Logan Paul Makes Sick Tide Pod Joke on Twitter

Logan Paul’s return to the internet is already mired in controversy again with his latest joke about eating Tide Pods.

The 22-year-old social media star took nearly a month off after uploading a video on New Year’s Eve showing himself and his friends in Japan’s Aokigahara Forest, where they discovered a dead body and filmed it insensitively.

After that, Paul made a solemn video about suicide prevention, where he pledged to continue learning about the subject and donated a big chunk of his YouTube earnings. It was a bizarre pivot for the online persona known for brazen pranks and catchphrases.

Since then, Paul has been attempting to get back to business as usual, and the reception has not been great. Paul’s die-hard fans — most of whom are in their early teens — are eager to defend him against any criticism, while his detractors can’t wait to call him out for making light of anything serious.

However, even Paul’s followers questioned why he would make a joke so difficult to defend. The “Tide Pod Challenge,” while sensationally ironic and ludicrous as a meme, is dangerous territory for Paul, who has already been admonished for trivializing suicide. By joking that he’ll eat the toxic pods as a stunt for retweets — no matter how satirical — he reminds the world of his ignorance and clumsiness last month.

In just an hour, Paul’s tweet racked up nearly 9,000 retweets.

As much as he was criticized for making an off-color joke, Paul also received considerable backlash for apparently capitalizing on the controversy associated with his name these days.

Fans and detractors alike seemed to agree that the Tide Pod reference was an effort to keep his name in the headlines while ambiguously generating an argument.

While Paul’s short suicide prevention documentary marked his “return to YouTube” after spending most of January off, he returned to his normal activity of vlogging on Sunday with a 12-minute video. Many felt that it was still too soon, but there’s little more that can be done to stop Paul from making his free content on YouTube.

The young performer was punished for his insensitivity by Google, who revoked his “Google Preferred” status. This will impact his viewership and monetization, though with the built-in base Paul has built, he likely won’t take too much of a hit. YouTube also put all of his current TV and movie projects with the company on hold, though judging by his videos, it isn’t bothering Paul too much.