Although it's increasingly becoming a dream for many a young creative nowadays, it's really hard to become a YouTube sensation - and getting harder every day. Although we at one time used it to share our hilarious videos with the world and whatnot, now, there's some serious money to be made on the tubes.
Hanging out with a young cousin of mine, it's become apparent YouTube has overtaken the likes of Netflix or terrestrial TV as the primary means of entertainment for that generation, and one of the most popular forms of YouTube video out there is the prank video. You know exactly what I'm talking about.
Ridiculous, click-baity titles in all caps, some guffawing teenager making a dumb face, maybe some implied nudity if you like; these are all the trademarks of the average YouTube prank video. Breaking into that industry is pretty difficult, you can imagine, so you're going to have to think of something decidedly left-field to stand out.
Cordero James Brady from Nevada (better known as the YouTuber CJ SO COOL) thought he had the answer, but he's recently come under fire after he food-pranked his children in an attempt to generate more clicks. With 5.7 million subscribers to his name, you have to go two years back to track down the questionable video in question, but it got the YouTuber in hot water with child protective services.
Like many of these big YouTube channels, 29-year-old Brady's page is monetised - meaning that he sells space to advertisers, and the more people who watch his video, the more money it makes. I don't know about you, but I'd imagine there are quite a few people that would watch a video of a guy pranking his kids with laxatives, so here we are.
As law enforcement in Nevada reveals: “There was a case that was investigated in 2016 involving laxatives and this individual. It was a joint investigation with Clark County Child Protective Services. It was submitted to the DA's office and it was recommended as a criminal case.” So, what's the video we're talking about here?
The video was deleted - and the account suspended - last week after it caught a lot of flak on the video site, but for a time period of around two years, it stayed strong on CJ's page. The video we're talking about here, though, involves allegedly giving his kids ice cream - but the ice cream is laced with laxatives. Cue... hilarity?
Jumping 90 minutes ahead, CJ then filmed his children apparently screaming and crying in pain, before even following them to the bathroom to further record their pain. But as outrageous as this all sounds, we should all try our best to take this story with a pinch of salt.
First off, that little thing called monetisation; since he's trying to generate buzz for his video, there's a good chance that CJ faked drugging his kids for more views. Secondly, you also have to consider that the criticism initially came from the site babe.net, which has come in for criticism itself for the way it's handled certain stories (eg. a piece on Aziz Ansari that ran in the height of the #MeToo movement).
All that said, if the allegations turn out to be true, this is a horrifying example of the lengths some people will go for clicks.
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