Jade Zamora
LWP-2001-01
Professor Hagood
6 Dec 2023
There are many digital creators on the platform YouTube everywhere. We grew up watching them either because they are funny, nostalgic moments or we just got bored and one day we discovered the person’s YouTube Channel. Before we knew YouTube today, we saw YouTube only for vlogs, music videos, or video game videos that you can create. Now we use YouTube in our everyday lives to make ourselves more fun, interesting, suspicious, or anything else in general. In this project, I will be exploring various YouTubers that we know and grew up watching. Some have risen, some have fallen, and some still have the same fans to this day. Fans understand what the digital creators are going through but if controversy comes out, they might want to think twice about who they are watching and whether they will support them. There are various categories of Youtubers depending on what people watch. It can be either a true crime, a video game, or even something that interests you to watch. But sometimes that is not always the case. It can be something beautiful and then later fall out because of fame or due to controversial rumors spread on social media.
Before we talk about various Youtubers I want to talk about YouTube rules between before and after. Before the age of YouTube revealed YouTube rules that you need to be 13 years or up to use the app, it was not an age requirement. Youtubers use dark humor or jokes that might get away with it and not get detected like today. Now with new rules on YouTube, it was not as fun as it was. To get ads on YouTube to earn money, you need to be 8 minutes or older to get paid from YouTube. If your videos are 8 minutes or less, then you only have 1 or two 2 ads not a lot of ads to get paid. Another rule was not to swear in the videos. This sort of focus YouTubers who swear in the videos to be a little more family-friendly videos. Not only did it hurt their channel, but it also hurt their fans who might choose something else to watch.
The YouTube ad apocalypse was not much of an issue until early 2017. This was focused on Youtubers to make ”Family-Friendly" videos for the channels to make money. The first one who got hit in the ad apocalypse is PewDiePie. Although he made jokes about Adolf Hiter and using the N-word one time. He did apologize (one of the most natural apologies in YouTube apology history) and fans did stick around with him. But during the summer of 2017, more channels were hit to make ”Family-Friendly” content for YouTube. But it was not the first time the apocalypse hit YouTube. It also happened back in 2018 and 2019. Thankfully, YouTube did their act together and there is a new policy to follow when you are doing YouTube.
There are resources that I can research for YouTube creators are articles they talk about. Some YouTube videos have some controversy that made the internet angry and want justice. For example, Good Morning America covers a YouTube channel called SuperMarioLogan and shows that kids watch adult content without their parent’s supervision. Why was the YouTube channel SuperMarioLogan in Good Morning America? It was because of a controversial claim that a kid tries to copy a video and the parents discover what their kid was doing. We still do not know if that claim is true or just a rumor. But who is this SuperMarioLogan? SuperMarioLogan is a YouTuber who makes YouTube videos using Mario characters. He has been doing YouTube videos since he was a little kid. He made Mario characters go on adventures with other popular characters. For example, Woody and Ham from Toy Story, Shrek from DreamWorks, and Tony the Tiger from the cereal Frosted Flakes. He plays the voice of a character along with a few of his friends. But now he cannot use Mario characters anymore due to Nintendo threatening to sue the channel (Logan who runs the channel) and saying stop using our characters or get a lawsuit. But after getting on the news, threatened by Nintendo, he is still making videos to this day. But unfortunately, his old videos and his old channel have been deleted from him, but someone uploads the old videos from his channel, and you watch them on YouTube.
Another resource I can use is other news articles, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Another example I can use is SkydoesMinecraft. Sky aka NetNobody real name Adam was a famous Youtuber in the Minecraft community, and I even watched him. He gained fame for playing Minecraft with other YouTubers he collaborated with. Back in 2012, Minecraft was popular, and it is still popular to this day. This helped Adam to grow more and make more videos playing Minecraft. He collaborated with Deadlox, Jerome, Bashurverse (R.I.P. He died due to COVID-19 at the age of 36), and other YouTubers he plays Minecraft and becomes friends in real life. But in early 2022 his now ex-wife published on Twitter the truth about their marriage and what is going on between them and his kid. The internet was outraged at Adam and wanted justice for his ex-wife and his fame started going downhill. After the backlash from YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and other social media he has not uploaded on his channel until 2 weeks ago. He is still playing Minecraft but does not have the same views as he gained before. Before it hit 10 million views on his videos now, he is getting around 300 thousand views on his video.
Colleen Ballinger is a famous YouTuber for her vlogs, music, and comedy. People enjoy her videos and subscribe to her. She gained a lot of views due to funny skits she did and created characters for her videos. She even has her original show on Netflix, but it does not have well-received views. She did appear in a few shows, for example, the Nickelodeon show Victorious, The View, and Live with Kelly and Ryan. In June 2023 she was accused of acting inappropriately towards her fans. She was also accused of inappropriate behavior towards her fans who eventually were minors. Few YouTubers post their video showing evidence of Colleen behaving inappropriately towards both adults and minors. She posted her video response on YouTube on June 28, 2023. Colleen posted the response on her vlog channel playing the ukulele for 10 minutes and 20 seconds. It received poor reviews and was disliked. It is now called one of the worst apology videos in YouTube history. It tops the top of worst apologies next to Shane Dawson or Jeffree Star apology videos.
I would say differently than what has been said with this topic, choosing one Youtubers instead of general. I would focus only on one YouTuber, not everyone else. But I decided to choose general because it was an era we grew up in when life was going well. We do have one YouTuber who was there for you not just on the screen or camera but just to help you get up on your feet and continue in life. With a focus on one YouTuber, I can write for hours in detail about it, but I want to do it, in general, to gather information and see which YouTubers have more controversy and which one does not. But I can also do differently to select a category of YouTubers that have made content for years and see which one is the best to watch, and which one is not.
The larger cultural argument I would like to make by exploring digital creators is that not all YouTubers are bad. We know all good YouTubers can come and go or fall out of fame. But we all need to move on to the next YouTuber who can replace the broken heart that another YouTuber left behind. Only major YouTubers can hold fame, have no controversy, and have fans backing them up. Not only do they know what the fans want but also be careful what they say on their social media because one day it will backfire on them and spiral into a rabbit hole.
Some thought-provoking points I am sharing on this topic are that some YouTubers got back up after the controversy. We have seen YouTubers rise then fall and never come back because of the controversy. They either apologize or leave social media platforms for years and do not explain. While other YouTubers do not have controversy, fans try to find ways to get fans to channel their favorite YouTubers. For example, someone tries to cancel Markiplier because he used the T-word back then. He did apologize and donate money to the LGBTQ foundation. He even has characters of his who are LGBTQ. This tactic does not successfully reach the goal of getting everyone to cancel but some who do have controversy either sometimes do not get attention until years later or blow up on social media and read the evidence against them. Not all YouTubers are bad people. We watch it for nostalgic moments to feel what it was like to have no responsibility. We either take our parents' phone or use the computer for a long time but it goes to shows we watch to make us feel happy.
Resource
A Minecraft Horror Story | The Allegations of SkyDoesMinecraft - YouTube
Colleen Ballinger | Wikitubia | Fandom
SuperMarioLogan On Good Morning America
YouTube Adpocalypse | Wikitubia