Popular YouTuber PewDiePie admits ‘mistake’ after being accused of ‘mocking’ Deaf TikToker

PewDiePie, the most subscribed to individual on YouTube with more than 111 million subscribers, has faced criticism online after viewers claimed he “mocked” a Black Deaf TikToker in his latest video.

The YouTuber – real name Felix Kjellberg – uploaded the footage to his channel on Tuesday, in a video titled ‘My Dog Cringes at TikToks’.

As part of the montage, Kjellberg reacted to a post from user Scarlet May, who has over 6.2 million followers on TikTok.

In the post, May – who wore long acrylic nails and uses American Sign Language and spoken English – told a story about what happened at a fast-food drive-through.

Kjellberg then paused the video and said: “No, I’m not listening to this.”

Addressing his pet pug, he added: “Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya!”

He then impersonated his dog, waving her paws in the air as he spoke.

“‘Well, anyway, what I did was, I went outside, and then I peed, and then I pooped a little bit as well, and it was crazy.

‘Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?’”

So pewdiepie decided to satiate his followers’ needs by making fun of a deaf Black woman’s nails because she is using sign language?

Why does he still even exist? Never liked the idiot. #pewdiepie #CancelCulture pic.twitter.com/pUtEssSkzx

— Dr. Renier (Rain) Palland🇺🇸🇿🇦🇵🇭🏳️‍🌈 (@renier45) July 27, 2022

His comments have since been condemned on social media, with one person writing on Twitter that individuals like him should not be given “large platforms to bully people”.

Another wrote: “As a partial deaf person who’s hearing is completely gone in my left ear, PewDiePie’s actions were f**king disgusting – I found it so offensive. 

“Mocking a Deaf person like that. I feel so bad.”

A third commented: “Not PewDiePie making fun of a deaf woman?”

In a comment posted underneath the video on Thursday, Kjellberg wrote: “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.

“Making my dog’s paws move was poking [fun] at people always dancing or doing some move on TikTok, which is an ongoing theme in the whole video. Anyway, honest mistake, my bad.”

Meanwhile, May said in a response video – also shared on Thursday – that Kjellberg’s actions were “very weird” and “very unnecessary”, but added that she was “not surprised [as] I’m used to it”.

She continued: “It’s been a big issue in the deaf community. I’ve been trying to normalise and put it out that using nails while signing is normal. It’s okay.

“But then a big creator comes on here and puts us like a million steps back. So it’s very frustrating.”

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A post shared by mAy 🦋⚡️ (@scarlet_may.1)

May went on to allege Kjellberg “knew I was doing sign” as he “continued to mock me doing sign language”, and accused the Swedish creator of trying to “sweep it under the rug like nothing happened” by editing out the part of the video with her in it.

“Baby, it don’t work like that over here. If you made the mistake, admit the mistake. You don’t just get to mock deaf people who have already been struggling for years […] and go about your day like nothing’s happened.

“I really tried to give him the benefit of the doubt too. I was like, ‘maybe he really just doesn’t know, maybe he’s really unaware, even though it’s 2022 and there’s deaf people and sign language all over the media. 

“But I mean, we all live and learn. If he did not know before, he definitely knows now.”

It isn’t the first time that Kjellberg has been criticised for comments made online, after he said the n-word during a livestream in 2017 – something he said was made “in the heat of the moment”.

“I’m not going to make any excuses to why it did [slip out], because there are no excuses for it. I’m disappointed in myself, because it seems like I’ve learned nothing from all these past controversies.

“I’m just an idiot, but that doesn’t make what I said or how I said it okay. It was not okay.

“I’m really sorry if I offended, hurt or disappointed anyone with all of this,” he said.

Photo: PewDiePie/YouTube and @scarlet_may.1/TikTok.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.