Three to four years ago Sam Pepper was one of the most controversial characters on YouTube. He became hated by a lot of people because of his inappropriate behaviour on three separate occasions. Soon Sam quickly became irrelevant with many now asking what happened to him. Since it’s been a while, I figure it’s worth giving some background on who the guy is and why he became popular.
Sam’s first taste of fame came when he was a contestant on the British version of the reality show Big Brother. There he became accustomed to the spotlight and started making YouTube videos when he left the show. Sam moved on to the expanding genre of prank and social experiment related videos where he found great success, amassing one million subscribers by 2014. One of his signature moves to attract views was making sexually suggestive videos such as walking up attractive woman and trying to kiss them. Most of the videos were fake and looking back it’s kind of crazy that videos like these were often monetized.
In September of 2014 there was finally a backlash when a video was uploaded of Sam essentially sexually assaulting a woman on camera then he pretends it wasn’t him. This, of course didn’t go over well with other famous YouTubers and they started calling out his behaviour as unacceptable. Not surprisingly his channel started to lose subscribers and soon after Youtube removed some of his videos. This huge prank controversy went on to trigger some accusations about Sam Pepper being a sexual harasser in a real life. Even though these claims were never proven it’s still dealt a blow to his channel that was already fighting to stay alive.
Eventually things settled down. Sam went back to making prank videos but his monthly views continued to decline. To become relevant again he needed to do something big. When he came up with was the killing best friend prank. While many thought his previous pranks crossed the line none of them can compare to this video, where him and his buddy kidnap their friend and then pretend to shoot someone while he has a complete breakdown. The video went viral making Sam relevant once again as people scolded him. Many were mad enough to sign a petition that would have the notorious prankster kicked off YouTube entirely with it getting over 200,000 signatures.
Things died down with the drama surrounding Sam Pepper until February of 2016 when he blacked out all of his social media accounts and removed of every prank video. After this he published a video simply titled “I’m sorry” along with having a tell-all interview, admitting that the sexual assault and killing best friend prank videos were all staged. Looking back now I kind of understand where he was coming by needing to fake pranks. In 2011 it was fine to just leave a whoopee cushion on a couch and people would watch it but by 2015 and 2016, other pranksters were faking theirs to get views.
Sam stopped doing prank videos but surprisingly he was actually able to come up with some new unique video ideas that will continue to get him millions of views. A lot of these included 24-hour challenges, mailing himself in a box and exploring abandoned buildings. This content was very trendy at the time and more importantly it was advertiser friendly. He deleted his channel for a second time as YouTube demonetized his channel and they wouldn’t provide him with a reason. This was strange considering that all the pranks were gone and the content he was making at the time was pretty uncontroversial. Sam stated in a video that the YouTube money was not needed for him to be financially secure and that from now on he would be doing live streams about his life.
Looking back now, I kinda see Sam Pepper in a different light. Although the sexual assault allegations were never proven true and all his of pranks were fake, he didn’t really hurt anybody. Nowadays he can live stream videos in peace with 100,000 people still watching him. He’s not nearly as big as he once was but it’s still a lot more than other dead channels.
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