- 5 weeks ago
From heartfelt confessions to career-ending catastrophes... Join us as we analyze the most notorious YouTube apology videos that either saved or destroyed careers! Our countdown features content creators who managed to win back their audiences and those whose attempts at saying "sorry" only made things worse.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I need to acknowledge that, and I'm really sorry that it's taken me this long to acknowledge it.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most notorious YouTube apologies,
00:12from the ones that saved careers to the ones that ended them.
00:15Toxic gossip train, tie me to the tracks and harass me for my past.
00:22Number 5, Linus Tech Tips, Worked.
00:26Linus Sebastian is one of the most famous names in YouTube's tech sense.
00:29He's been a familiar face on the platform for most of its existence now.
00:33His most significant scandal came in 2023, when it turned out he installed a water block on a graphics card it wasn't designed for.
00:39My decision, for example, to not bother retesting the monoblock?
00:44That was obviously wrong, and my lame response on the forum was a huge and unnecessary blunder.
00:50The block was then auctioned off for charity, rather than returned to the manufacturer.
00:53As a result, the Linus Media Group stopped publishing videos for 10 days, and issued an apology for their wrongdoing.
00:59Realistically, I'm not going to be able to hide behind my recent demotion here.
01:04I was the one at the head of the company for each and every mistake that our community has rightly brought to our attention.
01:11And once again, I made things worse by allowing myself to respond emotionally.
01:15This mostly helped return the public to their side, but the video controversially made a couple of plugs for their website.
01:21The apology was demonetized to make up for this.
01:23I owe you guys better, and I'm sorry.
01:26Number 5. Logan Paul. Failed.
01:29Popular YouTuber and ex-Vine star Logan Paul once got himself in trouble by visiting a Japanese forest.
01:35Akikahara lies just northwest of Maofuji, which has become known as a common spot for people to end their lives.
01:41Knowing this, Paul decided to record exploring the forest.
01:44He ended up finding a dead body, which many believed was his invention.
01:48I should have never posted the video.
01:51I should have put the cameras down and stopped recording what we were going through.
01:57There's a lot of things I should have done differently, but I didn't.
01:59The video was quickly deleted, and he released a disastrous apology.
02:03Almost everything I do, the intent is never to be heartless, cruel, or malicious.
02:11Like I said, I've made a huge mistake.
02:14I don't expect to be forgiven.
02:15No one was convinced by it, with Paul saying he never planned to find a dead body,
02:19despite traveling to a forest where they are tragically common.
02:22I'm disappointed in myself, and I promise to be better.
02:28I will be better. Thank you.
02:30Number 4. Pyrocynical. Worked.
02:33This gamer first joined YouTube in 2013, and has since earned himself almost 5 million subscribers.
02:38In approximately 2020, some controversy arose surrounding his involvement in furry circles during his teenage years.
02:44It was stupid of me to message people about this furry stuff without taking into account the influence of my platform.
02:50When he was 19, he was getting quite flirty with others in this community.
02:53One of them happened to be 4 years younger than him.
02:56This individual then publicly exposed Pyro for his actions.
02:59In response, Pyro came out and confessed that it did happen, but that he was never once aware of the other person's young age.
03:05But if you've either insinuated, contributed, or directly called me a paedophile who groomed someone knowing that they were 15,
03:12that is a completely false claim.
03:14Evidence supported this, which, combined with Pyro's heartfelt apology, managed to get his fanbase back on his side.
03:19What seemed consensual and reciprocal may very well not have been.
03:23It's not my place to decide.
03:25It happened.
03:26It was my responsibility to verify age, and I never did.
03:29And I am sorry for that.
03:31Number 4.
03:32Sienna Mae Gomez.
03:33Failed.
03:34A few years ago, TikTok star Jack Wright accused fellow influencer Sienna Mae Gomez of assaulting him.
03:40It turned out there was even video evidence of this.
03:42That night she posted a 15-part aggressive video gaslighting everything about what happened,
03:51how much she loved me, and that I was using her for clout.
03:55After Wright published a video explaining his side of the story,
03:58Gomez responded with one of the most disastrous apologies in history.
04:01Instead of speaking from the heart, she decided to release an interpretive dance routine.
04:05I wanna be wild and young, and not be afraid to looom.
04:16It's unclear what motivated her to do this.
04:18No one understood her mindset behind the decision.
04:20It only made people hate her more.
04:22And in the years since, her popularity has pretty consistently decreased.
04:26Come and load the gun, after nothing wrong.
04:31Come and load the gun, and I'm young.
04:35Number 3.
04:36iDubbbzTV.
04:37Worked.
04:38In the late 2010s, Ian iDubbbzjama became one of the most influential YouTubers on the platform.
04:44This was primarily because of his content cop series, where he took down controversial YouTubers.
04:48You know, some of the videos I've made have been very, not edgy.
04:53I don't think they, you know, some of these videos were edgy.
04:56I think they were just outright cruel.
04:57He also cultivated a toxic and racist fan base, which would frequently harass these individuals.
05:03Eventually, in 2023, Jhamma delisted all of his content cops, and released an apology video.
05:08Like, what am I doing?
05:10I'm still trying to make excuses for myself, and like, you know, why I made that video.
05:15It's like, it was a dumb idea.
05:17I harassed someone.
05:18I was saying slurs, and I was trying to justify it all.
05:21He admitted this series wasn't edgy.
05:23It was straight up cruel.
05:25Thankfully, Jhamma realized the error of his ways eventually, and tried to make amends.
05:29A lot of people accepted his apology, but quite a few did not, as they believed his behavior was beyond an apology.
05:35I shouldn't be able to just make an apology video and walk away from it.
05:40This is something that I should live the rest of my life with, and I expect to.
05:46Number three, The Fine Bros.
05:48Failed.
05:49In the early 2010s, The Fine Bros became huge for their React series.
05:53Then, a few years later, they decided to kill all their momentum by trying to trademark reaction videos.
05:58Such a format could be incredibly low effort, something anyone can do.
06:01They were now announcing this big thing that will bring us closer than ever before, by creating a new way for us to create content together.
06:09This is not only a huge step for our company, but for the entire global media industry.
06:14So, this naturally outraged the entire internet, which thought the brothers were trying to get the monopoly on reacting to videos.
06:20It didn't take long for them to release an apology, and cancel all trademark applications.
06:24We're sorry for confusing people by using terminology like our React format.
06:29We were never trying to say that every video or someone reacts to something else is something we would try to control.
06:34When we referenced licensing the React format, we only meant our specific series, not the overall genre of reaction videos.
06:41We do not own the genre.
06:43Their case was worsened by the fact that they were far from being the first people on YouTube to create reaction videos.
06:48This started a downward spiral for the brothers, who left YouTube and their company amid a toxic workplace scandal in 2021.
06:54So, we're trying to protect it and not run the risk of losing our channel name thanks to someone else getting the trademark.
07:02But, just because we have or might get trademarks doesn't mean we're going to run around and start taking down videos.
07:08Number 2. James Charles. Worked.
07:11This YouTuber was known for creating makeup videos in the 2010s.
07:14In 2019, he became embroiled in a scandal after fellow YouTuber, Tati Westbrook, released her video, Bye Sister.
07:21I never jumped straight to social, but I was just like so gutted, and I made that two-minute little Insta story.
07:31It was therapeutic for me. I don't regret it.
07:33It fired a ton of accusations at Charles, specifically about him trying to seduce a heterosexual man.
07:39He responded with a disastrous eight-minute apology video.
07:42And I needed to take accountability for my actions, and most importantly, apologize to the people that were affected by them.
07:47Um, these conversations should have never happened, point blank period.
07:51There's no excuse for it, there's no ifs, ands, or buts, and I take full responsibility for that.
07:56It was hastily deleted, then Charles subsequently released the far better received, No More Lies video.
08:01This refuted most of Westbrook's comments, which brought the internet back on his side.
08:05Unfortunately, Charles faced a serious sexting scandal in 2021.
08:10Charles denied it, saying the evidence was fake.
08:12His YouTube channel hasn't suffered much, but he says his brother hadn't spoken to him since.
08:16A few different guys that I've talked to in the past have since came forward with their stories,
08:20or posted screenshots of conversations that I had with them, saying that I made them feel uncomfortable.
08:24And reading some of them, I honestly felt really, really bad.
08:28I reached out to all the boys directly and apologized to them for my actions.
08:32Number two, Shane Dawson. Failed.
08:35In the early days of YouTube, Shane Dawson was easily one of the biggest names.
08:39Across his long career, apology videos were relatively frequent.
08:43His most infamous one, released in 2020, was over his use of racial stereotypes in videos.
08:48I'm going to apologize for a lot of things that I've done or said in this video,
08:53and if you don't accept the apology, that is 100% okay.
08:57This wasn't his first apology for it, with everyone, including Dawson himself,
09:01feeling his earlier ones were disingenuous.
09:04In response to this, YouTube decided to demonetize his videos entirely.
09:07I don't know, there was a lot. They tried to ruin my relationship.
09:11It was a lot. I had a lot of anger for this person.
09:15So, that anger is gone, by the way. It's all gone.
09:17And I'm so sorry to her.
09:19This massively impacted Dawson's career, costing him a ton of subscribers,
09:23and drastically dropping his views.
09:25Uploads on his main channel are fairly infrequent.
09:27But his second channel, where he releases almost exclusively conspiracy theory content, is doing okay.
09:32I'm aware that I hold my friends or people I care about to a lower standard than I hold other people.
09:40That's wrong, and I'm so sorry.
09:42I think I get attached to people who have a heart,
09:46and maybe it's covered in a lot of stuff, and maybe they have a lot of issues,
09:50but I almost feel like I am attracted to other broken people.
09:54Number one, Jenna Marbles. Worked.
09:57Like Shane Dawson, Jenna Marbles was massive in the early 2010s.
10:01Also like him, she made very racially insensitive content.
10:05The big difference, is that Marbles made a genuinely heartfelt apology.
10:08I've definitely done things in the past that weren't great,
10:12and I'm not completely unproblematic, and I've tried my best to grow up.
10:20Some of her fans argued that her videos weren't racist, but Marbles herself disagreed.
10:24It's one of the few instances where someone actually held themselves accountable with YouTube drama.
10:29If that's the case, where people will watch something and be offended now, I don't want it to exist.
10:36So I've privated a lot of my old content, because I just don't want anyone to feel upset about anything.
10:44Most of her old videos were taken off YouTube, and Marbles decided to leave the site almost entirely.
10:49It was initially called an indefinite hiatus, but she's still not returned after more than 10 years.
10:53I just, that's really been eating me up inside for a long time.
10:58And I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry if I ever made you feel bad about yourself, or your choices, or anything.
11:05Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
11:12You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
11:15If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
11:21Number 1. Colleen Ballinger
11:23Failed
11:24It would genuinely be a challenge to get yourself into online drama,
11:29then make an apology worse than the initial toxic gossip train.
11:32This is the name of the song Colleen Ballinger composed, after being accused of taking advantage of minors.
11:37There were times in the DMs when I would overshare
11:40Details of my life, which was really weird of me
11:43I haven't done that for years, you see
11:46Because I changed my behavior, and I took accountability
11:49This led to her also being exposed to toxic behavior, while producing her Netflix series, Haters Back Off.
11:56Ballinger denied most of the accusations in her 10-minute-long song,
11:59dismissing them as lies that were made up for clout.
12:02I know you wanted me to say that I was 100% in the wrong
12:07Well, I'm sorry, I'm not going to take that route
12:09of admitting to lies and rumors that you made up for clout.
12:13This completely destroyed her career.
12:15Now, she's not remembered for her Netflix series, or her Miranda Sings content,
12:19but for her monumentally bad apology.
12:21The toxic gossip train
12:24You're chugging down the tracks of misinformation
12:28The toxic gossip train
12:31You got a one-way ticket to a manipulation station
12:36Were there any especially disastrous or well-done apologies we forgot to include?
12:40Let us know in the comments below.
12:41The toxic gossip train
Comments