PewDiePie has caused controversy again, this time for mocking TikTok creator Scarlet May, who is deaf. The Swedish YouTuber, whose real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, apologized, claiming he was not aware May is deaf. May thought PewDiePie’s comments about her videos were “very weird, very unnecessary.”
May has over 6.2 million followers on TikTok, and shares videos of herself singing with her long, painted nails as she speaks with her fans. PewDiePie’s Tuesday YouTube post “My Dog Cringes at TikToks” included a clip where he commented on one of May’s videos while holding his dog Maya. “I’m not listening to this,” he said. “Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya!” As he waved Maya’s paws around in an attempt to imitate sign language, the YouTuber added, “Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?”
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After a wave of criticism on social media, PewDiePie edited out the part where he commented on May’s video. He then added a comment, claiming he did not know May is deaf, and insisted he only made fun of her nails. “Hey, just to clear a few things up: I edited out the clip with the girl that has the long nails,” he wrote. “Had no clue she was deaf but kinda dumb of me to not realize… Still watching through the clip I only poked fun [at] her long nails. The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I’ve given her for years.”
However, there were comments asking PewDiePie why he waved his dog’s paws in a way mocking sign language if he didn’t know May is deaf. He went back to his apology and added in another line. “And making my dog’s paws move was poking at people always dancing or doing some move on TikTok, which is an ongoing theme in the whole video,” he wrote. “Anyway honest mistake, my bad.”
May published a response to the controversy, noting that she is unfortunately not surprised, notes Entertainment Tonight. She also doesn’t believe PewDiePie didn’t know she was deaf because he mocked her using sign language. “I feel like it was very weird, very unnecessary but at the same time I’m not surprised, I’m used to it,” she said. “It’s been a big issue in the deaf community that I’ve been trying to normalize and put out, is that using nails while signing is normal, it’s okay. But then a big creator comes on here and puts us a million steps back, so it’s very frustrating.”
She went on to say PewDiePie tried to “sweep it under the rug” by editing out his comments about her and pretending it didn’t happen. “We all make mistakes hopefully he learns from this,” May captioned her video.
PewDiePie has been at the center of several controversies throughout his YouTube career. He used racial slurs in a 2017 video and has been accused of promoting Anti-Semitism. One of his most infamous controversies came in 2017 when he paid two people on Fiverr to hold a sign reading, “Death to all Jews.” He insisted this was meant to be a comment on Fiverr. He eventually apologized, but still criticized media coverage of his YouTube videos. PewDiePie has 111 million subscribers on YouTube, and the video in which he originally mocked May racked up over 1.8 million views in less than three days.
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