By now, we have all seen the apology videos that have consumed YouTube over the past decade. From celebrities such as Trisha Paytas crying on her kitchen floor, to Shane Dawson’s “taking accountability” video after being accused of heinous crimes, many people are left wondering… do these actually work?
Making apology videos has become an important part of pop-culture. When low-ranked influencers make a mistake, you can usually find them crying on the internet, hoping to gain the forgiveness of their once loyal fans. However, can these celebrities come back from these scandals through crocodile tears and promises of doing better? Personally, I think yes.
The internet is something that is extremely fast paced. New memes, entertainment, pictures and stories are posted every single day, with new scandals emerging almost every week. For these influencers, it is not hard to find yourself in a scandal. A lot of times, wording and attitudes can cause rifts in these celebrities’ lives, with many people finding them “rude” and “obnoxious”. These apology videos have been becoming more normalized over the last 3 years, and have become almost a safety-net for these people. However, there are some apology videos that have remained more and more infamous in recent years.
One that is currently a very funny and crazy part of pop-culture was Colleen Ballingers’ song video. After being accused of grooming, the YouTuber-turned-actress wrote a 10 minute apology song. This quickly became a meme within Gen-Z, with memorable lines trending on Tiktok. Some of these lines included, “the toxic gossip train” and “not a groomer… just a loser”. These sayings became a huge joke, and Colleen’s hopes of being taken seriously were pushed further and further into the ground with every passing day.
After months of being viewed as a joke, Colleen tried to make her grand re-entrance back to the YouTube scene, and was practically laughed off. People considered her to be a clown after her video was released, and her social media presence has not been the same.
However, other celebrities have been able to monetize and become more popular off these videos. An example of this is the all-time fan favorite apology video by Trisha Paytas. This woman has made her career off being problematic and controversial. From making fun of many cultures to mocking many different communities, she has found herself in the middle of hundreds of controversies in her day. However, now she is one of the more successful vloggers, with her career flourishing into acting, and her now having a family of her own.
So… how is Trisha’s video different from Colleen’s? How does one find herself facing the ultimate penalty, while the other finds herself still being a fan favorite? I think that a lot has to do with how they play off their apologies. Instead of disappearing like Colleen, Trisha chose to embrace her problems and make herself into a joke. When the memes started appearing, Trisha was laughing rather than crying. This made her seem forgivable in the public eye, and caused her to be able to recover.
As the 2024 year starts, we can expect to see more videos and more scandals. Content creators are bound to slip up at some point, causing more issues in the online world. Gen-Z can also continue to make fun of these celebrities when these mess-ups occur, and should expect a new surplus of memes for the foreseeable future.
