World-famous YouTuber PewDiePie makes fun of deaf woman’s voice

YouTuber PewDiePie, with 111 million subscribers, recently uploaded a video of him mocking a deaf woman.

Felix Kjellberg, better known as his online alias “PewDiePie”, recently uploaded a video to his 111 million subscribers where he made fun of a deaf woman’s video on TikTok. The video was later edited, but not before many pointed out what he had done.

In a video uploaded yesterday, which as of this writing has over 1.7 million views, PewdiePie and his dog Maya watched what he calls “cringey TikToks”. These TikTok videos are of topics or events that most would find a little painful to sit through. However, a certain TikTok depicting a deaf woman sent people into an uproar.

In the TikTok video, which can only be viewed on Twitter now, the deaf woman is describing a common scenario at drive-troughs but doing so while also speaking via sign language. PewdiePie started mocking her voice and long nails, even mimicking the gestures with his dog, Maya.

The woman in the video responded via TikTok, stating that it was “Very weird, very unnecessary…but at the same time, I’m not surprised. I’m used to it. I’ve been trying to normalise and put it out that using nails why [sic] signing is normal. Then a big creator comes on here and puts us a million steps back so it’s very frustrating.”

According to a comment posted in the video, PewdiePie removed the clip specifically, stating he “Had no clue she was deaf, but kinda dumb of me to not realise.” He went on, stating that he “only poked fun of [sic] her long nails. The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I’ve given her for years…anyway honest mistake, my bad.”

PewDiePie is no stranger to poor judgment, which would ultimately lead to partners like Disney cutting ties with him. In 2017, he posted a series of videos, one of which included the use of the N-word slur (PewDiePie is very much white). Another video included airing a video that included a sign saying “Death to all Jews.” He would go on later to again call another player the N-word during a live stream of the popular video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, leading to even more criticism.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.