscribers. His success has brought him multimillion-dollar deals from YouTube and Walt Disney Co., which owns a firm that runs Mr. Kjellberg’s business.

Since August, PewDiePie has posted nine videos that include anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery, according to a review of his channel by The Wall Street Journal.


On Monday after the Journal contacted Disney about the videos, the entertainment giant said it was severing ties with Mr. Kjellberg, who as PewDiePie rose to prominence via clips of himself playing videogames or performing skits and making crude jokes.

Under the terms of their arrangement, Mr. Kjellberg had editorial independence.

“Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate,” said a spokeswoman for Maker Studios, the Disney division that was business partners with PewDiePie.

PewDiePie’s account also took down three videos with a total of about 23 million views—the Jan. 11 video, and ones from Jan. 17 and Jan. 22—after the Journal’s inquiries. In the Jan. 22 video, Mr. Kjellberg showed a man dressed as Jesus Christ saying, “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Mr. Kjellberg said in a video a few days later that the Jan. 11 clip was a joke that went too far. Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which owns YouTube, pulled ads that run on its videos from the Jan. 11 video within days of its posting, before it was taken down this past weekend. YouTube hasn’t pulled any of the nine videos in question, though PewDiePie’s account took down three of them. Google hasn’t removed ads from any of Mr. Kjellberg’s other videos.

Mr. Kjellberg didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article. On Sunday, he wrote on Tumblr that he wanted “clear some things up,” specifically that he doesn’t support “any kind of hateful attitudes.” Mr. Kjellberg wrote that he creates content for entertainment, not as political commentary, and understands “these jokes were ultimately offensive.”

.....

Mr. Kjellberg, who in late December was working out of an old Disney office outside London, has said the media takes his jokes out of context.

“What I just think—and I believe strongly in—is that it is 2017 now,” he said in the Jan. 22 video that was taken down. “We’re going to have to start separating what is a joke, and what is actually problematic.

“Is a joke actually pure racism?” he said. “Is something that would be considered a joke purely homophobic, or anti-Semitic and all these things? Context fucking matters.”

Mr. Kjellberg’s use of Nazi material dates back to at least Aug. 7, when he began a video with a swastika and other Nazi imagery. Wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat from President Donald Trump’s campaign, Mr. Kjellberg used a photo of Hitler as a segue between clips.
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Compsiox

Compsiox

Banned
Tagyhag said:
What ties does he have with Disney? All I know is that he was given special park privileges when he went to Disneyland/California Adventure.



I don't think most of them realize just how many kids watch them, either way he seems to be trying to have more "adult-oriented" videos so he probably assumed nothing bad would happen.

But yeah, suuuuch a stupid move on his part.
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His videos used to be more adult oriented but then he became famous and was held to some standards because kids make up his audience.
 
N

Nimby

Banned
jon bones said:
had no idea he was a nazi, what a piece of shit
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Well he isn't, unless he's hiding some shit. I have a friend who watches him, it was something about these two guys that would hold a sign up and say whatever you sent to them. He sent the message as a joke thinking they would disregard it, but they didn't understand English and said it without knowing what it meant. It was a joke, but definitely in poor taste.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Not only was that Hitler did nothing wrong video in extreme bad taste.

It's not even a "meme" anymore, that shit is from like, 2010.
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
Nimby said:
Well he isn't, unless he's hiding some shit. I have a friend who watches him, it was something about these two guys that would hold a sign up and say whatever you sent to them. It was a joke, but definitely in poor taste.
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jacob armitage said:
I don't think he is, just an extremely poor joke gone too far.
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no, sounds like a nazi piece of shit to me.

Mr. Kjellberg's use of Nazi material dates back to at least Aug. 7, when he began a video with a swastika and other Nazi imagery. Wearing a ”Make America Great Again" hat from President Donald Trump's campaign, Mr. Kjellberg used a photo of Hitler as a segue between clips.
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M

Mr-Joker

Banned
Yeah you don't mess with the house of mouse by doing dumb shit like that.

flaxknuckles said:
Why would you even make a joke like this when kids make up a huge percentage of your fanbase?
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Because pretty much 99.9% of youtuber simply don't give a toss as they don't hold themselves responsible to be good role model for kids.

Which is why when I have kids I would never let them be on youtube without either me or my wife keeping on eye on what they are watching.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Mr-Joker said:
Yeah you don't mess with the house of mouse by doing dumb shit like that.



Because pretty much 99.9% of youtuber simply don't give a toss as they don't hold themselves responsible to be good role model for kids.

Which is why when I have kids I would never let them be on youtube without either me or my wife keeping on eye on what they are watching.
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Yeah my son only watches videos from people I have seen and reviewed to be child friendly. If I hear a cuss, they are immediately out of the rotation.
 
F0rneus

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Wow. Glad that he expressed how much of a piece of shit he was I guess. Hitler did nothing wrong? Fuck off mate. Fuck that clown, goddamn.
 
J

jax

Banned
This was a really stupid joke, and he might get kicked out of his Disney-owned office, but ultimately it won't hurt him. Like others in this thread have stated, too big to fail.

Reminds me of the racist drama with another popular youtuber, idubbbztv. Only I think idubbbz did it more eloquently in exposing someone else for being a closet racist.

PewDiePie should go back to making videos for kids and stop trying to be the next edgelord like this.
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
Surface of Me said:
McCarthyism 101. Pretty sad to see modern day liberals revive such a disgusting piece of American history.
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C3qzWMnWcAAmbRF.jpg
 
D

Darryl M R

Member
MegaManTrigger said:
Just like kids in Toronto who say "allahu akbar" or make jokes about Islam simply because of all the nonsense out there in the public with regards to Muslims. It's aggravating, stupid, and asinine. I really can't understand why that's considered "humourous" along with the Hitler stuff you mentioned (which I also hear over here).
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Frozenprince said:
Yep, they are pop culture icons now. They have a responsibility to be role models or at the very least, not be idiots who do shit like this, just like any other people that kids might look up too or enjoy on a regular basis.
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I've mentally walked through what I think I would do if I heard my younger sibling making a "joke" like these influencers. It's pretty scary to think they we can have generations growing up thinking crimes against humanity are just "jokes".

And I think sure it's okay for adults to have dark humor about heavy historical subjects but it is with the understanding that they know the weight of those horrible events.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
Garrett Hawke said:
i don't think he's a liberal at all tbh
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He's made jokes at Trump's expense in the past, so I always assumed he was somewhere on the left side of the political spectrum.

SephCast said:
For those who can't read the article, I've included a portion of it:
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From this it sounds like he thought it was okay to make the kind of joke you'd make with your friends in passing to be edgey on the internet for millions of strangers.
 
O

OldMuffin

Member
Oh so now people realise for the lack of a better term, how cancerous he is? Look I'm alright with jokes but there's a line you never cross... with the recent csgo lotto stuff and now this, hopefully people will take a long hard look and realise that there is something really wrong with the big YouTube commenters and something can be done to burst their bubble (end rant).
 
C

Camper Van Beethoven

Banned
Not that this is especially good satire, but it's kind of sad we live in a time where you can't even attempt being satirical without fake internet outrage trying to destroy you.
 
M

MegaManTrigger

Banned
NOLA_Gaffer said:
The guy is still gonna rake in millions a day, so I doubt he cares.
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Given a choice between making millions, and making even more millions, you can't go wrong with making more millions. After all, you never know what's going to happen to you, family when money is such a finite resource.
 
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NolbertoS

Member
Never understood his popularity. He was making youtube videos that any random person can do, but he managed to get a good following, got some sponsors and likened himself to being a celebrity like Shiggy. Now his so called finances are goind down the tube, for being anti-semitic. He deserves all the negativity that comes with this
 
F

friskykillface

Banned
wow he had ties with Disney, holy crap what a dumb L to take pewdiepie, never upset the mouse.

what a dummy but hes still making a lot of money so I doubt he cares now, but maybe someday he will.
 
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