YouTuber Shane Dawson has been forced to apologise after an old clip emerged, in which he described in detail performing a sex act on his pet cat.
During a broadcast of his podcast in 2015, the 30-year-old claimed he had "laid my cat down on her back," before "humping" the animal on her tummy and "c*mming all over her".
After the footage resurfaced, the online star took to social media to issue a bizarre apology, in which he insisted he had never "done anything weird" with his cats, and claimed it was a fake bestiality story based on an unused sketch.
"I didn’t f**k my cat. I didn’t c*m on my cat. I didn’t put my d**k anywhere near my cat," he wrote on Twitter. "I’ve never done anything weird with my cats. I promised myself I wasn’t going to make apology videos after last year’s thing so I’m just trying to be as short and honest with this as possible."
He continued to confess that his comedy used to rely on shock factor to gain laughs, and said he now "f**king hated" himself for it.
"ive apologized many times for all the dumb shit ive said in videos and podcasts over the years," he wrote. "ive learned my lesson over and over again and im more confident now in my ability to be entertaining by just being myself and not being so shocking for laughs. [sic]"
He added: "That story was fake and was based on a dumb awful sketch idea I had years ago that i never made (THANK GOD) and when the opportunity came up for a funny moment in the podcast I told it as if it was a real story which was DISGUSTING and VERY VERY DUMB [sic]"
"my goal with the podcast and with my videos years ago was to tell shocking stories that would make people laugh and scream \OMG NO U DIDNT!!' and think i was 'soooo crazy'. its embarrassing and i f**king hate myself for it. [sic]"
Continuing his eight-tweet apology, Dawson said that he was now producing content he loved and felt better to be "putting stuff out into the world that means something".
"im not saying i hate everything ive made over the years... theres so many things im so proud of. but all of my offensive jokes, over the top stories, and insensitive jokes are something that still haunt me and something I have to be faced with everyday on the internet. and it never gets easier [sic]," he stated, adding that he wouldn't be who he is today without his past and the last two years had been the "best of his life".
His words of regret received mixed reactions on social media; many insisted that listeners of the podcast all knew it was a joke, while others argued that even in jest, it was crossing a line.
