YouTube Catastrophes: The Ultimate Career-Destroying Moments

Top 10 YouTubers Who Destroyed Their Career/Lives on Camera

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most infamous times a well-known YouTuber wrecked their career, tarnished their reputation, or lost major opportunities after an on-camera scandal came to light.

#10: Laura Lee

In 2018, beauty YouTube was thrown into Dramageddon as one scandal after another came out. Laura Lee was one such influencer who found her reputation in tatters after her historical racist social media posts were discovered. As the backlash grew, Lee released an apology video that soon became notorious as many viewers saw it as insincere. Regardless, it didn’t stop 300,000 subscribers from leaving her channel and causing a host of sponsors and business associates to drop her. Reportedly, various stores, such as BoxyCharm and Ulta Beauty, stopped selling Laura Lee Los Angeles cosmetics products. As a result, the original apology was deleted by Lee’s channel and replaced with another a month later.

#9: Trollstation

Practical joke channels tend to reach the point where they go too far. And in 2015, the time came for Trollstation. The ensemble channel staged two robberies at the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Britain gallery in London, England. At the first location, a stampede of visitors rushing for the exits caused injuries while one woman passed out from fear. At the second, a fake kidnapping took place. Unsurprisingly, the members that took part were arrested. In 2016, after pleading guilty to the two charges, each person was sentenced to eight weeks for the Tate Britain event. For the Portrait Gallery, they received jail time between 12 to 20 weeks.

#8: Rawvana

When you run a lifestyle channel, you have to practice what you preach. Otherwise, people will find out and will be furious. Well, in 2019, Yovana Mendoza, under the name Rawvana, made that error. As she was in Bali, the vegan influencer who sold plans on the lifestyle was recorded by a vlogger friend at a restaurant. However, if you look closely, you can see Mendoza trying to cover her plate. That’s because she was consuming fish, which, of course, isn’t vegan. As the backlash grew, Mendoza released a long apology video, which has since been deleted, where she detailed her health problems that led to a change in her diet. Later, Mendoza dropped the Rawvana branding and pivoted her channel’s content to her current lifestyle.

#7: ItzArya

Oh, boy. In 2018, the UK had a series of terrifying acid attacks. With this going on, YouTuber Arya Mosallah, under the name ItzArya, chose to create a practical joke video on the streets of London. In this part two content, he walked around with a cup and threw water into the faces of unsuspecting people. Of course, viewers were livid. After they removed the video from their platform, YouTube went further by deleting Mosallah’s 650,000-subbed channel. Mosallah then created a second account, and after putting up some videos, it was taken offline and hasn’t had any new content since. In interviews, Mosallah apologized for the video and claimed it wasn’t related to the real attacks.

#6: Nicole Arbour

On top of being a former cheerleader, a singer, an actress, a comedian, and a choreographer, Nicole Arbour also has her own YouTube channel. And this latter career got her in a host of trouble in 2015 after releasing the video “Dear Fat People.” The cringy skit was rife with fatphobic content that angered the public, while Arbour claimed it was meant to be satire. YouTube briefly removed the content before allowing it back on. The backlash even caused Arbour to be dropped from working on the 2017 film, “Don't Talk to Irene.” Later, she stated she made the video for marketing reasons, which explains the similar videos that followed, as well as a part two to “Dear Fat People.”

#5: Ned Fulmer

Labeled as the “wife guy” as part of The Try Guys, Ned Fulmer promoted his devotion to his family with his partner Ariel and their children. But in 2022, something strange was going on with the channel. Seemingly, Fulmer was nowhere to be seen and appeared to be edited out of content. Rumors then began to leak, and eventually, there was visual confirmation. Fulmer had been having an affair with channel producer Alex Herring. With the vast inappropriateness of a boss having relations with a subordinate, The Try Guys released a statement and a video that confirmed Fulmer had been dropped by the company due to the controversy. Since then, Fulmer has vanished from social media while the channel continues on.

#4: Brooke Houts

As a channel that featured lifestyle videos, Brooke Houts also got her dog Sphinx into some content. But in 2019, the behind-the-scenes cruelty between human and pet was accidentally exposed. As Houts released a video about playing a practical joke on her Doberman, some clips were included that showed her hitting, pushing, and seemingly spitting on Sphinx. While the segments were removed and the video was reuploaded, it was too late. People were absolutely livid at the clips, and there were calls for the police to intervene. While they investigated and ultimately didn’t take action, Houts eventually deleted her channel. When she attempted a comeback, she later explained Sphinx had been rehomed. However, the return collapsed, and Houts has seemingly retired from content creation.

#3: PewDiePie

As famous as Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is, he could've been so much more had he not thrown it away in 2017 with a terrible judgment in content. At the time, he created a video where he paid people on the job website Fiverr to do controversial things, including getting people to hold up an anti-Semitic sign. While Kjellberg apologized and claimed the video was to showcase the state of the modern world, the backlash was bad. This, mixed with further incidents of anti-semitism and racist incidents in his content, led to Kjellberg being dropped from the Disney Digital Network community, previously called the Maker Studios. He also had his YouTube Red web series “Scare PewDiePie” canceled after one season.

#2: Sam Pepper

Once again, a practical joke channel came into controversy. But this time, it wasn’t with one incident but two that destroyed a popular creator. In 2014, Sam Pepper released a video where he went up to women and pinched their buttocks when talking to them, which he claimed was a “social experiment.” Yikes. This caused a host of people to come forward with assault and harassment allegations about Pepper. In 2015, he faked the kidnapping of Sam Golbach and Colby Brock. Pepper then pretended to slay Brock, disturbing viewers further with a very upset Golbach. The outrage was loud. After apologizing, Pepper deleted most of his YouTube videos, attempted a brief rebrand, and launched a comedy TikTok.

#1: Logan Paul

Logan Paul became one of YouTube’s standout stars. It seemed like he was on the verge of breaking into the starry lights of Hollywood. But then, he visited Japan in 2017, and that all vanished. After a host of issues in the country, in one particular video, Paul and his team discover a body in a notorious forest. While the person was censored, Paul and his team’s reaction was bizarre and uncomfortable. People were livid, turning the Paul brand into the most toxic around. Various films, TV shows, and web series that featured Paul were paused or canceled. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson also distanced himself from the creator. Since then, Paul still has his channel, but he's pivoted to a boxing and wrestling career.

On a lighter note, which YouTube channel is your go-to for wholesome content? Let us know below!