‘Only Snowflakes Can Make it About Disability and Race’: PewDiePie Fans Defend YouTuber from Cancel Culture After He Apparently Mocks Deaf Girl Using Sign Language
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, recently got scrutinized on social media for making fun of a deaf TikTok user. The Swedish YouTuber, who currently has 111 million subscribers, mocked a deaf girl using sign language in his recent video. In his latest video, he reacts to a compilation of viral “cringe” TikTok videos with his dog, Maya. The compilation also included a video of a deaf TikTok creator.
The TikTok creator was Scarlet May
The video PewDiePie reacted to was of Scarlet May, a deaf content creator who currently has 6.2 million followers on the platform. She usually flaunts her delicate nails in her “story time” videos and uses American Sign Language to communicate with her followers.
On July 18th, she posted a video telling her followers about her experience at a fast-food drive-thru using sign language and once again flaunted her long silver acrylic nails.
PewDiePie reacted to this video and it seemed like the YouTuber did not like her nails, as he mockingly said, “I’m not listening to this” and he then held both his dog’s paws and mocked the TikTok creator, “Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya! Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?”
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PewDiePie’s fans defended his actions
People on social media didn’t like PewDiePie’s joke and decided to “cancel” the YouTuber. However, his fans defended his actions saying that he only made fun of her nails and not her disability.
He mentioned it but he was making fun of the nails
— Antasma (@NormalComicNerd) July 28, 2022
Pewdiepie is under fire for making fun of a girls nails and literally nothing else? Twitter really be setting the bar low for cancelation these days lmao
— The Act Man (@TheActMan_YT) July 28, 2022
wait pewdiepie makes fun of someones nails and you guys make it about dissabilty and race?
— gravity (@gaaavity) July 27, 2022
People LOVE to take stuff out of context, the guy is living his life and he doesn't have Twitter so these people are talking to a wall rn so 😂
— Gojo's Cum Bucket (@WannabeKermit) July 27, 2022
The Twitter brigade carrying out their weekly Pewdiepie canceling instead of contributing anything remotely significant to society: pic.twitter.com/4shjIK1CgI
— Inspek 🇵🇸 (@lnspek) July 27, 2022
https://twitter.com/trippydood/status/1552383969936568320
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PewDiePie later clarified he didn’t know the TikTok user was deaf
PewDiePie later cut out that part of his video and pinned a comment explaining himself,
“Hey, just to clear a few things up: I edited out the clip with the girl that has the long nails. Had no clue she was deaf, but kinda dumb of me to not realize.. Still watching through the clip I only poked fun of her long nails. The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I’ve given her for years. (edit: ..and making my dog’s paws move was poking at people always dancing or doing some move on TikTok, which is an ongoing theme in the whole video). Anyway honest mistake, my bad “
Even Scarlet May addressed the YouTuber’s actions in another TikTok video, “If you made a mistake, admit the mistake,” she said and explained how her condition is not a joke.
Source: Pop
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