[Keemstar]
So, this girl carves “Keemstar” in both of 
her thighs, and just spamming it at me.
Obviously, she wants attention, right? So, 
I screencap it, don’t tag her in it, tweet it out,
saying, “She needs Jesus.” And I have idiots
tweeting at me, saying “Why are you giving her attention?” 
I’m not! She’s not tagged,
you don’t even know who it is!
You have no idea who it is! I have robbed her 
of the attention, you are just
as stupid as she is!
You’re all dumb! You’re all dumb people. 
I got the juice,
she doesn’t!
[Peter Day]
Saying that drama is a modern concept 
engineered by feuding YouTube celebrities,
or a community rallying against a common cause, is to look at
drama with a very narrow mind.
YouTube is only the most recent evolution
of drama as an entity. But in
that time it’s probably become the biggest hot-button topic.
Uh, so, drama seems to be everywhere on YouTube lately. *laughs*
It-It affects you in different ways. 
One way is how it might personally affect you, like,
um, one personal story for me was when, 
uh, there was a bit of  a disagreement between me
and a larger YouTuber, and he told me to 
kill myself. And, uh, I didn’t take that personally,
but he had an audience of almost a
million people who then also told me to
kill myself.
Um, so that’s one way drama can affect you, 
because everyone on YouTube has such a
huge audience, that what becomes an issue— 
what’s an issue between two people
doesn’t stay an issue between two people.
Drama as a whole, I think, I think drama
is a thing that humans do.
I think discussing problems that people
have with each other, and discussing issues
is a human thing, ‘cause you’re— 
let’s face it, we gossip about people. You know,
we talk behind people’s backs, 
we talk at people’s backs, and we’ll talk
at people about how shit they are.
I think drama, in general, is just 
really unpleasant, and even though it really
draws crowds i don't i don't know i
think people get this enjoyment from
drama
that I don’t really, fully understand. 
I can’t relate to it. Like, I understand why
they enjoy it,
I understand where that comes from, but me, 
personally, I cannot relate to that
enjoyment of drama
I just don’t enjoy drama.
It definitely— It drives content, it’s entertaining.
No matter how petty or stupid it is, 
people are interested in it for some reason.
It’s like a virtual high school, 
especially on the Internet, which I love.
Um, because I was a goddamn monster in high school.
You know, it’s one thing for this YouTube 
drama to exist, just like how TMZ exists,
you know? But to make it a part of your life, 
to try to like, to try to play off of it,
and try to make it—
that’s just low. You should try to get popular 
off of the content that you create.
Whether it would be amazing animations, 
or funny commentary, or just being an angry
fat guy yelling at a camera.
[Peter Day]
Let me tell you a story about Stephen Clow. 
Gossip has been a part of society
as far back as stone tablets.
It’s evolved into what we know today
because of a common desire humans share—
We want to know information.
While drama in 2016 takes many forms,
nothing is more infamous than the gossip magazine.
The first known gossip magazine started 
in New York in 1916, and was called
Broadway Brevities and Society Gossip.
It initially covered topics such as that of high society.
But when it found out that gossip 
sells more copies, they changed tack.
Interestingly enough, Brevities was shut 
down in 1925, a mere nine years after
it started, because Stephen Clow, its owner, 
was sued successfully for defamation
and intent to blackmail.
Whilst Clow’s magazine had been taken down,
it had proved very successful, with plentiful 
copies being sold. The idea bug had caught on,
and before long, there were issue after issue 
of different tabloids also reporting on
salacious gossip.
Flashing forward to 2016, drama and gossip is as prevalent
as back in the 1920s, with some 
channels dedicated to replacing these
tabloids, and in turn changing the focus 
from public affairs to that of YouTube.
Several of YouTube’s creators have 
registered distain about this, saying it
hurts creativity, and, when done 
poorly, it’s extremely damaging.
One creator,
Rebecca, has been on the front 
line, facing these issues head-on,
not unlike the jury to Mr. Clow.
[Becky Boop]
So, my name is Becky Boop on YouTube.
I actually have two YouTube channels, 
so one is called “instagamrr”, which is
a gaming channel. I play a lot of 
variety games over there. And then, on my
Becky Boop channel, I tend to analyze a 
lot of Internet issues, especially issues that
are, legal and around copyright, and also around YouTube news.
I think a lot of things 
gets mis-categorized as drama.
Um, it seems like nowadays even 
when there’s a legitimate issue,
it’s drama. You know, and I think that, 
that is something that we need to keep
an eye out for, but as far as drama is 
most of us would think about it, it’s like,
maybe, more petty issues that get, 
you know, put on a pedestal for no—
for no good reason.
Um, I think it’s just a natural part of 
human life, honestly. It happens in real life
if you work an office job, you know 
what office politics are. If you’re in
high school or middle school, you know 
what school politics are, when everyone
has their cliques that they are a part of. 
And it carries into— into adulthood,
so that drama’s always gonna be there. 
But if you are a person who doesn’t like
drama, or who would prefer to see less of 
it, like I would personally prefer if there
wasn’t as much of it out there—
uh, the best thing you can do is not 
support it. So, when it comes to a platform like
YouTube, your clicks are how you vote. 
So, if you see a video that looks dramatic,
and that’s not what you want to 
support, just don’t watch that video.
[Keemstar]
Why are you guys so goddamn mean? I tweet 
out, “Thank you so much for 1.6 million
subs
Love you all!”
*mockingly dismissive tone* “Thanks for 
reminding me, I should really unsub—“
Good Guy Keem has
your back. Evil Keemstar is just, such a cunt, dude.
He’s so bad, like, I’m trying to just, 
stay away from him, alright?
Like, please give me the support, give me 
the retweets, give me the likes. Like,
help me get rid of this motherfucker.
My name is Keemstar, and I’m a 
victim of cyberbullying. Every day,
people say mean things.
I don't think people understand how much
it hurts.
Together, we can stop this cyberbullying, by simply tweeting out,
#StopBullyingKeemstar.
[Peter Day]
If YouTube is remembered for anything in 2016,
it’s that this year has become the year
of drama. With YouTube channels like
DramaAlert, fronted by Daniel Keem, 
drama has turn into a real, viable
source of income.
So much so, that the man can buy expensive cars.
Whilst the topic of Keemstar himself 
will be brought up in a later part
of this documentary series,
it’s worth talking about the people 
profiteering from drama, and to some people,
misery.
[Harlan Moncrief]
Like, dude, you have a daughter right there. 
You puttin’ some of that money
away for her college? I see you driving 
in your nice car, but me, if I was making
that kind of money, dude, I’ll be 
putting that away for my old age.
You’re not gonna live forever, 
and you— this is not gonna last forever.
You’re not going to be doing 
DramaAlert for 20 years, 30 years.
Nobody’s gonna care that long. One of 
these days, you’re just gonna end up like
Fred. Remember Fred?
[Doc Reviews]
The only thing that Keemstar is good 
at doing when he hosts that show is
making sure that both people get their points across.
Um, you know, if’s somebody’s going off, eh, 
on a fucking tangent for a while, he’ll be just
like, “Alright, let the other guy talk.” 
That’s something that he’s good at. But,
uh, yeah, I think it’s an awesome idea,
I think it could be done way better.
[Mush]
Hello, Peter’s channel,
I am a YouTuber that makes videos 
on the lines of music and/or gameplay.
If you like music, I might make stuff you like. 
If you like gameplay, I probably got
a video that you might appreciate. 
But all in all, I’m just a guy that sorts of
exists on the Internet, and makes 
videos sometimes. It Sometimes — They come out
okay, people have said that they come out okay!
Um. With drama, there’s often two sides, 
and depends on which side is loudest,
can discern which type of drama it is. 
If the side that tries to punish someone
else—
let’s say for example, LeafyIsHere, when you’re 
talking about that one chap on YouTube,
his side was the biggest, and therefore, 
it was bad drama. His big drama got this
guy down, his— his channel telling him 
to go kill himself and all that. That’s
bad, because there’s a huge number of 
people outnumbering the people who tried
to defend him.
However, the other way around, like, Boogie2988, 
for example, a well-known YouTuber for
being a large fellow.
Um. If someone would just call him “fat” on 
his YouTube video, then someone will say that he has
to go kill himself, and this guy, 
you know, Boogie has a large following
of people that love him for who he is 
and they will back him, and they will back him to
the ends of the earth. And that’s good, 
because the— the defensive side is
larger, the side for good
is larger.
And it all depends on perspective as 
well, because if you are the guy that
that called Boogie fat, and then you have 
a bunch of people coming down on you, telling you
that you're an idiot,
then that’s bad drama to you. 
So it’s all pers— So you know, it’s all down to where you
are, where you lie, and all that sort of jokes, 
but, uh, I do believe there’s two kinds
of drama. And the good drama, sort of 
comes out on top in the news as well,
because LeafyIsHere was talked about for 
what, about a week? But all the other sort
of drama about, you know, people joking around—
I mean, yes, you did have some other 
Nicole Arbour sort of stuff, but that’s mainly just
GradeA[UnderA] being two million subscribers.
But, yeah, good drama seems to stick
around longer, but less loudly, if you know what I mean.
[Peter Day]
On the topic of good and bad drama, 
bad drama always seems to affect the
innocent the most
innocent the most, none more so than TommyNC2010.
[TommyNC2010]
Oh folks… *exhales and sobs*
I’m having a difficult time right now…
because some people are threatening my 
life, threatening my family, and all I
wanted to do was inspire people. *sob*
Some Leafy guy… Keemstar, people are threatening me,
and all I wanted to do
was inspire…
that's all.
But… this is the last video that 
you’re gonna see from me, for a while. I just
can't take it anymore.
[Peter Day]
That wasn’t the first time that people 
had been attacked unjustly via YouTube
or the sake of pulling in more views, 
and this topic will be discussed more as
we go on, because it’s one of the 
worst side-effects of YouTube drama.
One man who has had his fair share 
in drama is Josiah Clark. A great voice in
The State of Play,
Josiah has had fantastic views on drama itself.
[Josiah Clark]
My name is Josiah Clark and I make a 
comedy review show called Blinkk.
I think that there are different kinds 
of drama. I think that there’s positive
drama in a way, and negative drama in 
another way. But, in general, drama itself
is just stupid, petty, and honestly, 
ultimately, pointless, um, most of the time.
But what a lot of people call drama,
like what I said, tends to be these, actually, 
major, important legal issues,
that they’re really not drama,
so to speak. They’re just problems. 
And people use drama as this catch-all word.
So, yeah, I think there are times, 
for example, with the React trademark fiasco,
that it is very important that these 
topics get out there, that they’re very
heavily discussed, and that, you know, 
we do everything we can to stop something
that’s wrong.
And I think, you know, there are other legal issues such as,
uh, when pedophilia in the Minecraft 
community started becoming a bis—
a big issue. Um. That’s— That’s an 
important issue that needs to be brought
to the front, and again, it’s a 
legal thing. This— These are big,
important criminal, legal—
uh, nothing about the React Bros. thing 
being criminal, but you know, these are
big, legal, massive community-affecting 
issues that really impact everybody. But
I think there is “good drama” 
when it’s serving a greater good,
when it’s serving a public good, when it 
could help, you know, save lives, or save
reputations, or save, you know, people.
Um— I think that’s very important and I— but
I wouldn’t label it as drama, yeah. *laughs* 
I mean, these are important
public issues that need to be brought up 
and called out, and so, I— I think the
“petty high school stuff” is ridiculous, 
but I think there is a place for
the community coming together 
against something that’s wrong,
um, and the people who have the ability 
to bring the community together in those
ways are the people with voices. 
And those are also the people who are
usually embroiled in whatever “drama”
is going on.
[Peter Day]
Love it or hate it, people have a weak 
spot for drama, because it fulfills
an inherent need to know more,
and as time goes by, no topic will 
be off-limits for discussion.
YouTube, being an accepted media platform, 
like television or film, has only just
seen the logical progression of drama
from the outdated media, to the newest,
with the rise of the Internet.
[Betty Boop]
Yeah, I think it’s just part of human nature. 
I really don’t think there’s a
way around it. In fact, in my opinion,
you know, I’ve done a lot of work with 
growing YouTube channels and also just
social media in general. 
One of the fastest ways to grow is controversy.
Uh, you know, you’ve got, you know, sex sells,
controversy sells, too. And look at Miley 
Cyrus for example, and how quickly she
became a household name once she became controversial.
So, I think that there will always 
be drama out there, because there’s really
no way to avoid it. It’s just part of human nature. 
We love to grab some popcorn and
watch a show.
[Josiah Clark]
Serious legal fiascoes, such as the Fine Bros. React trademark,
like, that’s not drama. That— That is a 
legal issue that was going to impact the
community, so I don’t know. I think people 
are like, “Oh, if people are upset, that’s
automatically drama.”
No, no, that’s silly, no. 
Drama, as it’s normally thought of, is like, this
interpersonal thing where, you know, 
“Kathy said that Johnny was stupid, and then
Johnny slapped Susie in the face, 
and then Susie went to the cops, and then
they all got taken to jail, because they 
weren’t supposed to be in the bar anyway,
because they were all 14.” Like, you know, 
that’s like interpersonal, stupid high
school-level drama. *laughs* And I feel like 
that’s how most drama on YouTube goes,
I feel like most of it is that 
kind of high school-level nonsense.
[Mush]
I don’t know, let’s choose the Fine Bros. 
They made this announcement, everyone gotten all drama-tizzy
about it. How did they react? They didn’t 
just not watch the video, they didn’t
just dislike it,
about, what, 100,000 people or more, 
actively unsubscribe and shun them. And those
chaps after doing that one, they 
better make like, a business decision
to get their people to take them seriously, 
because the backlash the drama gave
them. And if he would’ve said, 
“Oh look, these guys made a stupid idea,
okay, cool, let’s move on.” They were, 
“Oh no, these guys made a stupid idea, let’s
expose all their pasts!” Like, they’ve gone 
on their Facebook to expose all the other stuff
they made in the past. “Let’s go and just be 
outright pricks to them because they had
an idea.”
[Peter Day]
With the ever-growing mob mentality 
of YouTube viewers, and how
quickly they are to attack, people have to watch 
what they do with laser focus.
Because if they don’t, it’s game over.
Thanks to @iconredesign on Twitter for Transcribing this episode.
