PewDiePie apologises for calling SG and MY fans 'hectic' and 'scream-ish'

The provocative Swedish YouTube star Felix Kjellberg, popularly known as PewDiePie online, has apologised to Singaporean and Malaysian fans for his "harsh" comments as he called local fans "hectic", "scream-ish" and "crazy" in his vlog posted in December. The YouTuber published a Q&A video answering fan queries, and shared his opinions on fans in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

His comments on local fans was picked up by media outlets such as TODAY and The Star which then led to him  publishing a video just two days ago, explaining his reasons behind calling fans 'hectic' and 'scream-ish'. According to the Swedish star, he was comparing fan culture in the Asian region to Scandinavian countries, and how different it is.

He continued to add that he was mostly "annoyed" in Malaysia, saying: "People were literally entering our hotel and it felt like we couldn’t leave our hotel because people were just looking for us, and it felt like we were being hunted almost."

Kjellberg then went on to admit that his comments about Singapore were dishonest. "I will say I was being a bit dishonest when I spoke about Singapore because actually the first time I got recognised in Singapore, that was like a huge thing for me because I’ve never been recognised as a ‘celebrity’ before," he added.

According to the YouTuber, in the past YouTube personalities were not recognised by "the media and anyone". Hence, seeing the effect it had on fans was "cool", and apologised to fans in Singapore and Malaysia for the "harsh" comments.

Marketing understands that PewDiePie previously Singapore in 2013, and has uploaded a footage of fans psyched to take pictures of him.

PewDiePie rose to fame for releasing videos of him playing video games. However, his provocative nature has led to some companies in the past cutting ties with him. One prominent example was in 2017, when videos with anti-Semitic messages surfaced on Kjellberg's channel, Disney’s Maker Studios cut ties with the star. A spokeswoman for Maker Studios had then told Marketing then although Kjellberg had created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he "clearly went too far" in this case and the resulting videos are "inappropriate". Meanwhile,  in 2016, Pewdiepie was suspended on Twitter for making a joke about joining ISIS.

Ironically, PewDiePie had called out fellow YouTuber Logan Paul for the infamous Japan ‘suicide forest’ video. In the beginning of 2018, Paul had visited Japan's Aokigahara 'suicide forest', and recorded the body of a man hanging from a tree. The film by Paul was put on hold for XX and published after. PewDiePie then also criticised YouTube for giving a "lighter punishment" to Paul despite recording a dead man, but refused to permit his anti-Semitic messages.