It’s arguable that Kim Kardashian was one of the first people to redefine the meaning of celebrity, seeing as pre-KarJenner era you were probably too busy stanning famous actors or artists. Although you might not want to admit that you’re fascinated with stars, you’ve probably been keeping up with the Kardashians since Kim was still Paris Hilton’s assistant. However, Kim wasn’t the only person to revolutionize stardom—YouTube has also altered the criteria of a celebrity. Now, popular YouTubers have gone on to record hit songs and start their own companies. Like traditional celebs, famous YouTubers, like Tana Mongeau aren’t immune to being accused of doing problematic things—in this case, allegedly filming the body of a person who died of overdose.
Though Mongeau’s erroneous decision to film the deceased person predates Logan Paul’s infamous controversy, fellow YouTubers unearthed these accusations only recently. YouTuber iNabber was one of the first people to reveal Mongeau’s video from October 2017.
In iNabber’s video, he dissects Mongeau’s now-deleted vlog, entitled “FOUND A DEAD OVERDOSED MAN (LIVE FOOTAGE): STORYTIME.” While the title alone seems like it could prove that Mongeau exploited a deceased man for views, she could’ve easily used the title as clickbait. Unfortunately, iNabber shows the full-length of Mongeau’s video (at the 1:45 mark), and the contents are disturbing.
At the 4:29 mark of iNabber’s coverage, he highlights the recovered footage where Mongeau allegedly filmed the body of a deceased man. While iNabber censors this sensitive material, he claims that Mongeau didn’t blur out the body in her OG vlog. “I personally had to censor that because Tana didn’t censor the body,” iNabber explains.
“Logan Paul got attacked for his video despite blurring it, and yet it is still f*cked what he did but at least he had the sort of courtesy to blur it. Tana just didn’t even think and just uploaded it. This is a dead body. This could have been from an overdose. This could have been from a suicide. This could have been from anything. This bloke was probably suffering from a lot of things, considering this where he died,” iNabber expands.
Of her 3.1 million subscribers, most of her viewership comes from young fans, who are under the age of 18. If the allegations are true, and Mongeau did upload a video of an uncensored dead body to her channel, this could have traumatizing results (especially since given the demographics of her average subscriber).
After Mongeau allegedly recorded the dead body, she spent the remainder of her video focusing on herself and how finding a deceased person put a damper on her day. Shortly after Mongeau also allegedly filmed the deceased man’s friend (who was just informed of his death), Mongeau says, “This would only happen to us. Only we would wanna have a nice beach day and then have to like save a dead guy.” (Because beach days are obviously a higher priority than the safety and well-being of a human being.)
Instead of using her platform as a viral vlogger to discuss the importance of mental health or drug safety, Mongeau used the clip of this allegedly deceased man, in his most vulnerable time, to make this tragedy about her.
Regardless of her insensitivity, Mongeau wasn’t alone when she discovered and exploited the deceased person. YouTuber Channon Rose was also with Mongeau, and she also uploaded a graphic video of the moment, which is still on her channel.
Nevertheless, Mongeau isn’t a stranger to controversy. In the past, she’s also delivered haphazard apologies for being racist using the n-word. However, Mongeau isn’t alone because it seems to be a common trend among elite YouTubers to use the n-word only to apologize for their “misguided decisions” later. While YouTubers and publications alike exposed Logan Paul for filming a person who died by suicide last month, YouTubers are only now starting to expose Mongeau’s similarly insensitive act.
Her Campus has reached out to Tana Mongeau for comment regarding these accusations, and we are awaiting a response.