YouTube has pulled the plug on “Scare PewDiePie” after it was revealed the famous YouTuber had posted several anti-Semitic jokes, TheWrap has learned.
“We’ve decided to cancel the release of ‘Scare PewDiePie’ Season 2 and we’re removing the PewDiePie channel from Google Preferred,” a YouTube spokesperson told TheWrap. The series was one of the first launched on YouTube Red, the premium, ad-free service that costs $10 per month.
On Monday, Disney-owned Maker Studios cut ties with PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, after videos of his featuring anti-Semitic jokes were uncovered by the Wall Street Journal.
According to the report, Kjellberg posted a video on Jan. 11 featuring footage of two men laughing as they hold up a banner reading “Death to all Jews.” In addition, the paper found nine other instances of anti-semitic jokes on his channel.
Kjellberg has since defended the video as a joke that went too far after advertising on the video was pulled by YouTube’s parent company, Google.
“Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate,” Maker said in a statement provided to TheWrap.
Three of Kjellberg’s videos have since been removed, including the one posted on Jan. 11 and another posted on Jan. 22 that showed a man dressed up as Jesus Christ saying, “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Kjellberg’s channel currently has more than 53 million subscribers. Last December, he topped Forbes’ list of the highest-paid YouTubers of 2016, having made more than $15 million.