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A DISNEY-OWNED studio has dropped the world’s highest earning YouTube star from its roster, over a number of videos he posted containing anti-Semitic content.
Maker Studios said that it has severed ties with Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie, the hugely popular YouTube star.
In a statement carried on a large number of news outlets, Maker said that it had finished its relationship with Kjellberg due to videos he posted:
“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.
Kjellberg is the highest earning YouTube star. According to a Forbes list he earned close to €15 million in 2015/16 and collectively his videos have generated tens of billions of views.
He rose to popularity by providing voiceovers to him playing video games but has also been known to carry out pranks and has courted controversy in the past.
His relationship with Maker was a large part of Kjellberg’s empire, giving him co-ownership of the multi-channel network Revelmode, which produces videos and merchandise.
An investigation by the Wall Street Journal uncovered a number of videos posted by Kjellberg over the past number of months which have included anti-Semitic content or Nazi references.
One of the controversial videos involved him paying two people in India to hold up signs saying “Death to all Jews”.
Other videos involved him playing the Nazi Party anthem and showing pictures of swastikas. Some of the videos in question have since been removed from his account.
In a statement carried on his Tumblr account, Kjellberg defended the video but also said he understood the jokes were offensive.
“I was trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online,” he said.
“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.”
He said that it was not his intention to cause any offence.
Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.
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$15m doing voiceover for games in 1 year??? Nice..
@Joe Boyle: He’s not even the highest earning star at that much either unlike what the article states. Some channels targeted at young kids (surprise egg openings and superhero videos) are getting a lot more views and are in the $40-50m a year range.
I love millennials…
Earn 15million running a bank or company based on a lifetime of experience… evil, wrong, unworthy corporate parasite on the world and humanity, should be ashamed of himself…
Talentless person with pathological need for attention makes same money leveraging momentum from 15mins of internet fame and descends into jew hating rant… behold our god!!!!
@Drew TheChinaman :):
One of those things potentially creates misery for people, one is silly internet videos that don’t affect you in the slightest.
I’m not saying either one is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but there’s at least precedent for having the opinion you mentioned about high level bankers.
@Drew TheChinaman :): If it’s so easy you do it
No one said it was easy… I said it was dumb luck.
@drew 15 minutes of fame? He’s been on YouTube for 7 years. And if you did your research you would know it was not a hating Jew rant. The article is completely misleading. It was an offensive joke, controversial humour is apart of his personal brand.
Oh it amuses me the hate people through at others for earning “easy money.” Content creators are a huge part of modern society and the internet and are hugely influential, there is so much money in that industry and it shouldn’t be seen as talentless. I highly doubt Felix would have gained such a following if he had no talent. I doubt you have the same attitude towards comedians or actors etc. If it was a case of being talentless then why doesn’t every single “let’s play” content creators earn that kind of money?
@Joe Boyle: He’s the most subscribed person on youtube. He started off with almost no followers but kept consistently uploading videos. It’s not only playing games, it’s being entertaining and likeable. It’s a nice living but it is a job that requires effort. I haven’t seen the videos but I doubt he set out to offend Jewish people, it was probably dark humour.
The irony of Disney cutting ties over antisemitism….
@James: Stop believing everything you hear, and do some research.
Walt Disney was a major anti-semite himself
@John Smith: no, he wasn’t. Try looking into it instead of getting your education from barstool experts, taxi drivers, and memes.
As was Henry ford.
Jason … I think you are the one who might like to do some research rather than falling for the attempts to rehabilitate him. He attended meetings of the German American Bund.. a pro nazi organisation. He invited Leni Riefenstahl over in the weeks after Kristallnacht. Look a The Three Little Pigs if you can actually find it. Even his own grand daughter has agreed that he was racist. It wasn’t confined to just the jews either .. Song of The South… Dumbo… even The Jungle Book.. It’s there for all to see.
Ten minutes in… if that’s not anti Semitic I don’t know what it… https://youtu.be/SKxWJP_LH7A
@James: 10 minutes in is just music with a posture of Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny. They’re Warner Bros, you fool.
You fail.
Ok five minutes in.. Jesus do you want me to all the work for you… Watch the bloody thing from beginning to end…. Hardly a “fail”… It’s one of the most famous examples of antisemitism in US movie history…
@James watch the next silly symphony in the series, it starts with the wolf teaching his children that pigs are good to eat complete with German accents and lyrics, the wolves being the bad guys are ment to represent nazis, Disney took the piss out of everyone not just jews.
@James: FYI, I don’t give 2 craps about Walt Disney – but facts are facts, and him being anti-semitic has been debunked many times.
1) The video you posted at 10mins in is just music. So a non-point.
2) Walt Disney’s grandniece – not even granddaughter – grand niece. She was born in 1960. Walt died in 1966. She cannot claim any first-hand experience of his attitudes, beliefs and work practices.
3) “even The Jungle Book” – wrong.
Try reading, instead of just looking up videos of pigs & wolves (which he didn’t even animate himself) and deciding to give them a deeper meaning. Your “proof” is basically you reading too much into cartoons – very weak evidence.
https://crberryauthor.wordpress.com/tag/walt-disney-was-anti-semitic/
@James:
“Jesus do you want me to all the work for you”
No, but a correct time stamp would help – you were the one making the point.
Among the many Jews who worked for Disney were the Sherman Brothers, who composed the songs for films like Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book; Robert B. Sherman said he saw no evidence of any anti-Semitism during the seven years he worked closely with Walt.
But let’s believe a grandniece who never knew him & Meryl Streep (who applauds child rapists) instead.
Biographers Katherine and Richard Greene said that after a decade of research into Walt Disney, looking carefully at letters and memos and having conversations with reliable sources, they could find no evidence that Disney harboured a dislike of Jews. And they were both Jewish themselves. They pointed out that in 1955, the B’nai B’rith chapter in Beverly Hills – a Jewish organisation committed to protecting the Jewish community and combating anti-Semitism – named Walt Disney their ‘Man of the Year’. The Greenes said it was “hardly an award likely to presented to an anti-Semite.”
Most researchers have concluded that the long-held belief that Walt Disney was an anti-Semite is a myth. Just like the allegations that he was a racist. People simply don’t want to believe that this enormously influential individual, who built the most successful entertainment empire in the world, was actually a nice guy. They’re determined to find Disney’s ‘dark side’. They’re determined to dig up skeletons in his closet.
SAD! BAD!
Real Anti Semitism seems to have been forgotten about with the term being used so loosely these days particularly in relation to the Israeli – Palestinian argument but it really existed and continues to exist. Disney, how ever you try to dress it up was both a racist and an anti semite in the old fashioned sense of the word. He wasn’t alone though Universal Studios were notoriously racist towards blacks. WB towards Native Americans etc..
Disney biographer Neal Gabler, who was the first writer to gain unrestricted access to the Disney archives in 2006, concluded based on the evidence available that he was not an anti-Semite. At least, not in the conventional sense.
In summary, he said: “He got the reputation because, in the 1940s, he got himself allied with a group called the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, which was an anti-Communist and antisemitic organization.
“And though Walt himself, in my estimation, was not antisemitic, nevertheless, he willingly allied himself with people who were antisemitic, and that reputation stuck. He was never really able to expunge it throughout his life.”
The company also gave money to several Jewish charities, including the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Yeshiva College and The American League for a Free Palestine.
Jason, if you don’t “give two craps about Walt Disney” why are bothering to defend him. 4 posts in a row no less. For someone who “doesn’t give a crap” you seem to be getting very agitated over it. Calling me a “fool” and using words like “sad” and “bad” in caps no less. You’re taking this all very personally. Did I touch a nerve?
I care about the truth – not Walt himself.
Is the truth not worth pursuing, when surrounded by fake news & bullsh*t that gets spread around & perpetuated by people like you? Remember you told everyone that putting call cards in the freezer will regenerate them, and that we eat 8 spiders in our sleep every year? Both bullsh*t.
And the “SAD! BAD!” quote was from Donald Trump. Try to keep up with the actual news.
I told everybody what?!? Are you drinking or something? You’re attempting to rewrite actual history by calling it “fake news”. I should have guessed you were a Trump fan.You’re as dumb as a pound of rocks.
@James: you really seem to lack awareness.
The Trump quote was a dig at him you fool. Stop drinking during the day & try to keep up with what’s going on in the world.
Your Disney anti-Semitism conspiracy has been debunked many times, and many years ago. You keep spreading fake news – it’s not a nice trait to keep making disgusting & inaccurate false comments about someone.
You have cited ZERO evidence for your claims. And no: “just watch the jungle book” does not count as evidence. I’ve seen it literally dozens of times, and there is no anti-Semitism.
Are you honestly telling me that the scene involving the wolf dressed as a Jewish begger in the Three Little Pigs isn’t anti Semitic or that Disney didn’t see it prior to it’s release? Are you saying that Disney that Song of the South isn’t racist or that the Disney Corporation have not withdrawn it for that reason? That animator Art Babbitt didn’t say that Disney and his lawyer, Gunther Lessing, attended meetings of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organisation, in the late 1930s ?Seeing as you’re so fond of first hand accounts and all . That in 1939, Walt Disney didn’t welcome German film-maker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl to Hollywood to promote her film, Olympia? He had invited her before Kristallnacht, in November 1938, but didn’t bother to withdraw the invitation once it became clear what was happening in Nazi Germany ? That family members haven’t said openly that they believed him to have an anti Jewish streak?
@James: man – you’re referring to a meeting between Walt Disney & Leni Riefenstahl that predates WW2. How can he be a nazi sympathiser when WW2 started after their meeting, on Sep 1, 1939? The Nazis hadn’t even invaded Poland yet, you dope!
You’ve been watching too much Minority Report – convicting people of crimes before they’ve committed them. You somehow believe that meetings he had with a female filmmaker BEFORE world war 2 means he supported Hitler & the killing of Jews (which hadn’t happened yet).
I bet you also believe he was cryogenically frozen, because a mate at school told you.
Jason.. I think you should probably rephrase that last comment…you obviously didn’t think through how someone could have been a Nazi sympathiser prior to ’39. I know you don’t think that the Nazis only arrived on the scene the afternoon Poland was invaded. I know you know there was plenty of international support for them prior to that including here in Ireland.
FINAL question – since neither of us know for sure – why are you spreading it around that he was definitely an anti-Semite? It’s not a flattering trait to be a rumour monger.
And I also know you know you that the Nazis didn’t just become anti Jewish then either. He invited Riefenstahl, that female film maker as you call her after Kristallnacht…and after she’d made both The Triumph of Will and Olympia… You can’t say he didn’t know what he was doing when both films are Nazi propaganda especially The Triumph of Will…
OMG – he invited a german filmmaker to a meeting!! Shocking!
And then he hired the Sherman Brothers and hundreds of other Jews just to cover his anti-Semitic tracks!
I think it’s pretty clear from the evidence presented that it’s more than just rumours.From his films , him promoting Nazi propaganda in the US ,a fact you cannot ignore, witnessed testimony of him attending the German American Bund and even his own family members stating they believe the “rumors” I’d say the case is a pretty strong one.
Yeah, if I hated Jews I’d definitely hire a load of them too.
What was it Robert B. Sherman (that darned filthy Jew!) said? Oh yes – he said that he “saw no evidence of any anti-Semitism during the seven years he worked closely with Walt”.
I’m just so torn who to believe here – a Jew who worked extremely closely with Walt for 7 years. Or Meryl Streep who gives standing ovations to child rapists! Choices, choices!
Jason.. who mentioned her. You’re seeing things that aren’t there. You’ve already said that nobody could have supported the Nazis prior to 1939.People did. You obviously don’t know that hundreds of thousands of Jews were employed by German business owners prior to the implementation of the Nuremberg laws so your argument that you can’t be antisemitic and employ Jews holds no water. It’s the equivalent of saying “I can’t be racist, I’ve got black friends”.You think Riefenstahl was just a “film maker” despite the film Disney promoted for her being Nazi propaganda. It wasn’t a documentary about chicken farming in the West of Ireland you know. You’re desperately trying to dismiss facts and introduce things that have no relevance such as Streep. Bottom line is that the man your defending produced racist and anti Semitic cartoons, promoted Nazi propaganda in the US immediately after Kristallnacht and who at least one of his family believe was anti Semitic. You can’t argue that away…
If you are described as a “YouTube star”, “Instagram star” or similar.
You’re not.
You’re a knob with an iPad.
And 15million notes
@CeannairBlue: In most cases yes, but with him i’d say his bank balance wouldn’t agree with your point.
@CeannairBlue: You’ll never make 15 million posting comments on the Journal on your iPad.
@Jimmy Ireland: I’m also not describing myself as a “message board star”.
@CeannairBlue: You are showing your ignorance on such matters.
There are teenagers on Youtube earning more then you will ever dream of making for doing a fifth of the work.
@Soupy Norman: Not all of them, if you look at the behind the scenes videos of some of the bigger channels, they invest a lot in high quality equipment, build proper sets and put a lot of time and effort into planning, filming, editing and mixing sound for their videos.
He should’ve just said “death to white men”, then there’d be no problem
Is it anti-semitic to say that anti-semitism is basically a pisstake now?
Jews seem to lob that grenade at anyone these days.
It really is massively overused as an argument isn’t it!
@Cillín Ó hEadhra: Itll be anti-semitic to admit that you dont like hummus soon.
@Emmet O’Keeffe: Youre right. I can see the parallel between hummus and zyklon b.
The AS card is thrown at people who disagree with anything to do with Jews especially illegal settlements which amount to ethnic cleansing in itself.
Nothing is off the table for art or satire.
@Cillín Ó hEadhra:
Yeah, we’re all Hezbollah now Cillín.
Poor old Cillin, still talking childish nonsense. Poor lad appears bewildered.
@Charlie Wrex:
Obviously anti -Semitism doesn’t register in his world view.
Who knows, keep scratching underneath and he could be a Holocaust denier as well.
Between fits of the vapours hes also liable to make stuff up too. Its so adorable. He’ll vanish when asked to prove his nonsense too. Poor young lad is still coming to terms with the Internet.
@Charlie Wrex: Ah Charles tis yourself again!
You tend to make my points for me.
My last comment to you stated you only ever seem to post when theres an opportunity to support the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Palestine and alas, here you are again!!
Obviously Cormac Fitzgerald doesn’t recognise sarcasm.
On the Journal?
Cillin, you poor lost lamb. You said you had proof “in print” that i support loyalist terrorism and ethnic cleansing of catholics in the north. Feel free to share your evidence pet. ( looks like you cant even quote yourself properly either lol) Silly rabbit.
@Charlie Wrex
You’re seriously starting to sound like a creepy 70 year old sugar daddy with all this young lamb pet and rabbit stuff. I ain’t gona be your sugar baby Mister. *snaps fingers*
Cillin, you poor snowflake. So you still cant admit youve been caught telling lies? Why is that?
Or more likely his contact was nearly up anyway and they decided to be the ones to end it to get themselves in the press.
He’s still with them right now so it wasn’t any immediate termination anyhow.
Because Disney need the press?
@James: Maker Studios do, they’ve been missing growth targets and their competitors are gaining market share on them.
Would have been nice of the journalist to provide a link to the videos in question instead of some tweets which expand our knowladge of the story no further than what the journalist typed himself.
Potty mouth. Him and Jack septiceye. Prefer my kids to just watch Dantdm and Markiplier. Before anyone casts judgement, this is all that boys in the 7 and upwards age bracket want to watch and they are all doing it; can’t fight it! No wonder these guys are multi-millionaires
@Santa Carla: Pewdiepie’s main demographic is more in the 13-24 range whereas TDM is more targeted at younger kids in say the 5-14 age range, they tailor to completey different audiences. Pewdiepie’s content is now more sort of “comedy” than gaming as well.
Doesn’t stop my 8 and 11 year olds from watching some of his stuff once the door is closed! They do prefer DanTDM in fairness though
You prefer your kids to watch Markiplier instead of them because they’re “potty mouths”? You clearly haven’t seen any of his videos either because he swears just as much as them. In fact he can be known to swear more than them in many videos so…
I like Markiplier and watch him with them. The odd f bomb isn’t as bad as the C bombs dropped by Jack septicEye!
This isn’t news.
@Luke: By it’s very definition it is:
news: newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events.
@Luke: stop clicking on non-news then, dummy.
@rock stoneballs the second I clicked post I realised how my comment was incorrect lol. It is news, just extremely uninteresting news
Vintage troll comment
Love that definition of “news” lol
Wasn’t Walt Disney anti-semite?
Possibly, but he’s dead now and others run the Disney corporation. Sure, Hugo Boss designed nazi uniforms and his company still sells luxury goods without the antisemitic tag.
What were the ties?
Never heard of him
@Joe Boyle: He’s not even the highest earning start at that much either unlike what the article states. Some channels targeted at young kids (surprise eg openings and superhero videos) are getting a lot more views and are in the $40-50m a year range.
@Shane Corry: Are those vids not filled with a range of people? As a lone wolf he is the highest earning individual on YouTube.
He has the most subscribers, YouTubers earn anything upwards of $2 per 100,000 views, it all depends on how many ads you place in a video. But he is the highest earning YouTuber.
Subscribers mean nothing to what you can possibly earn. Views determine what you earn. And if you look at any single you tubers page then you will see that they never ever have a similar view to subscriber count. So while Pewdiepie currently has about 53 million subscribers, he typically gets between 3-5 million views a video. Look at the YouTube trending page and you’ll see videos with views from 4 to 6 to 10 to 24 million.
And try to speak about how much he earns as a fact because no one knows for a fact how much a youtuber earns but themselves. Every article or video has a different number and that’s because it’s all guesswork. Different ads cost different amounts and different deals mean different things. And that’s ignoring the sponsorships and side businesses they all tend to have.
YouTube famous people are an online stain.
Why?
The article should have included links to the videos in question and spoken more on what he’s said in the aftermath of all of this. A lot has. Even going on since with video with the “death to all Jews” sign, including several videos clearly outlining what he was doing and why.
That’s just petty ,he knows he was in the wrong and didn’t know they were going to do it ,that’s why he didn’t show himself writing those remarks
A lot of Irish kids watch this guys videos, so if he is putting anti-Semitic content in them then it’s important for people to know.
But I don’t think people should have been letting their kids watch his stuff in the first place as it’s always been a little too mature anyway.
It amazes me that someone earning 15m doesn’t have the nonce to work out what kind of video will kill it all… Self Sabotage?
have your say