Fine! I’ll admit it!
I watch a lot of YouTube, and EVERY SO OFTEN I find myself watching the infamous Jake Paul. I just can’t help it! I used to swear I would never support the Paul Brothers by watching their videos, but ever since the Shane Dawson series on Jake Paul and Jake Paul’s recent engagement to YouTuber, Tana Mongeau, I just can’t escape him.
On the surface, Jake Paul is an obnoxious manchild who makes a living off of his young audience who is enthralled in his reckless abandon for social cues and laws. Heck, I’m a little enthralled. He’s trainwreck, and you can’t just look away from trainwrecks. What I think most people don’t realize is that he wrecks his train on purpose- but more on that later.
Let us backtrack:
After taking a much needed break from Youtube last year after house fires, police calls, and controversy, Jake Paul came back to YouTube with a fresh baby face. Shane Dawson’s series humanized him and showed the public that he was, in fact, capable of emotion (maybe). He stopped cursing in his videos. He didn’t start fires in his backyard and he didn’t hang off of news trucks.
He was still making content that you and I might not sit down to enjoy on a Sunday evening, such as:
Nonetheless, he was making content that his audience, impressionable children, loved.
But what does a Paul brother do when they want more views? They stir up controversy! You didn’t believe he was done with controversy forever, did you?!?!
On May 18th, 2019, Jake Paul posted a video entitled “confronting internet bully cody ko…”. If you’re unfamiliar with Cody Ko, Cody Ko is an incredibly popular youtuber with over 3 million subscribers. Cody Ko makes comedy videos, and his comedy acts are usually him making fun of specific people. His audience is mainly teenagers and young adults, and they’re known to be reactive and ruthless.
In Jake’s video, Jake appeared to have confronted Cody Ko about making fun of people on the internet. This surprise confrontation happened to take place while Cody was getting a haircut on Jeff Witteck’s youtube channel. Jeff Wittek is an incredibly popular member of the Vlog Squad, coming in at over 1 million subscribers. Jeff and the rest of the vlog squad are known to have a teenage and young adult audience, just like Cody Ko.
In the video where Jake attempts to confront Cody Ko for cyberbullying, Jake seemed disheveled, had no real argument against Cody Ko, and fumbled over everything he said. Over all, Jake Paul seemed to have made an absolute fool out of himself.
After this video was posted on Jake Paul’s channel, Cody Ko made a reaction video and two podcasts about the event. Jeff Wittek posted his haircut video where the confrontation took place. Big youtubers like H3H3, who has nearly 7 million subscribers made a podcast about it. PewDiePie, the highest subscribed to youtuber on the platform, with nearly 100 million subscribers, made a video about it. Most of the videos these youtuber’s made about the event were videos that made fun of Jake Paul. No one agreed that Cody Ko was a cyber bully that needed to be stopped. Everyone agreed that Jake Paul was an idiot. But isn’t that the point?
Here is the part where I explain why I think Jake Paul is very, very smart:
In the past Cody Ko has been controversial. Cody Ko has taken his videos too far. Footage of him saying racial slurs has been circulating the internet. He has made entire videos of him roasting his own fans. If Jake Paul wanted to actually call him out for cyberbullying, there are definite points he could have made. But where would this have left Jake Paul?
If Jake Paul had actually successfully called out Cody Ko for cyberbullying, Cody Ko fans would be enraged. Entire fanbases of Cody Ko and the people who he collaborates with would have came after Jake Paul for trying to “cancel” one of their favorite youtubers. People might have even turned against Cody Ko and caused him to lose subscribers, his livelihood, and respect in the YouTube community. This would have caused actual drama and controversy in the YouTube community and caused people to hate Jake Paul more than they already did.
By Jake Paul doing such a bad job at confronting Cody Ko for cyberbullying, it gave Cody Ko fans something to make fun of. It gave Cody Ko something to make fun of. It gave other comedy YouTubers something to make fun of. Cody Ko’s audience, whose members are not the same as Jake Paul’s audience, all flocked to Jake Paul’s youtube channel and gave him views because they wanted to see Jake Paul make a fool of himself. It even gave Cody Ko exposure, considering that Jake Paul has 19 million subscribers and he made an entire video about Cody Ko.
Not only did this get the attention of Cody Ko’s audience, it got the attention of Jeff Wittek’s audience. Jeff Wittek is ALSO a comedy youtuber, whose audience ALSO enjoys making fun of people like Jake Paul. Jeff Wittek who has significantly less subscribers than Jake Paul, 18 million less, also got exposure from Jake Paul’s account.
This entire situation was mutually beneficial for all parties. Everyone got exposure to new audiences, content was created, money was made, and Jake Paul still lives on as one of the most highly subscribed to YouTubers.