YouTubers specialize in viral content, but even they sometimes push the envelope too
far.
From fat-shaming to cultural ignorance to even staging horrifying stunts, these web
celebs discovered how one upload could ruin it all.
These are the YouTube stars who ruined their career with a single video.
Notorious YouTube prankster, Sam Pepper, had already inflicted career-threatening wounds
in 2014 when he posted his Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank.
While he later insisted the video was staged, The BBC reported a series of unrelated assault
allegations followed closely behind.
Pepper managed to avoid prosecution, but his career took the ultimate nosedive the following
year when he posted his KILLING BEST FRIEND PRANK in 2015.
Pepper called on Vine stars, and friends, Sam Golbach and Colby Brock for the prank.
After Brock and Pepper convinced Golbach into thinking he had been kidnapped, the video
ended with Pepper pretending to shoot Brock in front of Golbach.
"Let's see how he reacts to his best friend of five years being killed in front of him."
According to People, many viewers found the prank to be "sick" and called for Pepper's
channel to be deactivated.
In February 2016, IBTimes reported that Pepper privatized his YouTube and stripped his Twitter
feed bare.
He gradually tiptoed back into the YouTube limelight by April 2018, according to Babe,
with a 4-hour livestream where he harassed women on the street in L.A. Looks like more
of the same, for Pepper.
Joel Woods and Lia Hatzakis, the Youtubers behind the travel channel, Being British,
all but pushed everyone away after they posted a video titled Which areas in London are dangerous?
in 2018.
"If everything triggers you…"
"Triggered!"
"Triggered!
I'm triggered!
No!
Get over it."
The since-deleted video featured the pair listing off various places in the city where
they didn't feel safe, and according to Digital Spy, the two immediately became the subject
of widespread fury, with many calling the video "racist and classist."
Following the outrage, Woods and Hatzakis posted via Twitter:
"We are so sorry for any [offense] that [the video] has caused.
It truly wasn't our intention at all and we know that on this occasion we got it wrong."
While he once had one of the most popular YouTube channels, Logan Paul crashed and burned
in December 2017, when he posted a vlog touring a Japanese forest where he filmed, joked,
and laughed at the body of a deceased person.
"I've made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment, and I don't expect to be forgiven."
For the stunt, Paul was called out by his fans, celebrities, and even politicians.
YouTube suspended production of his movie, The Thinning: New World Order, and removed
him from the Google Preferred advertising program.
He also lost a development deal for a scripted series, according to Variety.
As of late 2018, Paul still has a massive subscriber base of over 18 million, but it's
unclear how he's able to monetize his channel.
While she once had the world at her feet, Nicole Arbour threw it all away when she created
Dear Fat People in 2015.
"Fat shaming is not a thing.
Fat people made that up.
'Yeah, but I couldn't fit into a store, that's discrimination.'
Ah, nope.
That means you're too fat."
She faced immediate backlash for the video, and was reportedly booted as choreographer
for an anti-bullying dance film called Don't Talk to Irene.
Arbour then tweeted that she never had anything to do with the film in the first place.
She has since doubled, than tripled-down on the controversy with her much-maligned parody
of Childish Gambino's "This Is America," and her self-described "unpopular opinion" about
the "MeToo" movement, for her fewer than 500,000 subscribers.
"All about coming forward, but I'm sick of the victim s---."
When news broke that Toys R Us would be closing its doors in 2018, many fans rushed to the
iconic toy store to purchase whatever they could, and reminisce about going there as
kids.
But Ryan Taylor and a friend turned their last visit into a "nerf war" inside the store.
"Bro…You closing now, that why you're trying so hard for?"
Although they were eventually detained and unarmed by the staff, whom they repeatedly
called "idiots," the stunt only came to an end when they were forcefully locked out of
the store.
"Come at me again, I'll knock you out."
Unsurprisingly, viewers sided with the employees who were about to lose their jobs.
Taylor still has nearly 1.5 million subscribers as of 2018, but we imagine these kinds of
insensitive antics won't make him a mainstream crossover.
You might not have heard of vegan blogger Sonia Sae, because before she could make a
name for herself, her small, animal-loving audience turned on her for apparent animal
abuse.
"Yes, I am vegan, and I'm judging you."
In early 2018, Sae shared a post to Facebook of her frighteningly thin pet fennec fox,
Jumanji, saying she'd been feeding him vegan cat food.
And people were seriously upset about the seemingly malnourished animal.
Jumanji had experienced "hair loss, partial blindness and weight loss," which many viewers
attributed to his diet, according to The Independent.
"Don't believe everything the media says."
Though Sae insisted otherwise, the criticism continued, with Facebook user Alice Moore
posting:
"Sonia has refused to listen to experts who are all appalled at her treatment of Jumanji
and have contacted her regarding the health of her fennec fox."
As of late 2018, Sae has retained just over 6,000 followers.