Logan Paul has hidden from the spotlight for several weeks since his Suicide Forest controversy erupted. After his apology and a recent video focusing on suicide prevention where he pledged to donate $1 million to suicide prevention organizations, Paul has finally returned to vlogging on Feb. 4 with a bold comeback video. As a daily viewer of YouTube and its many content creators, I had a strong opinion about the Logan Paul debacle a few weeks ago, but I decided to see for myself how he was handling the situation with this new comeback—and I have a few complaints.
Making Light of it All
Paul called himself a baby for crying in his apology video and for staying off the radar [1:26-1:40 in video]. He also is claiming that he is not disgraced—he merely “took a break”—a 3 week break that gained him “a million subscribers.” Logan can be seen in the video disregarding his hate as illegitimate, which shows that he has not learned from the backlash. He makes fun of the hate, and says “fuck Logan Paul, right?” and made that into an amusing catchphrase and clip to end his video with, giving the impression that the hate is funny and wasn’t justified. Yes, you need to shrug off the hate sometimes, but it’s different when that hate was actually justified by an action that affected millions of viewers and violated YouTube’s rules for content creators.
Too Much Confidence
Nearly every movement coming from Logan Paul exuded confidence. It’s good that he can still love himself and stay the same entertaining guy that his “Logang” loves, but there comes a point where his confidence just makes him look cocky, and I saw it several times in the video (especially in the opening sequence).
Immaturity
Most of what Logan said and did in the video made him look very immature, considering he’s a 22-year-old. He continues to use words like “savage” and “lit” and can be seen drawing a penis in the sand in his video. Random yelling, unnecessary cursing and violence can be seen in most of the video. Yes I know, this is the content that his viewership enjoys, but WOW is it annoying to watch his content as a 20-year-old-girl in college seeking a professional future. An argument against my opinion may be, “just don’t watch the videos, you aren’t his target audience anyway,” but I can’t sit here comfortably knowing that impressionable kids are viewing him as an idol and imitating the things he says and does, thinking that their actions are “funny” and “entertaining”.
Merchandise Plug
Logan Paul starts off his comeback video with an advertisement for his clothing line. At around [3:30] in his video he says, “and I know what you’re thinking, ‘Logan are you really starting your first vlog back with a merch plug?’ Yes I am, because as you guys know, YouTube cut my AdSense in half. Thanks YouTube, love ya.” And then proceeds to tell the viewers to buy his merchandise so he can afford to stay in his house. He then briefly mentions that his clothing line, Maverick, is being sued for $4 million, and says, “but for the person who’s planning to sue us, tell you what, I’m not going to give you 4 million dollars, but I will send you a free pair of Maverick joggers.” I became infuriated during this time in his vlog. Not only is he using the opportunity of heightened views to wrongly promote his brand, he practically degrades YouTube and implies that he should not have received a decrease in payment. YouTube is the reason he has his fortune in the first place, and they had every right to reduce his AdSense considering he violated the terms of use. And as for the entity trying to sue Logan, he finds no seriousness in the matter. I don’t know the full story, but if he in any way deserves to be sued, assuming he somehow violated a legal issue, he needs to take responsibility for his actions and not teach his viewers that he can get out of it with a clothing freebie.
Photo above courtesy of Maverick by Logan Paul.
Not everything in the vlog was wrong. He addressed the issues, apologized, and said some things in the video that seemed sincere and could be seen as improvement on his part. Some of the video was also entertaining. I am not criticizing the entire video—if I was in his position since this controversy started, I wouldn’t know how to return to the spotlight in a way that wouldn’t receive any backlash, but there are still obvious points in the video that prove there is still work to be done for Logan Paul.
Cover photo found here.