
/images/cef0e40b/df19/43de/b8a2/7cce5c776902.jpg)
Yet the pair has also raised plenty of hackles in their pursuit of visual gags. Like most of the best and worst prank videos, the Paul brothers’ work demonstrates a willingness to humiliate themselves in public as well as a tendency to “observe” other humans in the wild, like a David Attenborough nature documentary gone off the rails. And if they were mean-spirited, cruel, or at times even physically threatening, so much the better.Ĭompilations of Vine pranks soon proliferated YouTube, and eventually the pranksters themselves did too, with viral pranksters–turned–YouTube celebrities like Cameron Dallas, Nash Grier, and in some cases entire ensembles like the Janoskians all gaining success as vloggers and comedians. The most successful pranks often mimicked many of the largely nonconsensual techniques of Pick-Up Artist culture, as applied to public stunts. Because of its six-second time limit, Vine was the perfect platform for short public stunts - usually involving unwitting members of the public who had no idea they were being pranked while the camera was rolling. Prank videos - typically starring white men or young boys - comprise an entire genre on YouTube, one so popular that even creators who’ve become famous for other things often participate in guest pranks and viral prank challenges. That almost certainly contributed to Paul’s decision to post the Aokigahara video. YouTube’s prank culture emphasizes shock value. Most of the family’s videos consist of mild PG-rated humor, though Logan Paul has been accused of racism in the past, and Jake Paul briefly came under fire in November 2017 for allegedly bullying two of his regular collaborators into quitting his video-making team. The two brothers have appeared in one another’s videos, and their parents also frequently make cameos, having cultivated their own sizable social media followings.
#VOX YOUTUBE TRENDING SERIES#
Jake followed in Logan’s footsteps, launching his own successful vlogging career on the same two platforms, and later went on to star on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark. As he gained more followers on both Vine and YouTube, so did his younger brother Jake Paul, who is two years his junior. Paul’s YouTube fame is, in part, a family affair. Logan Paul is known for good-humored, but shocking, pranks And ultimately, the pranks implicate YouTube itself for taking a backseat in refereeing its top creators.

Up until this weekend at least, that shtick has not been associated with any one person so much as appearing as a morally gray cloud that hangs over the genre’s many, many participants. Paul’s decision to post the video in the first place casts a harsh light on the showy, often deliberately invasive, self-aggrandizement that has come to define prank culture on YouTube. On the other hand, the video has fueled an extensive debate about the limitations and lawlessness of YouTube’s prank culture, and raised questions about why YouTube failed to remove the content from its trending videos list.

On the one hand, the outrage caused by Paul’s video and his subsequent apology follows a familiar and predictable pattern of any typical internet controversy: a public figure screws up, becomes the target of backlash, and expresses some degree of remorse. Paul’s video amassed over six million views before he deleted it and posted an apology on Twitter, in which he said that he didn’t post the shocking footage for views but “because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet” and “raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention.” 10 on its trending list even in the face of protest and outcry on YouTube and other social media platforms. While Paul added a preface to the video before posting it in which he gravely insisted that “this is not clickbait,” he also advised viewers to “Buckle the fuck up, because you’re never gonna see a video like this again!” and used a shot of the body for the video’s promotional thumbnail.ĭespite YouTube’s policies prohibiting violent or gory content, the video quickly went viral on the site, reaching No. Upon seeing the body, Paul calls out, “Yo, are you alive?” and then, “Are you fucking with us?” He then continues to film his reaction to the discovery, complete with laughter and joking, which he later explains is his way of trying to cope with the shock of the situation. The video, which Paul uploaded on December 31 and ultimately deleted late on January 1, chronicles a visit by Paul and a few companions to Aokigahara Forest, located on the northwestern side of Mt. YouTube star Logan Paul, a popular vlogger from a family of popular vloggers, drew a massive backlash on Monday and Tuesday for posting a video showing a dead body he stumbled upon in Japan's notorious "suicide forest."
