Both YouTube and Disney announced that they are severing ties with the channel’s biggest star, Pewdiepie after he released (then deleted) a prank video in which he paid two men to hold up signs reading “Death to All Jews”. This however was just the most recent anti-semetic joke that Pewdiepie (real name: Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg) had been accused of making through his YouTube channel which has a record-breaking 50-million plus subscribers.
Now if this sounds familiar to you – that’s because another European evil genius did the same thing in the 1995 film Die Hard With a Vengeance.. In that movie, there’s a memorable sequence where German villain Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) makes John McClane (Bruce Willis) wear a racist sign in the middle of Harlem that reads, “I Hate Niggers”, otherwise he would set off a bomb etc. You know – that old evil plotline. Seems it was timeless however because Pewdiepie thought it would be funny to pay two guys 5 bucks to hold up a racist sign reading ‘Death to All Jews’. In another clip he had some dude dressed up Jesus saying, “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Pewdiepie released a statement over Tumblr after his show was cancelled saying:
“I think it’s important to say something and I want to make one thing clear: I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes. I make videos for my audience. I think of the content that I create as entertainment, and not a place for any serious political commentary. I know my audience understand that and that is why they come to my channel. Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.
As laughable as it is to believe that I might actually endorse these people, to anyone unsure on my standpoint regarding hate-based groups: No, I don’t support these people in any way.”
Fiverr is an online service which provides an insane amount of items and or services for $5 each. Apparently Pewdiepie thought it would be funny to challenge what lengths people would go to in order to make a quick buck. He found out – the hard way. Pewdiepie raked in over 15 million dollars in 2016 off ad money from his YouTube channel. Here’s hoping he saved up, cause he won’t be making pointless videos where dumbass 12-year-olds can watch him play Call of Duty anymore.