In January 2017, PewDiePie, a.k.a. Felix Kjellberg, shared videos that included anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery. Included in one video was a banner that read “Death to all Jews.”
After the videos went viral, earning PewDiePie serious backlash, the Walt Disney Company severed ties with the YouTuber.
In a now-deleted video, PewDiePie kinda-sorta apologized: “I just want to reiterate that my intention was to show how stupid the website is and how far you could push it.”
But then he decided to blame the media, particularly the Wall Street Journal, for their deep dive report on him.
“It was an attack toward me, to try and discredit me, to try and decrease my influence and my economic worth,” he said. “These three gentleman from [Wall Street Journal] that did this are also very proud of this.”
He then flipped off the camera, saying, “Try again, mother-f–kers.”
But wait, PewDiePie still wasn’t done. “Personally, I think they are the ones normalizing hatred because there is actual hatred out there,” he said. “Instead of celebrating my show getting canceled, why don’t we focus on that instead.”
Apparently, he didn’t learn his lesson, because in September 2017, he said the n-word during a video game livestream. He released an apology video on YouTube shortly after.
“It was something I said in the heat of the moment,” he confessed. “I said the worst word I could possibly think of, and it just sort of slipped out. I’m not going to make any excuses as to why it did, because there are no excuses for it.” The YouTuber later called himself “an idiot.”
