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Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg was fired by Disney and Disney owned Maker Studios this week. He was dropped like a bad habit. Why? Probably because PewDiePie is anti-Semitic. Oh sure, he has tried to claim it was all a joke, but that's kind of a terrible excuse, especially when it happens more than once.Here's what happened: Back on January 11, Kjellberg published a video that contained a segment where he hired a couple of men from the service Fiverr to hold up a banner that said "Death to all Jews."
Kjellberg appears to be shocked when he sees that the men actually did it. He claims that he "didn't think they'd actually do it." Of course, this isn't the first time Kjellberg has shown off this side of him. Just from August 2016 until now, PewDiePie has had nine videos that included anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery. This is according to a report by the Wall Street Journal and their accompanying video, from which a few screens can be seen below and at the top of this article.
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Another video, one since deleted by PewDiePie, went up a short time after in which he tried to defend himself with the following rationale.
"What I just think - and I believe strongly in - is that it is 2017 now. We're going to have to start separating what is a joke, and what is actually problematic. Is a joke actually pure racism? Is something that would be considered a joke purely homophobic, or anti-Semitic and all these things? Context fucking matters."
"A joke." Go to hell, PewDiePie. This guy that has tons of impressionable young people watching him and latching onto his remarks day in and day out should have quite a bit more common sense than that. Then again, this is the same guy that yelled "rape" in his videos time and time again on his rise to fame. He even went so far as to upload a music video entitled "It's Raping Time."
Maker, which was acquired by Disney in 2014 for between $500 million and $675 million, did issue a small statement.
"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. Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward."
PewDiePie took to his Tumblr this week to issue a total non-apology for his actions.
I was trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online. I picked something that seemed absurd to me—That people on Fiverr would say anything for 5 dollars.
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.
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.
Nothing close to an "I'm sorry" was provided by Kjellberg in his statement.
He just kept doing it. Dude made constant rape references. He uploaded a song about rape. He "joked" about joining ISIS on Twitter, which netted him a temp ban. He made at least nine anti-Semitic comments just since August in his videos. You would have to be an incredible moron to not learn after the first few times. There comes a point where it's maybe a bit more than "he's just an idiot" is a valid excuse and it goes more towards "hey, maybe he's really a piece of shit."