Logan Paul

2013internet personalityclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Logan Paul is an American vlogger who built a massive Vine following in 2013 as an Ohio University freshman before jumping to YouTube full time. His December 2017 vlog from Japan's Aokigahara forest, which included footage of a suicide victim, turned his name into internet shorthand for creator overreach and reshaped how YouTube handled star misbehavior.

scandal memesstreamer memesyoutube culture memesvine memesinfluencer mockery memes

Overview

The Logan Paul name works less as a single meme template and more as a running joke about a specific archetype: the loud, camera-mugging YouTuber whose ambition consistently outruns his judgment4. Once the Aokigahara video hit in late 2017, 'pulling a Logan Paul' entered casual internet speech to describe filming something deeply inappropriate for views, a usage still logged on Urban Dictionary as a verb, adjective, and noun9.

His name is invoked in reaction posts, joke comparisons, and takedown pieces whenever a creator produces something similarly tone deaf. That reputation built on top of years of preexisting jokes about Paul's Vine era, where clips of him street-pranking pedestrians in New York and dodging cars in the widely suspected staged 'Kitty Cat Car Jump' video seeded a broader mockery of his brand of hyperactive stunts3. The Aokigahara backlash simply hardened those jokes into a permanent shorthand for the worst instincts of vlog culture5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Vine (viral spread) / YouTube
Creator
Logan Paul
Date
2013

Paul launched his Vine feed in 2013 while attending Ohio University as an 18-year-old freshman1. On November 13, 2013, he posted a compilation of his best Vines to YouTube, and it cleared 4 million views within his first week on the platform, per NBC's Today1. Five days later, on November 18, Today invited him into Studio 1A to take over the show's Vine account for the morning, an early sign that legacy media saw him as the face of the app1. That original YouTube compilation is still live on his channel11.

He kept the pace up through 2014 and 2015. A second compilation dropped on February 18, 2014, and by mid-2015 he had cleared 8.4 million Vine subscribers alongside sizable Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook footprints3. The Vine grind also earned him small acting spots, including a guest villain role in the Law & Order: SVU episode 'Intimidation Game,' which aired February 11, 2015 and drew heavy mockery for its treatment of GamerGate3.

How It Spread

When Vine wound down, Paul rebuilt on YouTube with a daily vlog and a fan army he called the Logang. The move worked commercially. BuzzFeed News tracked his early jump off Vine and flagged his stated goal of becoming a global entertainer4. By late 2017, the daily vlog was pulling in a reported income of more than a million dollars a month from AdSense alone2.

Everything shifted on December 31, 2017, when Paul uploaded a 15-minute vlog titled 'We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest…' from a trip to Aokigahara on the slopes of Mount Fuji5. The video showed the body of a person who had hanged themselves, with the face blurred. Paul mugged at the camera, cracked jokes on the walk in, and only pivoted to a suicide awareness message after the discovery. Backlash was immediate and international5. Paul went dark for three weeks and came back with a suicide prevention short and a pledge to donate a million dollars to the cause6.

The reprieve did not last. YouTube announced on February 9, 2018 that it was temporarily suspending ads on Paul's channels, citing his 'recent pattern of behavior,' which included pushing fans toward the Tide Pod challenge and tasering a dead rat on camera2. The Verge described the move as the harshest penalty YouTube had handed him up to that point2. Metro flagged the Tide Pod segment as a fresh escalation of concern from creators and parents7. Ads returned about two weeks later on a 90-day probation that kept him off the Trending tab and out of Google Preferred8. In October 2018, YouTube reversed course again and let his previously shelved film The Thinning: New World Order launch on YouTube Premium10.

How to Use This Meme

The Logan Paul comparison typically shows up when someone wants to accuse a creator of chasing views over decency. Common convention is the verb form: 'pulling a Logan Paul' means filming something you shouldn't for content, a usage Urban Dictionary defines as filming yourself laughing at a dead person for views9. It often gets used as a straight insult noun as well, and comment sections still deploy it whenever a vlogger crosses a line.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (11)

  1. 1
    https://www.today.com/popculture/vine-superstar-logan-paul-takes-over-today-account-2D11603772
  2. 2
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/9/16994364/logan-paul-youtube-suspends-advertising
  3. 3
    https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/logan-paul
  4. 4
    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/6-seconds-isnt-enough-for-vine-star-logan-paul
  5. 5
    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/01/logan-paul-suicide-forest-video-youtube.html
  6. 6
    https://mashable.com/2018/01/31/logan-paul-cardi-b-instagram-comment-roast/
  7. 7
    https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/07/logan-paul-encourages-dangerous-tide-pod-challenge-suicide-forest-video-7293053/
  8. 8
    https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/26/17055276/logan-paul-suspension-trending-ads-youtube
  9. 9
    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Logan%20Paul
  10. 10
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17988706/logan-paul-movie-youtube-premium-thinning-new-world-order-suicide-forest-controversy
  11. 11
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8xeFBQ7UyE

Logan Paul

2013internet personalityclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Logan Paul is an American vlogger who built a massive Vine following in 2013 as an Ohio University freshman before jumping to YouTube full time. His December 2017 vlog from Japan's Aokigahara forest, which included footage of a suicide victim, turned his name into internet shorthand for creator overreach and reshaped how YouTube handled star misbehavior.

scandal memes streamer memes youtube culture memes vine memes influencer mockery memes

Overview

The Logan Paul name works less as a single meme template and more as a running joke about a specific archetype: the loud, camera-mugging YouTuber whose ambition consistently outruns his judgment4. Once the Aokigahara video hit in late 2017, 'pulling a Logan Paul' entered casual internet speech to describe filming something deeply inappropriate for views, a usage still logged on Urban Dictionary as a verb, adjective, and noun9.

His name is invoked in reaction posts, joke comparisons, and takedown pieces whenever a creator produces something similarly tone deaf. That reputation built on top of years of preexisting jokes about Paul's Vine era, where clips of him street-pranking pedestrians in New York and dodging cars in the widely suspected staged 'Kitty Cat Car Jump' video seeded a broader mockery of his brand of hyperactive stunts3. The Aokigahara backlash simply hardened those jokes into a permanent shorthand for the worst instincts of vlog culture5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Vine (viral spread) / YouTube
Creator
Logan Paul
Date
2013

Paul launched his Vine feed in 2013 while attending Ohio University as an 18-year-old freshman1. On November 13, 2013, he posted a compilation of his best Vines to YouTube, and it cleared 4 million views within his first week on the platform, per NBC's Today1. Five days later, on November 18, Today invited him into Studio 1A to take over the show's Vine account for the morning, an early sign that legacy media saw him as the face of the app1. That original YouTube compilation is still live on his channel11.

He kept the pace up through 2014 and 2015. A second compilation dropped on February 18, 2014, and by mid-2015 he had cleared 8.4 million Vine subscribers alongside sizable Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook footprints3. The Vine grind also earned him small acting spots, including a guest villain role in the Law & Order: SVU episode 'Intimidation Game,' which aired February 11, 2015 and drew heavy mockery for its treatment of GamerGate3.

How It Spread

When Vine wound down, Paul rebuilt on YouTube with a daily vlog and a fan army he called the Logang. The move worked commercially. BuzzFeed News tracked his early jump off Vine and flagged his stated goal of becoming a global entertainer4. By late 2017, the daily vlog was pulling in a reported income of more than a million dollars a month from AdSense alone2.

Everything shifted on December 31, 2017, when Paul uploaded a 15-minute vlog titled 'We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest…' from a trip to Aokigahara on the slopes of Mount Fuji5. The video showed the body of a person who had hanged themselves, with the face blurred. Paul mugged at the camera, cracked jokes on the walk in, and only pivoted to a suicide awareness message after the discovery. Backlash was immediate and international5. Paul went dark for three weeks and came back with a suicide prevention short and a pledge to donate a million dollars to the cause6.

The reprieve did not last. YouTube announced on February 9, 2018 that it was temporarily suspending ads on Paul's channels, citing his 'recent pattern of behavior,' which included pushing fans toward the Tide Pod challenge and tasering a dead rat on camera2. The Verge described the move as the harshest penalty YouTube had handed him up to that point2. Metro flagged the Tide Pod segment as a fresh escalation of concern from creators and parents7. Ads returned about two weeks later on a 90-day probation that kept him off the Trending tab and out of Google Preferred8. In October 2018, YouTube reversed course again and let his previously shelved film The Thinning: New World Order launch on YouTube Premium10.

How to Use This Meme

The Logan Paul comparison typically shows up when someone wants to accuse a creator of chasing views over decency. Common convention is the verb form: 'pulling a Logan Paul' means filming something you shouldn't for content, a usage Urban Dictionary defines as filming yourself laughing at a dead person for views9. It often gets used as a straight insult noun as well, and comment sections still deploy it whenever a vlogger crosses a line.

Frequently Asked Questions