Doing my part: Why Pewdiepie is relevant and why you should subscribe to him

If you like me are a connoisseur of internet culture, you must have lived under the proverbial rock (or on really obscure forums) if you are not by now aware of the battle between Swedish Youtube content creator Felix Kjellberg, also known as Pewdiepie, and the Indian record label and film production company T-series. Pewdiepie, who has held the spot as most subscribed Youtube channel since 2013 has come under serious threat from the runner-up channel T-series, who has seen an explosive growth in subscribers as more and more Indians have gained access to the internet and has been fighting an uphill battle to stay in pole position.

As the subscriber gap is slowly but surely closing, it is finally time to do my part and do a blog post about why you should subscribe to Pewdiepie and what significance I think he holds for the internet as we know it. My contribution might be insignificant, compared to what other subscribers has gone through to promote Pewdiepie, but every little bit helps and I hope you, dear reader, will listen to what I have to say nonetheless.

Pewdiepie circa 2015 - picture from USA Today

An Unlikely Success

Felix Kjellberg’s success is interesting in the sense that what he initially did as a Youtuber were not that different from his competition. He started out as a let’s player, creating content consisting primarily of playing games while providing commentary alongside the game play, and while definitely benefiting from starting creating content on Youtube in its infancy, there were other popular let’s players on the platform at the time. What set Pewdiepie apart from his peers at that time was primarily his unique style of exuberant, goofy, (some would say obnoxious) and often edgy commentary and his ability to provide a high output of content, which in Youtube’s early days where bandwith was still a limiting factor, mattered less than the video and production quality.

Change of Style and Controversy

In 2015, Pewdiepie’s content started undergoing major changes. Citing a change in his humor as well as an increasing feeling of alienation from his younger fan base, the LP videos became more infrequent and gag-style videos and videos where he would talk in long form about various subjects started to become his preferred content. In 2017, Kjellberg hired employees for the first time in his Youtube career in order to make his content more streamlined and professional with recurring shows such as Meme Review, a show where Pewdiepie rates contemporary memes and PewNews, a news show focusing on internet and Youtube culture.

Pewdiepie was a subject to controversy early on due to his use of edgy humour and profanity, which sometimes included racial slurs. In February 2017 The Wall Street Journal brought an article trying to link Pewdiepie to anti-semitism after he in a review of the website Fiverr, where Pewdiepie paid a duo to hold up a sign saying ‘DEATH TO ALL JEWS’ as a joke not thinking they would do it. In December the same year, Pewdiepie was once again in the center of a controversy after he used a racial slur during a live stream, which launched a series of critical articles from Vice among others.

Why Pewdiepie matters

For the casual onlooker, it can be hard to understand why or how either the goofy, screaming Pewdiepie of 2010-2014 or the meme reviewing, Dr. Phil-riffing Pewdiepie of 2019 should be relevant, so allow me to explain why he is not just relevant, but paramount to the internet of today.

When I express my love and fascination with the internet, I am referring to the near unlimited amount of information available plus the true pioneer spirit that platforms such as Youtube (and indeed our very own Steemit!) have fostered: The belief that any person in the world can turn a profit and even become world famous using nothing but his or her internet connection and webcam.

Pewdiepie in a very real sense embodies this spirit: A goofy-looking Swedish college dropout managed to become the biggest Youtuber in the world with more than 85 million people all around the world currently subscribed to his channel using nothing but his own talents for producing amusing video content! Pewdiepie has throughout his career on Youtube managed to stay strictly independent and despite his recent hiring of editors still very much a one-man operation. This stands in stark contrast to the contender for the top spot, T-series, which is a corporate entity, that is involved in both movie production while simultaneously holding the spot as India’s largest record label. While the story of T-series is something of an underdog story in itself, its rise to power on Youtube is symptomatic of a trend, where Youtube as a platform is focusing more and more to the large mainstream media outlets while eschewing the small, independent content creator that the platform catered to originally.

Beardy Pewds would really like you to help him defeat T-Series - picture from Dexerto

Moreover, as I briefly touched upon in one of my earlier blog posts Pewdiepie is unique among popular Youtube creators in his ability to renew himself and his content without alienating his fanbase while not succumbing to a destructive ego inflation that fame can bring with it and actually appear as a level-headed guy, who acts as a voice of reason in an increasingly shrill and polarized sphere of online discourse.

His struggle has not been an easy one either. Not only is his battle with his nearest rival a true David-versus-Goliath story with one Swedish dude facing off against the biggest record label of a country with more than a billion citizens, but his own platform seems to be actively working against him and established media outlets have been doing their best to smear his name with accusations of promoting racism, anti-semitism and alt-right dog whistling. While I agree that Pewdiepie has made some pretty tasteless jokes over the years, he has been very consistent in apologizing where it was appropriate and it is my opinion that nobody, who watches Pewdiepie’s content in good faith can truthfully make any of the claims about racism and anti-semitism that has been leveled at him.

Pewdiepie has grown to embody the free and wild aspects of the internet: The chaotic high octane interactions of online gaming, the constant churning and broiling creativity of the meme world and the wonderful feeling of stubborn, defiant individualism combined with the yearning to feel part of something bigger that anybody, who has created online content has felt. He is the shining exemplar of what you can do on the internet if you have enough creativity, talent and tenacity and a representative of the internet as it should be: An internet for everyone and not just for big, syndicated corporations.

I salute you, my fellow Scandinavian! Keep making great content that will brighten up my dreary days! 頑張って、Pewdieちゃん！