Nearly a month after YouTuber Logan Paul first stirred up controversy for showing someone’s dead body in one of his vlogs, his brother has addressed the scandal on his own enormous YouTube channel.
Jake Paul, 21, assured his 13 million subscribers that his brother will “bounce back” from the scandal in a clip uploaded Monday with the title “YouTube, Let’s Talk About Brother Logan Paul.” Logan is in the midst of an unofficial hiatus from social media after backlash from a video he posted in Japan’s “suicide forest” prompted YouTube to cut its business deals with the vlogger earlier this month. Short-term, the backlash has been bad news for Paul’s partnerships and advertisers, but the scandal also raked in over a million new followers for his channel, which means his young audience is bigger (and more agitated) than ever.
Jake seems to understand the tenuous situation his brother’s career is in and says he’s sensitive to the public’s concerns.
“I wanted to let the situation have some time to breathe,” Jake explained in the new video. “It didn’t feel right to comment on it right away. But as his brother and as someone who knows Logan the best, I do feel it’s necessary to say something about it.”
In the 13-minute clip, Jake agrees that his brother deserves the criticism he’s received and emphasizes that suicide isn’t a laughing matter.
“I think what Logan did was very, very, very, very wrong, and he made a huge mistake,” he said. “And not only is he paying for it, but he is learning from it. I think that in no way, shape, or form is suicide a joke or should be made fun of.”
Jake also defends his brother’s character, saying that it would never be Logan’s intention to offend his fans.
“He didn’t handle the situation the right way, but I know in the back of his head he did not mean to offend or hurt anybody, or create such a big frustration,” Jake said. “And he is honestly, truly, truly sorry.”
Jake ended the clip by insisting his brother has learned from his mistakes and will be able to “bounce back” with the support of his enormous fanbase—and it seems like a comeback is definitely in the works. Just last week, TMZ caught up with Logan in an airport where he confessed he thinks he deserves a “second chance, bro.”
With PR experts suggesting that Logan “stay dark” for at least another few months, the chances of him reviving his career this week seem slim. But whenever Logan Paul does decide to start posting again, his camp seems to understand that there’s a mountain of damage control they’ll need to attempt first.