Perth-based YouTuber Pogo, known mostly for his Disney remixes, recently experienced huge backlash for an old video that saw him celebrating the terrorist attack on queer nightclub Pulse in Orlando back in 2016, that left 49 people dead.
The video in question saw him say things like “I don’t want to really get into this, but when there was the Orlando shooting and the guy was shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ or something, I was like…” and then proceeded to fist pump.
While the video has been taken down from his main YouTube channel, Pogo – real name Nick Bertke – uploaded a video to his secondary channel apologising and attempting to explain what he said, as well as a written apology.
“It’s been very naive behaviour on my part,” he said in the new video. “If I’m going to tuck my tail between my legs and admit anything, it’s that these posts, these ideas, these things I’ve made for the sake of being edgy, have not contributed to any productive conversation.”
He also addressed the accusations of sexism and homophobia, saying that he attracts a lot of people of the opposite sex and a lot of people in his life are gay. *insert eye roll here.*
“I attract a lot of people of the opposite sex — a great many people I talk to everyday on Facebook Messenger are women. Many of my supporters and friends are gay,” he said.
In the written apology, which you can read in full here, Bertke says it was all in an attempt to be edgy. *insert bigger eye roll here*
“I’m deeply sorry to the people who have been hurt by the 2016 video that has surfaced,” he said. “I thought I was being edgy and satirical when in hindsight I was just being a total idiot.”
“My behaviour was terrible and it has offended a lot of wonderful people. The web deals with enough hatred and for me to have trivialised that from my position was childish and irresponsible. I’m so sorry to my friends, fans and everyone in the LGBT community.”
Watch his full apology video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br3kba-S4fk
