Top 10 Fake YouTube Beefs

If there’s one major gripe a lot of (older) people have with YouTube, or rather YouTubers, it’s that a lot of what they do is fake. Now, it must be hard to come up with new, interesting content every single day and that’s why YouTubers follow trends that mostly rely on a suspense of disbelief.

How many YouTubers have been attacked by ghosts? Filmed ghosts? Shouldn’t that be front page news? Besides the “ghost trend,” if there’s anything that drives clicks on YouTube it’s beef. There are channels dedicated to drama. So, let’s look at the Top 10 fake YouTube beefs… So far.

10. McJuggernuggets vs. Boogie

There is a lot of fake content on Youtube. As the introduction stated, it is hard to come up with new content every day, especially when that content started as a viral video of your dad throwing your Xbox into a pool because he hates video games for some reason.

Because of the way that McJuggernuggets became a large YouTuber, he had no choice but to continue to create insane content that involved his family and other YouTubers. The main issue with McJuggerNuggets, though, is that he forced millions of children to believe that he was being abused by his entire family, every single day.

He eventually claimed that it was all part of a series” of films called the “Psycho Series” — the videos were always titled “Psycho Dad does X” — and that he was moving on to other types of content. The problem became that people weren’t interested in his actual life, so he had to pretend like new, insane drama was happening to him on a daily basis.

Part of that came from the weekend he spent at another famous YouTuber, Boogie2988’s house. It became a classic McJuggerNuggets manipulative pile of nonsense. in which Boogie, who is considered to be the nicest guy on YouTuber, suddenly goes insane and tries to sexually molest McJuggerNuggets.

Of course he kept claiming it was real, his fans believed him and were saying he should call 9-11, and the cycle continued. There’s no harm in the fake pranks that dominate YouTube, but when you convince children that your life is in danger, and that your entire family is full of abusive weirdos — just for clicks — you’re a bad person. 

9. Angry Grandpa vs. Everyone (Except Fast Food)

Another YouTuber who relies almost solely on fake videos is Angry Grandpa. He also got into “drama” with McJuggerNuggets just like he’s done with basically every YouTuber he’s met. He’s mean, he yells a lot, he tends to throw up when he tries new food.

It’s been said that if his videos were real, the state would have to get involved. He seems like someone who needs to live in a home and who is being exploited by his family for clicks. That’s another sad dynamic, and proof that some of what is on YouTube is just bad.

While some of his initial videos were entertaining, people got tired of the same old content. So of course, things have to ratchet up video by video. Because Angry Grandpa became a viral sensation, it didn’t take long for it to escalate into complete nonsense. Every confrontation and reaction he has is just his attempt to one up his last video.

His fight with the “Psycho Dad” from McJuggerNuggets’ channel is a perfect example. It was like watching Kramer from Seinfeld argue with Cliff from Cheers. Two grown men relying on caricatures of themselves to one-up one another while holding back laughter. It’s pretty transparent if you’re over the age of 12. 

8. Sam and Nia’s “Bundle of Joy”

Sure, this wasn’t really a “beef”, but it was so fake and so awful that it transcends boundaries. Christian vlogging couple Sam and Nia had a pretty decent following on YouTube, but it exploded after Sam posted a video where he took urine from a toilet bowl (ick) and used it to test whether or not his wife was pregnant.

The test came back positive and he ran, on camera of course, to his wife to tell her the “news.” They both got excited and Sam even teared up. That was all well and good until three days later when Sam and Nia posted a followup video to their viral smash, stating that Nia was no longer pregnant— she had a miscarriage.

The couple received a ton of support from thousands of people, especially those in the Christian community. The initial video collected over 13 million views. Meanwhile, the followup video — where they claimed that Nia had been about six weeks preggers with a baby girl — received four million views. The problem was… It wasn’t real.

Our tiny baby brought 10M views to her video & 100k new people into our lives. She turned our life around & brought us closer together.

— Sam&Nia (@SamAndNia) August 9, 2015

Everything started to fall apart after multiple doctors — and even the creator of the pregnancy test itself — came out and said it would be next to impossible to pick up on the pregnancy hormone that home pregnancy tests use to determine whether not a woman is pregnant, in a toilet that was full of mostly water.

“I would not recommend this method,” Wendy White, M.D., a perinatologist at Mayo Clinic, told BuzzFeed News. “It would lead to false negatives, and theoretically could lead to false positives as well.” Dr. Fiona Clancy, the scientific and medical affairs director for Sure-Vue, the pregnancy test brand the couple used, echoed Dr. White’s sentiment. 

“This is definitely not a method we would recommend,” she said. “Firstly, the urine will be diluted by the toilet water and in very early pregnancy this means the pregnancy hormone hCG may no longer be detectable by a home pregnancy test.”

In response to the tons of backlash and even more doctors — including those at the Mayo Clinic — saying that this was next to impossible, Sam responded with a bunch of Bible verses about deceit and persecution. He refused to admit it was fake, but did say that it was staged by “God.” 

7. Burtgasm vs. Sky Williams

Now, the actual beef here isn’t what was fake, or staged. Sky Williams and Burtgasm are both YouTubers that focus on playing/live streaming Minecraft-related activities and at one point were decent friends.

The rift between them began when Burtgasm uploaded a “game” he created (via Minecraft) in which the main character went through a school and killed students. Sky Williams took offence. He felt that it desensitized younger viewers — which comprise the majority of both Williams and Gasm’s subscribers — to school shootings.

He added that it was insensitive to those who had experienced a school shooting firsthand. Burtgasm responded by claiming that he made the game to “raise awareness.” The two took their differences to the YouTube show Drama Alert. The fake part of the entire thing is that Burtgasm created the game for the exact controversy that came with it.

He created it so people would get upset. He could then reap more attention and get on a larger platform like Drama Alert. It’s sort of genius in a way, because it worked to a T. Because Drama Alert’s host Keemstar simply loves the drama, they didn’t delve into the why behind Burtgasm’s game.

It’s a shame because Keemstar has made a lot of his guests look bad over the years. If anyone deserved to get exposed, it was Burtgasm.

6. Famous YouTubers vs. Drama

A while back, one of the largest trends was how “upset” multiple YouTubers were by all the the “drama” that was taking place on the website. They felt that the online platform had become too competitive and mean-spirited, and they didn’t want any part in that.

People like PewDiePie, Matthew Santoro and Markiplier all made videos last year talking about the state of YouTube and how things were changing, content-wise. Meanwhile, they were contributing to that content by sharing examples of it to their millions of followers.

It exposed viewers to a ton of drama that they’d otherwise not have been aware of. So, considering they all made similar videos, where they all spoke from the heart (Markiplier and Santoro, especially) to the camera, it just all seemed as fake and forced and really desperate as a lot of the fake drama itself.

5. Rice Gum vs. The Brothers Paul

Now, the brothers Jake and Logan Paul are extremely good at drawing attention to themselves — even if that attention is overwhelmingly negative. The brothers Paul got into some drama with RiceGum, the diss track “master” of YouTube. They all created diss tracks against one another.

The common key between the three was Alissa Violet, Jake Paul’s angry ex-girlfriend. She featured in anti-Jake Paul songs with both Logan and RiceGum. Though, she claimed Jake was mentally and physically abusive, her video alongside Logan was a staged. 

Violet went from starring in multiple videos with Logan Paul to moving in with RiceGum’s crew. She took part in many videos Gum released in response to Jake Paul’s “It’s Everyday Bro.” How could Violet be friends with Logan and then move in with his sworn enemy?

Jake Paul once rapped that people shouldn’t get mad when RiceGum disses them because while he would “destroy you” it’s really just “all for fun.” RiceGum’s track “It’s Everynight Sis” is entertaining and well done, but it’s really just an example of how drama drives YouTube.

4. McJuggernuts vs. His Dad

The entire crux of McJuggerNuggets’ YouTube existence hinges on the fact that he lied to children for YEARS about his life at home with his supposed “abusive” and “psycho” father. There’s a difference between temporary drama like the Jake and Logan Paul debacle and systematically lying to people for about your life and the people in it.

Because the first viral video McJuggerNuggets posted was of his dad throwing his Xbox 360 in their pool, he had to stick with that narrative and up the ante each time. He made multiple videos and live streams to fight back back against accusations that things were fake.

While he is a very good actor, the fact that there was always a camera around to catch his dad doing crazy stuff raised suspicions. He eventually had to admit that he was faking it the entire time. He tried to justify it by saying that he was doing a “series,” like a TV show. 

After that, he started losing a ton of subscribers because his life was actually normal and boring. He started making up drama again, this time with other YouTubers. Claiming again that things were real, he’s sort of lost his ability to surprise his audience.

3. Joey Salads vs. Society 

YouTuber Joey Salads is a right-wing vlogger, who goes out into the “public” to show the differences between liberals and conservatives, Trump voters and Hillary voters, Black Lives Matter supporters vs. random Hicks, etc. His videos always show that one side is uninformed and perhaps even violent.

The best example was the Black Lives Matter video, where he went into a black neighborhood with an “All Lives Matter” sign. He was run out of town by two black men, who were shirtless for some reason.

He then went to a grocery store in a white neighborhood and held a “Black Lives Matter” sign. While he got some blowback, it was mostly calm and non-eventful. That video validated the belief system of a lot of people even though it was completely, obviously fake.

The amazing Ethan from H3H3 Productions decided to go after Salads on his show, multiple times, and even interviewed him on his program. During that interview, Salads admitted that the Black Lives Matter video was staged, much to Ethan’s delight and validation. However, the damage had already been done.

I’s that sort of fake “on the street” drama that is the most damaging kind on this list because it perpetuates negative stereotypes and racial division. Salads shouldn’t have an audience at this point but he received little to no blowback from his subscribers. It just goes to show how impactful fake news can be.

There’s a gigantic difference between free speech and staging fake drama while presenting it as reality. That’s propaganda and that’s really not what YouTube is supposed to be about.

2. KSI vs. The Sidemen

KSI is a major YouTuber from the UK. Like many YouTubers, he has a group of friends in the background — or side — of many of their videos. As most YouTubers also post vlogs — video diaries of their day-to-day lives — on top of their other videos, a lot of their friends end up getting popular by proxy and building their own channels.

Because YouTubers are responsible for a ton of content and mostly rely on what’s trending for ideas, KSI and his group of friends had absolutely no problem with other people. Right up until Jake and Logan Paul (and RiceGum, to a lesser extent) made absolute bank by dissing one another, via crappy rap songs.

Naturally, KSI had a “falling out” with his friends — now called the “Sidemen” — and they’re now dissing one another. Everyone is talking about the KSI vs. Sidemen “beef.” The Sidemen have grown their brand as a separate entity from KSI, even though they’re probably going to reconcile and buy new cars from all the clicks this completely staged “drama” brought them.

Again, at some point, people are going to realize that this isn’t real; it’s manipulation. Children comprise the vast majority of YouTube viewers take this stuff seriously, and end up picking sides and saying awful things to their opposition’s fans. It isn’t as harmless as it may seem.

1. Jake Paul vs. Logan Paul

Perhaps the most famous, and lucrative, example of YouTube drama comes from probably the most recent on this list: the rift between YouTube megastars Jake Paul and his older brother, Logan Paul. This “drama” began when Jake put a billboard of his brother up on a busy street in Los Angeles.

It showed Logan wearing Jake’s merchandise. Logan lost his famous sense of humor and became enraged. The brothers traded diss tracks — one of which was actually pretty funny and well made. Some of the beef seemed real, especially when Logan appeared to kiss Jake’s ex-girlfriend, Alissa Violet in a music video.

I’m sure she wouldn’t work with Jake Paul again, but she probably enjoyed the exposure and the 60 million views. The drama made so neither will have to get a “real job” for the rest of their lives. YouTube drama is a constant thing that we’ll have to deal with. If it works in the rap music industry, it’ll work for YouTube — which may explain why most of the drama turns into rap songs. So, strap in, there’s plenty more “drama” where it came from.

Next Next: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Jake Paul