Pewdiepie has finally responded to the controversy surrounding a Wall Street Journal report that led to the cancellation of his YouTube show, and he does not mince words about the fallout.
As you might already know, earlier this year Pewdiepie paid two Indian men on Fiverr to hold up a sign that read "Death To All Jews". The incident blew up on mainstream media, eventually prompting the Wall Street Journal to ask brands who worked with Pewdiepie what they thought of his antics. In response, Maker Studios, a division of Disney, cut ties with Pewdiepie. YouTube also not only cancelled his Scare Pewdiepie show, they took him off the premium advertising service meant for influential channels with large audiences.
As far as the Fiverr incident is concerned, Pewdiepie was apologetic.
"I'm sorry for the words that I used, as I know they offended people and I admit that the joke itself went too far," Pewdiepie said. "I do strongly believe that you can joke about anything but I also believe there's a right way, and not the best way, to joke about things.
"I love to push boundaries, but I would consider myself a rookie comedian, and I've definitely made mistakes like this before," Pewdiepie continued. "But it's always been a learning and growing experience for me... this whole situation has definitely been that for me. It's something that I'm going to keep in mind going forward."
Regardless, Pewdiepie took umbrage in the way that the Wall Street Journal framed their coverage to suggest that the YouTube star had embraced antisemitism as a whole for his comedy act. As far as Pewdiepie is concerned, the WSJ took some of his videos referencing Nazis out of context. It's true: Pewdiepie can and does reference Hitler in his videos, but that alone does not equal endorsement. Pewdiepie pointed out that in snippet of footage, he was asking his fans to stop using Swastikas within a game, and in another, he was criticising YouTube for adopting a program that seemed like a "Nazi scheme". In context, those specific Nazi references are used to point something bad out, not to celebrate the movement.
"I acknowledge that I took things too far, and that's something that I will definitely keep in mind moving forward," Pewdiepie remarked. "But the reaction and the outrage has been nothing but insanity. People celebrating the fact that my show got canceled, which is something that literally hundreds of people worked on. Is that fair, is that worth celebrating, over some jokes that you disagree with?"
Near the end, Pewdiepie is visibly upset, and his eyes start to tear up. He says that he is glad that many YouTubers out there have come out in support for him. But he also took some time to skewer the Wall Street Journal.
"I'm still here, I'm still making videos. Nice try, Wall Street Journal. Try again, motherfuckers."
Update: Here’s the Wall Street Journal, responding to Pewdiepie’s video:
“We stand by the reporting,” said Colleen Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Dow Jones & Co., which owns The Journal.
Mr. Kjellberg didn’t address some of the other videos highlighted by the Journal, including one that has since been taken down, in which he showed a man dressed as Jesus Christ saying, “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.” In that Jan. 22 video, he criticized the Israel-based website Fiverr for temporarily suspending the Jesus portrayer’s account on its site. “Isn’t it ironic that Jews found another way to f— Jesus over?” Mr. Kjellberg asked in that video.
Comments
I read the comments on the video all his 12yr old fans defending him. It sickens me to see that they don't understand at all that what he did and said was wrong. The holocaust is nothing to joke about and not expect repercussions.
No my friend, just no. I'm disguised that you are supporting the public slender on one man. And fyi this a new generation the Holocaust is no longer ralavent to most people, hitler has became a meme. Even jews laugh at his videos. You are also wrong about the comment full of 12 yo no that are not 12. A majority of pewdiepies fans are in their late teens and young adults. I'm sure plenty of them will get the joke like i do.
One last thing before I go, you are living with the mind set of old. You have no place in this world if you can't even understand jokes
@Jackie,
Six million Jews were killed in the holocaust because the Nazis had a policy of "Kill all Jews".
There are no circumstances under which this is funny. Have you ever lost a loved one? Now imagine losing everybody you know, all your family, all your friends and everybody in your culture to brutal murder by gas and starvation. Being able to imagine this is crucial to "a new generation": Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Comedy is a perfect way to disarm the power that hateful words hold in our society. Do you think Hitler would be more dissatisfied beyond the grave that people are still very fearful of his prejudice rhetoric, or that his efforts and genocide have evolved beyond fear and have been turned into a complete joke? I'd say we are doing a disservice to our culture by allowing such atrocious words to instill fear instead of considering it something we rose above and get to say "haha, look at us now, nazi's are now the butt of a joke, we're over you". If you can't see the good in that then you should be more upset at WSJ for exposing your "blandness" to such a video, because the people that share this mindset were the only target audience before this article.
I guess you also do not understand. Your idea of "funny" isn't what it is to the new generation what you think is unacceptable others think is. He is aiming to entertain his viewers which are of the new generation. Would you care about this subject if it wasn't on all media sites? No, you would not of. So please if you do not fully understand what is going on and have not watched his response video and are only commenting on what you have read from the "media" then you are misinformed and do not understand the subject.
Because the joke refers to "kill all the jews", he must be making fun of the holocaust, right? Wrong. The joke was just how far people will go for 5 dollars, not the comment itself. In making the joke, he was acknowledging that the comment on the card was pretty horrendous, and that he couldn't believe someone would really hold it up and wave it around for money. Whilst not particularly funny, it is a far cry from making fun of "Killing all the Jews"
And I'm sorry, but I think you'll find that if you study history, you'll find that you are actually quite mistaken in your perspective regarding the new generation. In World War 1, 20 million people died. In World War 2, 85 million people died. Stalin went on to kill another 15-20 million people. Mao was responsible for another estimated 40 million deaths over 4 years. The sixty year period between 1900 and 1960 was one of the bloodiest in human history. The holocaust was a horrific act of genocide that claimed 6-8 million civilian lives, and whilst a tragedy and an atrocity, not an exclusive one in that period of human strife.
The latest generation is now three generations removed from that time period. They've grown up in a time where 1,200 civilian deaths is horrific, where 5 million people being displaced is a humanitarian disaster of global proportions. They are able to remember the events of the past. They learn about them in schools, from history books and from the internet. They can see pictures of it, read the recounts of soldiers, civilians, dictators, but they cannot imagine it because they were raised in a world where these things just do not happen any more, a world that learned the lessons of those times and now has those lessons hammered into each subsequent generation from a young age.
Just because we no longer live under the shadow of those times does not mean they are forgotten. Remembering the lessons of that time is far more important, and far more realistic, than being able to imagine what it was like to be there
Last edited 18/02/17 9:23 amDon't just read the comments. Watch the actual sources of the videos from which FAKE NEWS WSJ Journalists took clips of and made their fake narrative that Pewdiepie was Antisemitic. It was hit job on Pewdiepie.
Oh God, you actually used the term "fake news".
Are you going to provide us with some alternative facts too?
(Disclaimer: I don't actually think Felix is antisemitic, I just think it was a bad joke. Fair enough if Disney and Google wanted to pull their business arrangements.)
What the hell else would you call it. Deliberately taking something out of context to make it appear the person talking holds the opposite view than they do. Seems like "fake news" is the correct term to me. I guess libel is another acceptable term. If you had followed Jpy's advice on watching the source material I'm certain you would agree that fake news is more than appropriate in this case.
It's more the context of the term "fake news" - apparently, lately everything someone disagrees with is fake news. It's the people that have promoted the use of that term.
It goes back to the whole "big meany Lefty media" conspiracy. "The media" is not a thing. It's a disparate group of publications owned by different people with different angles. Hell, in Australia something like 70% of print news circulation comes from News Corp, and they're the furthest thing possible from the left.
I also haven't read the full WSJ article (I'm not going to subscribe), but at the very least, from the extracts I've read, it said Felix made videos showing antisemitic content, not that he was an antisemite himself. But again, I'm not going to subscribe to read the full article so correct me if I'm wrong.
Would you prefer false news or faux news, and did you watch the original clips or at least enough of the original videos for context to his "antisemitic content"
Whilst technically correct, the "anti-Semitic" content is taken out of context to portray a very different narrative about the individual behind them than is really justified by the videos themselves
Did you even watch all the videos in question???? Watch them before you comment....
well at least he didnt call them fake news, so he is a step up than Trump. but still the whole blame the media crap as distraction.
While in one sense yes everything should be allowed in comedy. Skill and experience goes a long way in directing was is acceptable and most of all context. Thats why something like "Springtime for Hitler" is absolutely hilarious in the Producers but NAZI and anti-Semitic references in an inexperienced youtube comedians stuff, isnt. Wisdom is required in comedy, not just an (apparent) punch line. You need to thoroughly understand the topic, your skills, your audience and your employers/producers/sponsors limits. you can say anything you just have to be willing to face the consequences, especially on the most raw topic of the last 100 years.
Last edited 17/02/17 8:23 ami'm definitely not a fan of his comedy, but the reality is he does make some valid points; every article in the media focuses on how much money he makes & how popular he is; the media never focuses on anything positive.
outlets like the WSJ will report anything that will strike a cord and generate a reaction; there is little dignity left in news reporting, because its the 'shock' headlines that "sell papers" if im to use an old school analogy.
On that note however, yes I agree, comedy shouldn't have strict boundaries. But he did kind of bring this on to himself; his main demographic are young kids, his show is ultimately funded by Disney, whos main demographic is, you guessed it, kids. its no suprise that Disney canned his show after that fiverr video; they probably looked the other way until the outrage begun and they had to respond and distance themselves from the drama...
Good points, however if you take time to actually watch the response Felix had given, you can see that he actually DID point out that it was a bad joke. He DID in fact say that he was an amateur comedian and his jokes do not always turn out funny. He DID in fact say he understood and will have to face the consequences. Many people are automatically assuming that he is some kind of idiot and does not understand what he had done wrong. This assumption in itself is entirely wrong, as he is an adult and can completely understand what he had done.
However the point is that the media will take anything out of context to ruin someone to make more money for themselves. Clickbait titles with information that does not match up because it is all taken out of context. That is disgusting and those who support it are disgusting.
Just because Trump said it you think it's bad? Sometimes truth comes from the mouths of babes and fools. The Wall Street Journal is without a doubt fake news, if they would sink to taking jokes out of context and intentionally orchestrate someones fallout with their business partner. I hope they reap what they have sown and never come back from the fallout, if they have hurt this poor man then no doubt they have hurt countless others. I hope the entire newsoutlet pays for it's slander, I hope everyone who works for this journal is punished. It's no less than they deserve for this malicious unprovoked attack on an innocent.
We still getting articles about this knobjockey?
More real news please.
Well your real news is brainwashing you
More real news please, video game website.
Not sure why people keep negging you.
It is true, he don't deserve the news and publicity from his recent crap. Just another guy trying to be funny by "pushing boundaries" when people are easily offended by these things. Got hit back and suddenly he is the victim. Just walk away people.
This is such a non-issue: guy clearly stated his intentions during the jokes and clearly doesn't endorse nazism or anti-semitism. People have the right to offend, but they don't have the right to support violence -- which PDP never did. Half the furore over this is caused by Jews, while the other half is caused by people who simply hate PDP for who he is.
18C says no.
If he was in Australia, he could well have been sued over it.
Except he would probably be able to use one of the defences found in 18D:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/s18d.html
Andrew Bolt only got in trouble because there was evidence that his breach of 18C was not in good faith: not only did he lie in his reporting, he had evidence before hand that they were lies.
As far as PDP goes, there hasn't been any allegation that he's broken the law. But you don't need to break the law for another party to want to stop doing business with you.
If anyone acctully bothered to watch the videos in question would see that the WSJ took the entire thing WAY out of context. This kind of BS is going on far too much with the media making "Shock" stories out of nothing to generate click-bait content, and in the case of WSJ its behind a fucking paywall. I mean really people, take the time to go past the headlines before getting outraged.
As a person with a sense of humour and rational thought processes, I can tell when someone's taking the piss and when someone's leveling real hate toward a particular race. Take Doug Stanhope for example....... makes pewdiepie look like a goddamn amateur.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_880JHSyBD0
Good on Felix for flipping the bird. People need to chill out. He's no less annoying to me though, but I'm not his intended audience.
Last edited 17/02/17 10:30 amHes an asshole... its not a joke, its explotation. Hes not apologising for what he did he is apologising cause he wants to stop it spiralling out of control.
Hes explotive, he paid people $5 to do something he knew was in bad taste and controversial so he could film a reaction video and make thousands.
He did it to manipulate his audience, but only sorry that it cost him money, cause his apology seems to be only words and no action (Personally I wanna see him tour a holocast museum as penance) instead while promising he will do better while underhandingly saying he will continue to do what he does. What he did is unethical cause he was manipulating people for money in his social experiment... what would people do for five dollars... hey dumbass, the answer is anything if people are desperate enough.
The fact that he thought paying two Indian blokes five bucks to hold up the sign to see how far (probably pretty desperate) people will go for money is fucking gross.
Exactly; the whole "get poor people in the 3rd World to perform for money" thing that his Fiverr ep was based on is bad enough, but making them say something that normalizes Antisemitism is just irresponsible and disgusting.
I mean, there's enough of that shit coming out of reddit and /pol/, not to mention IRL white nationalists crawling out of the woodwork all over the Western world; the Daily Stormer (an ACTUAL Nazi publication) has been fawning over Pewds since the vid went up.
spot on.
he needs a reality check and just got one and upset its affecting his bottom line.
PDP at least admitted he is a novice comedian and has made similar mistakes before.
Time for him to realise he will never understand jokes and that being a nasty douche isn't funny by itself, it can't be the joke but the flavour of the joke, and you still need something that is actually funny. Otherwise you just look like a bigot or the world's most stupid, unfunny and offensive try hard.
The normalisation of anti-semetic attitudes is a problem. WW2 was not a laughing matter. Humanity is still capable of committing such atrocities. Does PewDiePie actually want to kill Jewish people? Almost certainly not.
But here's what he does - he turns the holocaust into a joke. He makes it easier and easier for the public to accept statements such as "Germany was wronged in WW2" and to shrug off openly neo-nazi positions and attitudes. And that is dangerous.
I don't think PewDiePie is a monster. He's just an irresponsible brat who needs to grow up. And to those who actually do subscribe to Neo-Nazi and Fascistic views - how did that Second World War work out for Germany, huh? Because I forget sometimes, just like how many of you forget basic facts and your humanity. Ask a Berliner in 1945 where Hitler's "Grand vision" led them.
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