YouTube and Disney Have Dumped PewDiePie After He Made Anti-Semitic Jokes

Influential social media star PewDiePie has been given the boot after making anti-Semitic jokes and using Nazi imagery in his videos.

YouTube sensation PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, was put on blast after an investigation by a newspaper revealed nine offensive and inappropriate videos.

Since the call out, YouTube has said it will cancel the second season of the comedian’s reality show Scare PewDiePie. His channel, with upwards of 53 million followers, has been taken off its premium advertising service too.

Kjellberg has also lost ties with Disney’s Maker Studios unit, which announced on Monday to the Wall Street Journal it would sever business with the comedian.

“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,” a spokesperson from Maker Studios said.

"For his part, [Pewdiepie] has insisted that he didn't intend his ongoing Nazi references to support anti-semitism." pic.twitter.com/45xnBIppQ2

— Campbell Simpson (@csimps0n) 14 February 2017

He’s one of the most followed icons on YouTube; his videos have been watched—collectively—more than 14 billion times. Time magazine named him as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2016.

It’s not an understatement to say: dude’s a big deal.

He is, however, known to say some outlandish and (often) offensive stuff.

In a recent stunt he paid two people in India to hold up a sign reading “death to all Jews” and responded to the incident by calling it a joke. The 27-year-old influencer defended his content in Tumblr post over the weekend, saying he doesn’t endorse hate-based groups.

“I think of the content that I create as entertainment, and not a place for any serious political commentary,” he justified. “I know my audience understand that, and that is why they come to my channel.”

He later states the obvious, saying: “I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.”

Yeah…

Photo: YouTube (@PewDiePie)