In his 2017 year-in-review video, YouTube icon Logan Paul says he wants to be the biggest entertainer in the world. He may have entered January with controversy and near-consensus hatred from the internet, but it’s far too late to stop this train—he’s finally a household name.
Vacationing in Japan, Paul filmed an apparently dead person while walking through the Aokigahara forest, better known as the “suicide forest.” He then edited and cut the video, complete with insensitive smirks, and posted it to his giant YouTube channel. The backlash has been an unavoidable solar flare online this week. Even sportswriter Bill Simmons’ Monday podcast, which gets millions of monthly downloads from sports nerds everywhere, finished with a horrified anecdote about his son watching the now-deleted suicide video.
Paul’s clothing line partner Maverick Apparel blasted him as a “vlogger catering to his evident lowest common denominator narcissism and who champions his scrotal injuries as a badge of pride” on Thursday. According to TMZ, the company says Paul has cost it $4 million since the Japan incident. Then again, the top-related search term for Paul, according to Thursday’s Google Trends, is “Logan Paul merch.”
On Thursday, Paul said he’s taking a break from the internet. His YouTube following holds strong at 15.4 million followers—not bad considering he hovered around 15.1 million followers on Dec. 31. Fellow YouTube creators are even making money posting their reactions to Paul’s video. As we reported on Thursday, searching for “Logan Paul reaction videos” renders more than 9 million results, and the top results relate to the controversial Japan video.
This month, Paul is set to star in YouTube Red’s original film, Airplane Mode, according to his end-of-year video. YouTube Red hasn’t announced any plans to ice the comedy despite the controversy, and Paul’s also keeping his role as the lead in the upcoming horror flick Superstition.
As a cherry on top, his fans, known colloquially as the “LoGang,” remain ardent defenders of the brand. Some have even taken to harassing critics of Paul online with comments like “Shut the fuck up you suicide faggots. Let the japs kill themselves. LOGANG for LIFE.”
taking time to reflect
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 4, 2018
no vlog for now
see you soon
One international incident later, Paul is having the best month ever.
