The thin line between shocking humour and offensive jokes

The top shot whose real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and has 43 million subscribers on his YouTube channel got dumped by YouTube Red and his partner Maker Studios which is owned by Disney, for showing anti-semitic images in some of his videos.

PewDiePie (who is from Sweden) is facing a huge backlash online for this inappropriate shock humour. The spotlight is on him right now and on a larger scale, the criticisms he has garnered proves that digital influencers are getting a level of scrutiny reserved for celebrities and singers previously.

YouTubers and other digital influencers are mainstream these days. With so much revenue pumped into this aspect of the entertainment business, influencers will have to think twice before creating shocking content.

There is a thin line between shocking humour and offensive jokes. Shocking humour stretches decency and makes light hearted fun at serious issues and tragic events. It is also known as dark humour.

There is a line to this. It is universally believed that certain topics are out of bounds such as rape, antisemitism and the Holocaust. Slavery, especially within the African and American context, is out of bounds although that is determined by who is making the joke. For a white comedian, slavery and the controversial N-word are out of bounds. African-Americans can make jokes about it all day.

These off-topic subjects are deemed so, because they remind us of the worst times in humanity. They were absolutely evil and no fun can be milked out of them.

Sadly, some people still think it is cool to cross this line just to appear edgy. Most times, they feel the backlash which burns their pockets also.

In Nigeria, the backlash is there even though it is not financially damaging. In January 2014, Basketmouth he shared on his Facebook page.

An upcoming comedian Baba De Baba had to apologise for his insensitive rape skit in January 2017 after the huge backlash.

As popular YouTuber Casey Neistat said about the PewDiePie in his latest vlog, people who own a platform have a responsibility to watch what they say because they influence the thoughts of others. With great power comes great responsibility.

With responsibility aside, we should not dismiss the power of context. Fellow YouTuber Ethan Klien who has worked with Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and considers him a friend defended him in his latest vlog. He said the Wall Street Journal who wrote the damning article about PewDiePie said his jokes were taken out of context.

Ethan Klien does have a point. There are some news organisations who twist shock humour and project it as offensive. However, like earlier stated, some topics are untouchable and PewDiePie touched one of them.