Your editing and story-telling is fantastic, you kept me fully engaged for almost an hour.  Great video.

It’s an hour long!? I only realised this 40 minutes in when I read your comment

Oh shit it’s you! Wow, big youtubers also watch YouTube videos. It’s like they’re regular people just the rest of us!

is it typically very hard to keep you engaged for almost an hour? I would think you clicked this video because you were already interested in the content, so kinda easy to get you attention. But emplemon does a tight story with new takeaways in an interesting manner.

Well look who it is, danny gonzalez him self.

facts I completely agree emplemon is starting to become one of my favorite youtubers no cap

This is ripped strait off of a john bois video.

Drew Gooden on a leafyishere video? Uh yeah I sure hope it does

I'm not exaggerating when I say this but I swear I thought this video was 15 minutes.

and I didn't even realize its almost an hour

his way that he structures his points is similar to what of a modern news source like vox what makes it so interesting what makes this a great channel definitely subbing :]

JimmySwagification hey drew love you man! Im glad to see your channel is still growing

Drew Gooden holy shit this video is an hour long!

Seeing leafy channel when i used to watch every video the second it came out ode made me happy hes still amazing he just doesent like youtube anymore

isy I never thought about it that way. If we are the little stinkers then drew must be the big stinker.

Drew Gooden I agree. I’ve been watching this whole video and have gone on other apps to text people a few times but I wanted to come back and watch more of the video.

⸻꧄꧄꧄𒐫꧄꧄𒐫꧄𒐫꧄𒐫𒐫𒐫⸻⸻꧄⸻꧄⸻꧄⸻꧄⸻𒐫𒐫𒐫꧄⸻𒐫𒐫꧄⸻꧄⸻꧄

Didn’t even notice that it was almost an hour long

Drew Gooden who are you talking to? You're the only channel, remember?

I like how the songs and even sometimes the lyrics narrate the progress of the story

This is is a surprise, but a welcome one

You know those replies to a comment between two youtubers with related content that make you think 'Oh my God, are you really that surprised they're not there? Well, apples to oranges or something.

I didint even notice i was watching for a whole hour wow felt like 15 mins

Shit I actually didn't realize this was a 51 minute video...

The first and only YouTuber commenting here? wow

Wasn't expecting to see you here Big Stinker

Hey KEVIN... oh no wait... Greg? Stinker? Im confused


Poor Leafy, he could have used some advice my pappy used to tell me-

Chin up.

@A fricking upside down mountain Idgaf  that happen 2 decades ago. Time has pass.

@Lucid isn't Sleeping not very funny to those who died

Your comment likes is 9/11. Funny number

@Hee Hoo “And this is where I’d put my chin… IF I HAD ONE!”


2015-2017 was an entertaining but oddly toxic time for YouTube. It was like the entire internet collectively went through it’s edgy, mean, insecure teen phase. Even as someone who was as once subscribed to him for a bit, I’ll always look back on Leafy as an immature nobody with an equally immature fan base that gave him an overinflated ego that he couldn’t keep in check. The kind of content creator who probably never should’ve become popular in the first place.
It’s kind of ironic how he took the massive gamble to overhaul his content which resulted in his spike in popularity, but he didn’t take the same risk in his brief return and chose to hide his newer videos under the guise of clickbait drama that made everyone turn on him in the first place.

And while the Content Cop video may not have been the killer of Leafy’s channel, it certainly exposed one fatal flaw with his character: Don’t talk shit if you can’t take a hit.

I was with Leafy since kids that ddos. Leafy is still alive and is a God.

@Parzival That’s definitely true (not to suggest he wouldn’t have declined), and I’d take it the decline would have been more gradual if YouTube didn’t hide the visibility of his channel, correct?

@Fries Yes. Doing the same thing over and over will kill your channel.

Out of curiosity, if YouTube didn’t do anything here, could Leafy have declined more gradually?

He gained great success. He was far from a nobody and is a multi-millionaire today, my guy. And immature, yes but on the internet. That was his persona online. You just let it get to far up into your head. Haha!

@Metrowned In those years I used YouTube to watch archived media a lot so I had no idea of what it was like at that time (for original content anyway).

It’s an interesting website with an interesting history to it.

I would argue that phase started in 2014. 2005-2013 seemed like the Golden Age of YouTube and when you compare the content that came after it, there was a lot more edginess as said. I never paid attention to Leafy during his popularity but did notice the effects he had on the platform.

Seems like an immature kid who got popular by being different and couldn’t handle it.

Good narrator from what I can tell though.

Coming from someone who had no idea who he was until earlier this year


Keemstar is kinda a bad dude. He actively creates hate drama to report on. He thrives on hate, so why wouldn't he actively try to support/create it? Same reason I don't trust mass media sources. They do that too.

@LNMBEATS he's a bad person for reasons unrelated to his drama alert series.

All youtube "personalities" aren't worth your time. They all end up like H3H3.

@LNMBEATS because many people are conditioned by our news casters thst equate drama to news. They aren't the same thing, and even politics in theory can be talked about without screaming and insults (I know it's definitely impossible online, people refuse to see each others points and simply take the words and use them for a comeback without actually thinking of anything beyond words on a screen). Sadly it's just how things are right now. Maybe one day people will have a lightbulb moment and think before screaming about drama.

he isnt a bad dude hes a business man lol his channel is called DRAMA why are people so dumb thinking hes a news channel?

@Omnihilo ` lol sorry it kinda sounded like he actually believed it was news.

@Conrad Reed They mean it's not news that he's a terrible person. Lmao, jesus. Get a grip.


to out myself, I was an absolute leafy stan back in the "golden days" of his channel. I was a full out edgy teen actively hating on everyone leafy made a video about. Around the time where the mysterious decline of views occurred, i stopped watching him aswell. For me the content just grew stale over time. The videos were always the same and got boring. I also started reflecting and looking back at the videos from him I once thought were "the greatest and realest videos on youtube" and was almost disgusted by myself. Realizing hes always just picking on people smaller than himself, who cant defend themself. Realizing that its just always the same insults he uses about small things or funny appearances the "victims" most of the time have no real control over. The content cop coming after this realization was just the final nail in the coffin for me, pointing out many more things wrong with these kind of videos. Maybe there was a secret youtube shadowban too, but I can imagine that a lot of leafy fans felt like I did around that time, getting bored of the repetitive edgy content, aswell as "growing up" and realizing that edgy ≠ funny

Honestly, someone like him was never going to survive on YouTube forever. When all you do is punch down, eventually someone is gonna punch down on you.

finally a mature response. this is the reason i find so many of emp's older videos so cringey.

i liked him too but i never attacked anyone for it, i just thought he was funny
also after the mysterious algorithm change I did watch him much less but i occasionally came back
also i rewatched some of the old storytime videos recently and i actually liked them a lot

im in the same boat, i started watching him when he had like 80k subs and he was great, the story times were hillarious and the whole "this dude is so real" was very appealing. The whole making fun of ppl was pretty hillarious for a while too until, as you said, it just got stale... I realized he was often punching down and its not really entertaining watching a grown ass probably millionare at this point making fun of like 13 year olds every single day. i miss when he was a small youtuber who just made funny edgy vids and story time, actually i dont think i would enjoy that today but who knows. I was a HSSSS BOI and this is my story lol

I stopped watching him when he started only dropping reaction videos hating on peeps but I remember him from his story time videos. Recently found a channel that reposts old leafy videos and I gotta say, the old story time videos where surprisingly really entertaining and pure. It's sad to go through and see how he gradually gave in to his edgy tendencies though


This is amazing. One of the best movies I've watched on YouTube. I was never really a fan of Leafy's repetitive content, but I did think he was a funny guy. And I did love what he did to YouTube in 2016. It was awesome to see the top YouTubers interacting like they did in the early days of Smosh, Lisa Nova and Daxflame. The 2010-2015 era of YouTube didn't really have YouTube celebrities in this sense. Leafy brought that back and made YouTube what it is today.

Wow. I've never completely agreed with someone before on the subject of Leafy. You're a smart man, my good sir.

Yooo, didnt expect to see you here. Dig your videos man


Know what the biggest crime of this is?

Leafy, despite having a Tetra for his pfp, never did a video involving Wind Waker.  The shitstorm of that during Nintendo's content creator program would have been beyond comprehension


Found your channel while stuck in an airport all night due to a canceled flight, gotta say you're really helping me through this shit XD Great vids man.


If I’m gonna be honest, I was never interested in the whole situation around him, and since it started blowing up, I just let all of the chaos fly away from my radar, but even then, I still watched this entire video and enjoyed every minute of it because of how well made this was
The editing is amazing, the storytelling was great and it was organized perfectly
I watched this channel for a long while but this finally got me to subscribe, great work


I used to work at one of those third parties being hired to monitor content, relevance and what not by the algorithms used by big sites...and yeah what EmpLemon says is really fitting to the way those sites operate behind the scenes.<br>Of course most of those employees are under NDAs so it will still take some years for more testimonies to come out.

I used to work at one of those third parties being hired to monitor content, relevance and what not by the algorithms used by big sites...and yeah what EmpLemon says is really fitting to the way those sites operate behind the scenes.
Of course most of those employees are under NDAs so it will still take some years for more testimonies to come out.


Damn, this video was very well put together. EmpLemon, you are an amazing creator. And your only 20 right now? Holy shit dude.


Others have said it, but you are one of the most captivating people I have ever listened to on youtube, and I've been on youtube a LOT since it first existed. I believe you will continue to have great growth, and at a young age too! Im not much older but as someone trying to grow in the virtual space, you are an inspiration!


The fact that this video is demonetized pains me. I can only imagine the work put into this.

@Stalink TriforceZッ  ok thanks for answering dood.


yknow everything is fucked when you feel nostalgia for 2016

@Omnihilo ` There is a dysgenic process going on right now in the Western world, I believe it is being done intentionally. It is plain to see, glad you can see it.

what do you mean 2016 was one of the greatest years ever

I think things will keep going downhill until people stop the current momentum of bs.


Anyone that was around back then will know it was certainly a more interesting time to be on YouTube. There was a lot of drama among channels and the entire thing felt like an edgy TV series. Ever since then YouTube just feels too stale and too safe. The edge is gone. YouTube may never be this personal and "tight" as it was back then, let alone as edgy and counter-culture. But looking back, we got to experience possibly YouTube's last golden age.


Honestly, I think if Leafy and Keem make amends and become friends again, his channel will come back.

Aged fine like wine. Leafy and Keem became friends again, but Leafy's channel still got banned

Exactly what happened, but Leafy got the ban hammer

This comment ages like fine wine... at least for 5 months tho

I understand your comment, But I dont understand why ppl would despise him for getting that paper

Ad Vantage just look it up, it'll give you more details than I ever could

Yes but i dont think leafy died he just got bored of it i think

again, leafy doesn't care, is actually impressive that keemstar actually wanted to end the beef and make peace even though he didn't really have to. Yet leafy still is and will always be a prick. Keemstar made himself look like the bigger man while leafy is just the topic of ridicule.

Yeah, I remember Keem tried to help leafy get his login info back after the leaked nudes incident. I don’t think they hate each other’s guts or anything like that, but idk if they’re “friends” friends though? They were extremely close from late 2015-spring 2016. (Or, at least it sure looked that way.) They worked together, traveled together, stood up for each other, etc. I don’t think they’re quite back to that yet. I might be missing something, but Calvin didn’t unlist any of the Keemstar rants - I feel like he should have done this if they were truly back to the way things used to be.


I love how well this theory aged. This is so well put together! I'm glad that I found this channel


His audience matured and realised how insufficient his content was. Who would go back and rewatch those videos today? I for one can't remember anything worthwhile from them. It was always the dramas surrounding his channel that gave him relevancy.

Coming from someone who had no idea who he was until this year, and who has since seen a couple clips.

Dude can make a humorous narration, but I wouldn’t call his videos particularly distinct from one another for the most part, and other than pointing out weird parts of this site, and the people who inhabit them, there isn’t a ton that you walk away from those videos with.

His videos have their humorous moments, but it’s not something I would have subscribed to personally.

I went back to watch them and i find the funny, worthwhile entertainment, particularly the ones that came before he really started milking it. Maturing is not becoming pretentious, but realizing that leafy was good all along


YouTube was polishing up their image to go more mainstream and ad friendly. It's that simple. Only reason I use this annoying website is because there is no video channel that runs even close to as smoothly.


I remember all of this stuff unfolding before me while I was a mere 7th/8th grader in middle school. A little bit of freshman year as well. Now seeing this all being told as some sort of major historical event is crazy. It feels like I lived through something big while at the time it felt like just some other thing that happened.


Omg, i never thought i would see you here!

Ian L this is the least funny YouTube comment I’ve seen since I’ve watched a jacksfilms video

R00ptilons: Hisss...
Me: Are you a cat?
Roartiles: no I am snek
Me: so you are f00rey
Reptilians: no... hiSSSS!
Me:The you are a emo b0i
Reptilians: ohmygodyouarensjfnsueus7bwiywhvxohe
Me:sorry can't hear you over your illuminance
Reptilians: ragequits

R00ptilons: Hisss...
Me: Are you a cat?
Roartiles: no I am snek
Me: so you are f00rey
Reptilians: no... hiSSSS!
Me:The you are a emo b0i
Reptilians: ohmygodyouarensjfnsueus7bwiywhvxohe
Me:sorry can't hear you over your illuminance
Reptilians: *ragequits*

you're the type that produces <5 min videos of fortnite

i'm suprised how you made this far. Feels like people like pewdiepie standing up to corporations

@Jonathan Pereira I looked it up it's not bro

Danny Don't worry about it <br>It’s called adult swim 2001 pool theme

Danny Don't worry about it
It’s called adult swim 2001 pool theme

Wats the beat that's starts playing at 12:10


Can confirm: leafys content just got stale. I watched nearly every leafy commentary in the beginning but around 2016/2017 it just got boring. Always the same pattern, just a different disposable antagonist. So I watched less and less videos until I stopped completely and forgot about him. And then years later wondered what happened to him.

You seem like you’re stuck in a 2016 time chamber

tbh this was the first time I heard about the idubbz content cop episode so prob around the time of that video I only watched a select few leafy videos


Been a fan since ytp’s and never have I ever been bored. Very creative and informative, love where you’re taking the channel.


The things at the content cop stage, leaf should have just taken the L and made jokes about his chin and embraced the meme. It would have then reverted the attack showing he can take it and dish it out but instead he could only dish it out.


I was listening to this while making breakfast and my mom suddenly got dead invested in your story. She was really sad when Leafy started to make fun of kids.


This aged well, and then horribly, and then well again

To be fair, Leafy did continuously violate YT’s policies so it was mainly his own doing. That’s like breaking the law many times and then get thrown in prison and you complaining that you shouldn’t have been punished and that the law is just unfair. Law is law!

@oLogical YT why tho, he was abrasive, which was his niche. All he really did was use pokimane as clickbait for 10 videos but the content of the videos was 90% stocks.

His tweets were probably the worst things he did in his return (he tweeted out asking if anyone wanted to get dicked down like what lmao) but overall he was just pretty edgy. Nowhere near the same levels as say Jay Station or other controversial channels like that.

Just like leaf's YouTube career but vise versa.

Had never heard of Leafy until this video popped up in my recommended sidebar.

Sounds like an unorthodox channel, and though this obviously wasn’t the title of the video, I suppose it could be argued that there’ll never ever be a YouTuber quite like Leafy again due to the trajectory of the site and the cloth of successful commentary channels that Lemon alluded to.

Also, I gotta say, that’s a very cool profile picture on his part.

@Gabriel Trifonov He doesnt deserve to have a platform. He's never offered anything good or original

@Cas Cas well if you search it up know you won't find anything because he got banned from YouTube (not too long after this video), but before that he kinda returned before YouTube Thanos snapped him off their website (for some very dumb reason)

What happened? I never heard of Leavi before this video.

Well him coming back and gaining a shit ton of subscribers, kinda proves that he was supressed by YouTube. Because his videos were not deliberately demonetized.

@WolfyRed You know what? Here,take my like


Leafy's story is a a tragedy in the sense that the protagonist falls from grace, doomed to an existence of lurking in the shadows while his former comrades like Pyro went on the path to glory; but also it was also an epic victory as justice was served to someone who thrived off of hate leeched off of drama.
And in the end, It was his weird chin that did him in.
This story is just so poetic


Leafy is here :bullying the innocent people
Youtube: i sleep
Leafy is here :bullying pokimane
Youtube: I WOKE


you went from ytp to feature length documentaries about youtubers i followed in my early to mid teens. you are incredible.


Leafy is literally the reason why YouTube has such strict rules on YouTube content now. What a legend


I remember that at one point I loved returning home and watching his content. It took me like 4 months to realise how repetitive his content got. He was quite the beast and now he serves as a fascinating study.

leafy was the perfect youtuber for edgy 14 year old me lol rip

Can someone tell me what the actual appeal of leafy's videos is? The only sentence in this 51 minutes about that was the existence of "edgy" people,but ehen I try to watch one of his videos it's just obnoxious bs, what's the appeal?

I loved his stories videos(specially the drug use ones), he is a great communicator and entertainer.

Hoovy Tube dude same i used to make videos like him to

Dor Bacal why would you think h3 was the bad guy? What did he do??

I remember watching Leafy, Pyro, iDubbbz and h3h3 but after the Leafy vs h3 drama I watched Leafy  less and after the content cop I unsubscribed

I remember accidentally sending one of his videos to my mom and thats when I stopped watching him lmao

I always watched his and pyro's videos when I got home. I remember 2015-2016 very well. The amount of drama that happend then will never happen again. Today's drama can't compare to the killer gnome or the hissy reptilian.

At least, in my opinion...

@Dor Bacal - I never cared about the Content Cop stuff. It definitely wasn't what made me tune out from Leafy at all. I'm not that arsed about iDubbz at all, TBF. To me he's just another opportunist who thinks he's edgy and clever, just like all these other content creators. They're a dime a dozen on youtube. No, what made me leave Leafy behind was the non-stop recycling of the same theme every single day for months and months with almost exactly the same running commentary format. It was exhausting. Towards the end I was internally screaming, "Dude, do something new. Anything. Please."

@Hoovy Tube - That's exactly how I felt about his content. Interesting initially, but gets stale fast after a month or two of the same damn thing.

I always feel this is an overlooked "reasoning" on the behalf of his downfall---his fans just got tired of him. I remember going on reddit where the same was being discussed, a lot of the responses were echoed of what is being said here: people didn't find him funny anymore, his videos became repetitive, people outgrew his sense of humor, etc. etc. Dunno if I'd say that's the exact reasoning but it was one of the driving factors. Personally, I feel if he tried stepping outside the box every now & then, he might still be around today. Who knows.

Hoovy Tube with me, his videos got old and boring

I remember watching his videos a LOT back in 2016 and 2015. They always seemed funny to me. But once 2017 came around, I didn't find his videos nearly as funny as I used to.

His content was entertaining, and he was a charismatic guy, but only to an extent. he could grab your attention and hold it, and how he phrased certain things could convince you that he was right and others were ridiculous, and I think that's a big part of why he got so big.

but ultimately, I think how he made his content followed the classic bullying formula: Search for a victim smaller (physical/social status) than you, preferably someone that is already seen non-positively. add to this situation not by helping, but by drawing attention to yourself and how you are great for keeping them down. then watch as the machine begins rolling and the person defending themselves is seen as weakness and no matter what (short of attacking you, the instigator), only makes the hole deeper.

in the end, it was the victims of his behavior crashing down on him that brought his fall. all these creators and people he exploited and bullied piled up and finally broke his neck.

tony speedo Leafy had good videos because of the material he was working with. What set his channel apart from someone like h3h3 was the fact that he DIDNT just punch up. Look at what happened to h3 because he is afraid of offending someone, his channel almost never has those kinds of videos anymore, especially after the lawsuit. With leafy though, he was willing to use the obscure strange videos that nobody would have seen otherwise. His fame is actually what killed him, when he barely had any subscribers, it was just funny to watch how he would react so sarcastically to the extremely strange people on the hidden corners of youtube, but with so many people following him, he just couldnt do that anymore without causing that persons life to get destroyed from harassment. That wasn't his fault. Because of that, and because he wouldnt give up the daily uploads, he was pushed into using a repetitive and cookie cutter style of video that got extremely unfunny and old fast, and he wasnt making videos on unique topics or channels anymore, he was commenting on channels that had already been trashed on millions of times.

Hoovy Tube He was actually really good when he used to tell stories and stuff but then he switched to reaction vids because well, theres only so muxh stories of your life you can tell when you're 18 i guess.

THIS PROJECT IS RETIRED ALL VIDS PRIVATE

I agree, and it's weird to see him fall off almost a year after he started to blow up off of "5 reasons csgo is better than COD"

holy shit hoovy?! i didn't know you were browsing this side of youtube! btw best sfms ever my man, keep it up hoovy! ^_^

I remember watching his videos aswell as idubbbz's videos, thinking they were the 'good guys' and thinking keemstar and h3h3 were the 'bad guys', but after a while I just started watching leafy less and less because he became less interesting, and then idubbbz made his content cop, after which I completely stopped watching leafy videos.


This aged like fine wine. Tastes great at the beginning but after a little while you want to wait for a long time. Then that long times comes and its perfect

Oh, so THAT'S what fine wine tastes like...


It was very intriguing coming back to this time on the internet that I had almost forgotten, and even more interesting to see where all these once kings of youtube are now. With Keemstar recently retiring, it seems the only youtubers left from this edgy era are h3h3, who runs a podcast, and Pyrocynical, who makes actual quality long form reviews of niche games and tv shows that are pretty good. Still wild just to see how much the environment in youtube had shifted in the past 5 years...


really made me appreciate the work youtubers put in to still be relevant, very impressive


this is something that I've been saying for a while now. I've been using youtube sense its initiate launch. This platform's algorithm has slowly become not about what you want to watch but what youtube wants you to watch. I miss the golden days of youtube.


i like how youtube documentaries are becoming an actual genre now

Totally.

This genre can produce a wide array of discourses, as well as fascinating videos.

Glad it’s taken off.

@Rezu55 Late for three years but I couldn't agree more

I love video essays. This is a trend I can get behind. Getting educated about things, be it useless internet and e-celebrity trivia or other more useful topics such as history and science. Nothing like sitting down to watch some amateur but very well put together documentaries


The combination of All Caps, a cartoon of Saint Patrick, and colored footage of snakes to lead into the reptilian section was just one of the unexpected moments of brilliance in this documentary about a youtuber. Very well done as always.


Emp I can’t deny you are the best youtuber, like wow your videos are so well done and you can tell the work you put into it, genuinely amazed


Moral of the story: Don't fuck with MrBlackDarkness666


It's kind of funny how you can track the "eras" of YouTube based on the average age of the userbase. The bulk of users in 2012-13 were 12 and 13 year olds, so Minecraft content made sense. Then those kids grow up a bit, hit their edgy phase when they're 14-15, and thus edgy content becomes the hip thing in 2015. Now we're all in our early 20s, and vtubers are running the site which can only mean one thing; we've all hit our anime phase that everyone hits in college


Another fantastic upload.

For me personally, as someone who watched all of this unfold in real time as it was happening 2 years ago, this is great to see. These events are truly historic for internet culture, and Leafy's rise and fall serve as the perfect cautionary  tale, to me, of how to grow a You Tube channel, and how to destroy it. Sad really, as even though I am not a fan of his content like I was as an edge lord 14 year old, I still think back fondly on those times, when YouTube drama was more entertaining and brutal, the commentary community was a force to be reckoned with, and Leafy reigned king. Twas a different time, and now seeing Pyrocynical slowly move away from commentary and NFKRZ try to resuscitate his dying channel is sad for me, but I guess in the end, this is how things were meant to pan out. Once again, great video, can't wait for more, and keep up the good work.

It's intersting how Memelous still gets 5k-10k subs per day and 1 mil views per video even tho he's a leafy clone

tbh Pyro's videos have only gotten better since he stopped doing commentary videos.

I don't know what kinda of mutant you'd have to say ''edge lord'', but you have to be one big mutant for sure.

Pyro is better now that he's doing less commentary in my opinion

Perhaps that's all Leafy existed to be, a stepping stone for other Youtubers to use in order to achieve greater heights and even greater fame. It also really goes to show what it takes to survive as a relevant Youtuber on this site. It's either kill or be killed, come out on top as the apex predator or get eaten by a stronger and more dominant carnivore.

I agree completely; I was a massive fanboy of his back then for a few months, but just kinda moved on, much like his fanbase.

Why are you everywhere I am? Good vids btw

Exactly how I feel. Things were simpler back then. I was 14 years old, super edgy, and there was no Paul brothers on YouTube.

Honestly I’m happy with the direction pyro went in

Turkey Tom yeah I was a long subscriber of leafy drama alert every channel listed in this and saw it all unfold interesting to have seen this history as it happened I've seen the rise and the chaos and the fall of leafy interesting now I never witch hunted anyone like most in that fan base just enjoyed the videos of all of them interesting to look back on all that now saw keemstar idubbz leafy all them very chaotic time period with the drama and such


Was binging your videos and I realized, congrats on 1 million!  You’re right about to hit it.


i just know im not the only one who would love a part 2 to this


Drew Gooden

Your editing and story-telling is fantastic, you kept me fully engaged for almost half an hour. great video.


One of the most interesting periods of the internet, for sure. Early 2016 - Mid 2018 YouTube definetly helped shape some of my personality and sense of humor; probably more so than most since I was still in elementary school and was extremely impressionable. I remember watching Leafy pretty often and laughing at his funny curse words while play Roblox or Minecraft or something; same story for H3H3, Grade, and Pyro. While I can't say it was a great influence, I'm glad to have grown up around this area of the internet.


Imagine a parallel universe where Leafy decided to keep making minecraft videos, and then became famous in 2019

Kinda like Dream. Nobody from 2011 to 2019, then all of a sudden a star.

Didnt you hear? He is Dream thats why he doesnt want to show his face.

Yeah and if he eventually became part of the Dream smp stuff. Despite my disdain for Dream I could see that parallel universe Leafy fitting in with the group.

@Comment Police
I forgot to clarify, I was talking about the first public release of Minecraft, which was May of 2009

i know that it fully released in November of 2011

@Brobot500 It hasn’t turned 10 yet lol, where did you get that from

@Comment Police 2019 saw a resurrection and a giant hype for minecraft

imagine if leafy in this alternative world gets invited to the dream smp. I wonder what his lore would be like…

With the way he is, he would've given up halfway

He is also reported to go on Minecraft Monday!

Well, he is creating and getting popular of his new videos in 2020, so I think we're in a another batshit crazy parallel universe

Yea minecraft videos are popping off now but I’m still stuck at nobody status

He would not be as popular. He would be as relevant as CaptainSparklez right now, and that's not a lot.

Brobot500 yes, it did blow up this year, but he would still be like the 1000’s of the same channel over and over again

Gobbles the Gengar tfs... i like this one.

I mean... if multi verse theory IS correct

@Brobot500 but mostly because of pewdiepie

Sentry Buster <br>Cus Minecraft blew up this year, since it turned 10 years

Sentry Buster
Cus Minecraft blew up this year, since it turned 10 years

PanQuakes nah it'd be good cuz youtube wouldn't be as corporate as it is now


“Minecraft would never again be as popular”<br>This aged like milk. There was no way to predict it, but it did.

“Minecraft would never again be as popular”
This aged like milk. There was no way to predict it, but it did.


This video is like a time capsule, thanks for making this. I miss leafy.


I never liked Leafy's content and never will. And even as a slighly edgy teen myself back then, I think that his content was aimed at the worst kind of edgy "dank" children from that era. This documentary is fire and really well done! EmpLemon never disappoints.


Really well written and presented. I give 11/10, watched about 20 times now.


Why does this feel like a legitimate documentary? It holds my attention so well. Well done.

Pill Grimm Maybe you haven't seen many documentaries? This is not much like those.


Honestly to this day I still think some of his stuff was undeniably hilarious even if it was bullying


Pretty interesting video talking about Leafyishere. Thanks for the insight of this guy that i haven't seen for a while. I was pretty young and dumb to believe that he was a good person or maybe he was just giving what his viewers wanted to watch. Idk just a theory of mine.


Oh how Ethan has fallen down the shitter. Man went from calling out bullying on youtube to literally taking away money from people he dislikes smh


I really enjoyed his comeback not too long ago. It was like watching someone piloting a burning ship, knowing it'd inevitably sink


Aged like fine wine. EmpLemon's theory was right.

@Mario Out of curiosity, I’d take it a thumbnail that shows a woman’s boobs would get a video demonetized? Would it?

Even if that’s not in the video itself?

My gut would be yes, but I’m not sure.

@Fries He wouldnt do youtube if he couldnt make money off of it.

@Mario So his channel would be demonized for being non advertiser friendly?

Anything else?

@Fries No. I dont know if youve noticed, but the youtube rules have changed considerably since hes gone. Everything he relied on is against the rules now. His only way to comeback is to just stream or make react content.

If YouTube never did anything related to his video visibility nor banned him, would Leafy still be on YouTube?

Not an endorsement of his channel, just curious?

@Julian Straubel There was a reason. Its pretty well explained in this video

Except for the fact that Minecraft is popular again

@papameatball Exactly, next time set yourself up better.

@papameatball Also, if you view justice as subjective, then this was just as proper of a move as using the strike system. You killed your own argument.

@papameatball No, your statement is actually. "Justice is subjective" permits what I just said. You made a lazy, broad stroke and it's silly.

Community strikes aren't the be all end all and it was clear that, considering Leafy had a history, that his behavior was going to continue. Strikes were a formality because every video where he was harassing people was viable for a strike and feigning ignorance here is a bad look.

@Somers you're equating it to that. I think you're trying to hard. Community guideline strikes do exist. For youtube to not use their own strike system is definitely a form of unjust behavior. And with the goal post of what really constitutes bullying, a strict and up to date guideline strike system is imperative.

@papameatball That statement is worthless. It equates beheading women for not staying inside with sex offenders being jailed. Try harder than this.

@papameatball The reason was just, if you're implying otherwise.

@Somers there is always a reason, just.or unjust

Ry It was definitely H3 conspiring with Susan though

@Gettenhart nope not at all. He was banned because of the unrelenting Pokimane verbal attacks threats etc.

@Patrick Zhu <br>That’s what YouTube wants you to believe.

@Patrick Zhu
That’s what YouTube wants you to believe.

@Julian Straubel Leafy came back because he was harassing people and targeting Pokimane with a lot of that harassment in an age where it no longer flew like it did. He was also not exactly on good graces with YouTube considering that all he did was bully people and let his mob fester on other peoples channels. He was banned for a reason. This narrative is bizarre.

@boomer funny jim gaffigan leafy made the mistake of trolling h3h3 too hard. Ethan has a close relationship with Susan wojcicki, YouTube's CEO

Not quite. He was completely right about YouTube, but never underestimate the influence of someone with a name like MrBlackDarkness666 ;)

@Julian Straubel I also don't believe youtube should have permabanned him, but there was technically a reason behind it.

@Julian Straubel I mean I'm just saying what I heard. Obviously, I wasn't gonna watch 9 vids that look the same and I was never a fan to begin with (I didn't find just straight-up bashing random ppl funny).

@Zak those videos eventually turned into just clickbaiting poki, only to give people life advice. i see people clickbait all the time and then talk about something completely unrelated all the time yet never get banned, ofc there were other reasons why and i agree with them considering leafy is a pretty bad person, but he shouldn't have been banned for the pokimaine stuff. in my last comment talking about why he got banned because i was a fan of leafy and wanted him to be on the right side, now that im not a fan i can see the wrong things he did. i still think he should've gotten warnings and even if he got all 3 strikes it shouldn't have been a perm ban. but ye i see where he was in the wrong.

@Julian Straubel no reason? He made more than 9 vids targeting pokemaine. I honestly don’t care about bullying online or whatever but there was definently a reason

@Patrick Zhu yeah he was, the spike recently didn't surpass the all time peak

wasnt right about the minecraft cultural peak part

@boomer funny jim gaffigan leafy came back on youtube to troll a bit then got banned for no apparent reason, and with no strikes at all.

wait i dont get it what happened 3 months ago do you have a good video explaining?

I feel that this theory emp had is also a larger narrative YouTube slowly changing rules over time. But I wonder if team YouTube will ever go against the makeup community because of drama surrounding it.

Well, he was only too right. You know what they say, YouTube: actions speak louder than words.


The fall of the Reptilian army.<br>Man I miss being 14

The fall of the Reptilian army.
Man I miss being 14


Man I miss these big YouTube events.  It was such an exciting time when everyone could turn on anyone at any point and then outta nowhere, idubbbz would come in and fuckin destroy someone. I loved it.


I admire the hell out of Leafy. I get how hated he's been, for so many years. But i wouldn't view him as insecure. I'd view him as cunning, and as youtube's biggest cutthroat.


I always liked your music choice in the background of your videos and then I heard All Caps and it made me immensely happy. Also I just wanted to say that im glad you transitioned away from YT poops and I hope you enjoy the style of videos that you make now. Have a great day!


This is an incredible amount of study and effort, more than most of whom would give up before even thinking if they could do that much, on the side of fear though,
This effort in compiling all of the evidence of YouTube's interventions and methods into a fashion that is well organised and incredibly digestible to even audiences who effectively lurk entirely on the recommended page and altogether know very little about youtube as a whole are of course very dangerous to youtube's narrative, which begs the contingency:

While you're being sandbagged, you're still popular to a point, you have influence, especially outside of youtube, making you a bit of a target in itself, while youtube is already utilizing the existing methods, I can't help but feel they're eventually going to bring out the umbrella gun sooner or later, with what I know of you, you already have the work you uploaded stored somewhere else too, but what then? Youtube pokes your your channel with the ricin pellet, what are your options, where do you go?
That shit's scary.

On the leafy topic though:
When I was watching back in leafy's heyday, the recommendations would be literally flooded, as in several leafy videos in them.
One day it all stopped, just like that, bam.

If You-tube strikes Emplemon down he shall become more powerful then he ever was alive. It would be just about the dumbest thing they could do.

Emplemon is definitely above the rest, too bad YouTube doesn't see it that way. Everyone of these comments hits the nail on the head. Well organized, easy to watch and follow along. As well as very entertaining to watch again, something I can hardly say about many other youtubers. Best of luck to you Emplemon you crazy downward spiral bastard XD

I think if any YouTuber would have a chance of maintaining a fanbase outside of YouTube, it would be EmpLemon because of how unique and how much quality he puts into his videos. He seems like the kind of channel that many people would go looking for if he disappeared, ya know?

I think the special thing about Leafy is that at the time, the wider community wanted him dead.  If you had told anyone "youtube is killing him!" they'd likely answer with "and good riddance"

I used to watch leafy back in 6th and 7th grade

The irony is that his videos are historic and nostalgic

That’s the point it’s crazy!!!!

Very true, his stuff is heavily re-watchable on the side of quality, reminds me of a quote from avgn, who took the quote from somebody else:

"The harder it is to make, the easier it is to watch."


This made me remember old youtube and my old subscriptions that I stopped watching many years ago, Leafy, PewDiePie, Septic eye, ect.

I miss old youtube, I miss being able to come home and not have to deal with drama and bullshit that I already deal with all day.

I want my fucking games and other media back damnit.


Never even heard of Leafy before watching this video just now, and I have always watched videos about games. So at least in my case I believe he definitely was shut out of ever showing up.


can't believe youtube actually recommended this to me lol, so indicative of what they're doing to censor creators


I'm gonna be honest here I don't know how it happened, but in mid-2016, when Leafy was booming, I met him on Twitter, and we talked a bit. We never really talked a huge amount, mostly because I didn't know anything about him and barely used Twitter. I still barely use it. But I later went back and found that it was, in fact, Leafy's actual Twitter account, and I'll be honest, he seemed like a chill guy. Everyone at the time saw him as the "edgy ranter type" (not sure if that's the right word for that) but I mean, in the Twitter DMs I had with him, he seemed like a pretty nice guy. I suppose it could've been a facade, but it seemed rather genuine. Heck, I even met the guy on ROBLOX. Yes, I met Leafy on a Roblox game, and he started talking to me in the chat, and eventually we ended up on Twitter somehow. Theres no way to look back at Roblox chats, and I haven't been on the Twitter account that I DMed him on in years, but I never deleted the messages or closed them, so provided I can log into it again I can find those DMs. But... yeah, he seemed chill honestly, like a normal dude.


This has got to be one of the best and if not most well researched videos on the site. This was such a nostalgic trip for me because this marks the time where I used YouTube the most. I subscribed to leafy when he had around 30-40k subscribers and was familiar with DramaAlert and Grade and Idubbbz through other means (Minnesota Burns, Jinx Content Cop, etc.) so I got to watch all of these events through all of these years unfold through my eyes from everyone's perspectives, and to be honest, this is the best and most accurate retelling of the story I've ever seen anyone even attempt (trust me, I've thought of tackling this beast of a topic before as well lol). Props aside, I also think your theory on Leafy being the first demonetized channel is pretty interesting, and plausible, but it also brings up the question that if this truly were the case, without Leafy, would demonetization and the strict regulations on YouTube today even exist? I believe that Leafy existed as a catalyst for every major change to the site since 2015-16, as well as the many personalities who would gain massive subscriber counts as he fell. I think you missed a good opportunity to bring up Pyrocynical in this though, because he's like the "Good Future" version of Leafy in a multiple endings video game. He was almost identical to Leafy at the time in terms of content, and even fanbase, yet he didn't make all the same mistakes that Leafy did, for lack of a bigger subcount and a bigger ego, thus with minor tweaks to his content after Leafys decline, his channel thrived. All of the possibilities you talked about in the end exist in Pyro so it's really interesting to actually see what Leafy could've been, but then again, without his downfall, people like Pyro's success, or others who adapted the genre wouldn't have even been possible. Longass comment aside, tl:dr, I really loved this video, was really nostalgic and accurate, Leafy represented what would happen if a common channel got big overnight and was ultimately one of the most influential villains the site ever had. Kthanks bye nerdout over :)

pyro changed his content for the better, leafy never changed his content.

Tallest Flash Comments Also, remember that one time where like, there's like a commentary family that Leafy's fans made? Leafy was the dad, Pyro was mom, and LtCorbis was the daughter? Good times, man.

Love pyro’s hour long video about petscop!

agreed on most of it, though I thought the theory on Leafy  being the catalyst all the addpocalipse was common knowledge. Still is interesting to see how one person is kind of responsible if not the original patient of demonetization and the hole mess that came out of it.

Minnesota Burns, now thats another tragic tale, for another time

I can relate to this comment so much....


8:40 yoooo this just triggered a memory in my brain that I hadn't thought of for AGES. That's the first video of Leafy's that I watched and what got me into him! I remember I was hating on Google+ and I guess this must've showed up in my recommend because of that, and I watched it, and was instantly obsessed.

There's nothing like a mutual hate on a subject to get you to like somebody.


H3h3 today is a shell of his former self lmao


Being on YouTube is like being in a land and discovering history about the rise and fall of great kingdoms and Gods while sometimes discovering nice small towns still being build and then suddenly they are a city.


Yes, yes it's true.
A channel doesn't need to die for the iDubbbz videos to have fulfilled their purpose.
The man is a serial killer.
Great video though.


If IDubbbz is a content cop, EmpLemon is a content seedy private detective with a drinking problem and a late alimony payment.

@Chris Bartek By 973 you mean absolutely kills/destroys them?

More like a content biologist observing peculiar specimens.

ミートローフLv 154

@Reg6465 Sure he can. It's just a matter of technique.

@Tom Hill integrity... Yeah but he cant be both funny and serious at the same time

@Reg6465 Emplemon is better then Idubz. He's got integrity, in a way few others can match.

@plantain. or a pair of deagles with the the youtube logo xD

Jimmith McJimbo II that imagination became a reality, it’s called my friend pedro

IDubbz is the rebellious cop who doesn’t play by the rules
Emplemon is the film noir P.I
Internet historian is the quirky detective

emplemon has a corkboard with a bunch of string connecting the thumbtacks

tig ol bitties So... Content Paul Blart?

How old are you and you've watched too much Columbo ...lol...

@Paul C I would've laughed if i remembered how...

Meanwhile, Gokanaru is the SCP-973 of Content Cops, Pyrocynical is the cop that always eats donuts in the cop car, and Kavos is the guy that always talks big but when there's an actual shootout he just takes cover the whole time.

que noir jazz music and noir internal monologues

@haleyleyley The Internet Historian is the Content Historian most likely

Content detective? Content historian? Idk


Your content is one of the best on Youtube. I can listen to this in the background of whatever Im doing and its perfect <3


I don’t think you’ll ever see this but you are 100% right. They “shadow banned” Pewdiepie, the most subscribed YouTuber. Would be interesting to see how this initial idea put onto Leafy turned into this monster that can do the same thing to pewdiepie.


You know it's a good video when I'd rather watch an informative video then play video games


You know it's a good video when you watch it multiple times in a year


They tried quietly killing him, but that didn't work so they shot him in broad daylight.

@yeetimus46 ias playing this roblox rip off of some other stealth game and one of the guys detected me trough a wall, so i just said fuck it and gave up on the stealth mission

@Mario And I thank you for sharing it sir.

@Mr Maticus well I mean do we really need reasons to find out why someone doesn't like one of the most unlikable gremlins to exist? There wasn't anything worthwhile I ever saw on the guy, which is why I'm just now finding out he finally got banned.

@Mr Maticus well it all started when Leafy took me to the circus...

@Wisemankugel Memicus and story fire shut down. Fucking hilarious

@Eternal Reality but instead of the one piece and a great pirate era, its a wealth of subscribers and a great commentary channel <del>plague</del> era

@Eternal Reality but instead of the one piece and a great pirate era, its a wealth of subscribers and a great commentary channel -plague- era

At first it was like poking someone with a fork then it went into a nuclear war

@INCEL WOW. It's literally already been terminated. YouTube must have Leafy's IP or something.

@Cas Cas He basically just disappeared from the platform entirely one day, without a trace left. No goodbye video, no channel update, just there one day and gone the next.

@Mercury It's a shame, because while I don't like leafy, and he was never really my cup of tea, banning him without real reasons sets an awful precedent for how they treat content-creation-rule-abiding channels.

@Caleb Mayfield It's a joke. The subject of the joke being Leafy's YouTube assassination. The target of the joke being the shameless violence carried out due to systematic racism.

@Kaiser Wilhelm II did nothing wrong to hell.

@ReaperX3ro Question. Where exactly can they go, they are literally banned from all platforms.

@ReaperX3ro You're commenting this on a former meme channel. Get bent.

Didn't the same thing happen to Rasputin?

wait i dont get it what happened 3 months ago do you have a good video explaining?

I came back to this video to see if someone said this. It's so fucking true

@Emraküll didnt even know he streamed on twitch

He tried to hide. But Youtube posted wanted signs and Twitch saw them.

Mfw when YouTube rage quits a stealth mission.


I think we’ve reached a point where we can scrub the terms “toxic” and “problematic” from the front page of the English language…any sort of behavior that someone might consider less than honorable has been “toxic” or “problematic” for the last 5 years. It’s enough already…there are a <b>billion</b> other descriptors in the English language…any of which is less annoying at this point…

I think we’ve reached a point where we can scrub the terms “toxic” and “problematic” from the front page of the English language…any sort of behavior that someone might consider less than honorable has been “toxic” or “problematic” for the last 5 years. It’s enough already…there are a *billion* other descriptors in the English language…any of which is less annoying at this point…


I hope Leafy got a chance to see this. I’m sure he would appreciate it in some kind of way

https://youtu.be/1T0iodEmKyw?t=718

Here's his reaction, starts at 11:58


The craziest shit is I first started watching leafy when he has like 30k subs and was surfing while telling his drug experiences


Technically, what Leafy was doing actually WAS cyberbullying random ppl, using his crazy fanbase.


this is one of the best videos ever, well researched, well scripted, well edited, i've watched all of your commentary videos and this is your best. have you noticed that gameplay reaction commentaries are being popularized again? all the old commentators that were friends with leafy like nfkrz and pyrocynical went in different directions and leafy just rotted, the leaf went orange/red just like his sub count...

RabbidTheNabbit That's because they took the more joky approach while Leafy took the attack approach. But Nfkrz is still bit more attacking then pyro and memeulous that might be why every vudeo of nfkrz gets demonitized like in the first 1pmin he uploads.

this comment was great until you asked for the heart

+Yoav Mor that one is still in my top 5 best emplemon videos, maybe top 3...

RabbidTheNabbit The Trump video was better

Jus' sayin'


This was put together so well. I especially liked it when you brought Dirty Harry in and timed it all so well.


I just find it funny how back then Idubbz was respected and Leafy was mocked
Now it ended up being the reverse
Funny how we can never truly predict how history will go nor predict what the future will hold


This aged perfectly, especially on the censorship bit.


I already knew the vast majority of this, but something about the way this is presented made me stay from start to finish, it felt so fresh! Seriously, this might be the only video on YouTube over 20 min that I’ve sat all the way through. Keep these coming!

It was a great nostalgia trip besides being incredibly accurate and well documented with a good amount of references and Easter eggs

Thats the thing behind the meme I already knew was a degenerate and the video didn't interest me much. This was much more captivating as I witnessed parts of Leafy's existence first hand and didnt only hear about how bad he was.


Your analysis breaking down the difficulties of growing a YouTube channel reminds me of The Rad Brad's growth. I was one of his first subs and it was really sobering seeing how long it took for him to reach those numbers he has.


I feel the best decision Leafy could have made was to roll with the punches. He could have split his videos into two distinct elements—the mockery of others, and the mockery of himself. If he had adopted a meta self-aware and self-deprecating style of humor, he might have lasted longer or at least not been taken down as quickly. If he had proceeded to occasionally  make fun of his own chin or content, he could essentially bypass any mockery coming his way.

A funny idea would be if during his next upload after the Content Cop, he acted completely normal and produced the same normal content he usually would, but wore a paper bag over his face with eyeholes cut out and non-chalantly didn’t acknowledge it. Then later he could popularize a “everything’s fine” sort of meme in which he pretends not to be ashamed of his chin.

I don’t know I’m just throwing ideas out there,


I remember growing up hating keem star so much. I feel like it was so obvious that he was an absolute mad man


It's funny how cringe culture roasts people for being weird on the internet, when the internet is literally built by weird people.


When aren’t you making content this good? Even your YTPs were great. Consistently solid.

his YTPSs are still good though despite the earrape

inconsistent in type of videos but always consistent in being great

FrostbyteFreemanFilms
“Were great “
Don’t say it like that


i wasn't a leafy fan at the time but heard of their existence since, this video is very informative i actually love how u make these analysis videos and the best part is that i got this one in my recommendations just 30 minutes after clicking the video on ur channel

now i see that youtube indeed were hunting leafy, also i get where the reptilian meme came from and especially the story behinds that animation mrblackdarkness


I remember being subscribed to leafy around 20k and liking his commentary vids when I was just a kid in highschool and when he got popular the quality of his content just tanked.

it hurt to unsub from a channel I saw grow from 20k to 200k, but his content just got too obnoxious, even for an edgy highschooler


There will never be another leafy. YouTube is waaayyyy more politically correct now. There is almost no chance for another leafy


"Minecraft reached it's highest peak"

minecraft youtubers in 2020: "Well yes, but actually no"


Chapter I - LeafyisBorn 1:58

Chapter II - LeafyIsNew 3:33

Chapter III - LeafyIsCrafty 6:09

Chapter IV - LeafyIsRising 10:25

Chapter V - LeafyIsHere 16:34

Chapter VI - LeafyIsCracking 19:54
Chapter VII - LeafyIsBlazing 26:46

Chapter VIII - LeafyIsWounded 28:47

Chapter IX - LeafyIsFalling 31:22

Chapter X - LeafyIsBlackballed 34:03

Chapter XI - LeafyIsGone 45:06
Chapter XII - LeafyIsBack
Chapter XIII - LeafyIsTerminated

@To Be Honest bro thought you were insulting me thanks though and what about the music at 12:30

@Cody RheaHISSSSSSS I'm not a reptilian I'm trying the troll you

Good thing we have timestamps on the timeline/time bar now

@Camera Punk okay yeah you could be right

@Obviary  i don't think that's him dude a lot of fakes have been spawning lately.

@Camera Punk no he made a new account called leafyisnthere

@Obviary <br>Other plataforms don't count :P. Just a matter of Time before Twitter bans him too :''''''"0

@Obviary
Other plataforms don't count :P. Just a matter of Time before Twitter bans him too :''''''"0

@Eli Hammond comment is edited. He ain't predicted squat lol

@Cody Rhea I couldn't find it in the video


Technically iDubbz didn't kill Leafy's channel... YouTube did on 2020


I never heard of this person before, but by God I will watch an hour-long video about him

When he was really big my English wasn't good enough to appreciate commentary channels, so I would steer clear of those, and watch more gaming stuff

He looks cute tho, glad to know there's leaked nudes


You didn’t see the dark side of Leafy for the first time with that rant, he was known for being toxic and extremely rage-y in the MCPvP community. This showed through in his video style more than anything else. Honestly his rant videos were calm in comparison. He also wasn’t that good and would only show himself fighting noobs in his vids lol.


What iDubbs ("Content Cop") did to leafy was so perfect.  It was the most epic, public, and well-deserved bitch-slap in the history of YouTube.  It was fucking art.

@Brad Whisker I thought it was one of the most perfect examples of poetic justice I've ever seen in my life.

@Mark O It was funny asf but probably the least deserved out of all the other content cops.

@YouAreProbablyAutistic I did rewatch it just before posting that comment.   I loved it.   iDubbs subjected leafy to the exact same kind of shitty treatment that leafy had subjected others to.   And he did it in such an exaggerated obvious way that you couldn't help but see the irony.   His message was basically "so I heard you like bullying..."

It was great because it showed exactly what was wrong with leafy's videos.   He was attacking leafy and simultaneously demonstrating why leafy deserved it.   I stand by my opinion that it was pure genius.

you should really go back and watch it, it wasn't all that great looking back at it


Leafy: It was simple satire.
Everyone else: What was it satirizing?
Leafy: books it out

Leafy: It was simple satire.
Everyone else: What was it satirizing?
Leafy: *books it out*


It’s notable to me that when Leafy came back they silenced him in a much more harmful way, as well as how people like Idubbbz and Ethan have become hypocrites themselves.  Nobody is safe on the internet.


How rich it is to see h3h3 call other bullies years later. Times have really changes. H3h3 is the most toxic person on the internet now, leafy was only in his way to the top of it all.


I sense something; a presence I’ve not felt since...

I'm listening to this hissing like this is ASMR lmao

lol all the leafy fanboys are crying again

Why is 2020 such a clusterfuck like this

The nukes have dropped and only Leafy can thrive in this wasteland...

You feel an evil presence watching you...

How do we stop him boys. I can take you to my secret bunker on discord so we can discuss how we take action.

KnuxMaster 368      Hissssssss.       Crocodile alligator

I think it was either a hiatus or just him quitting the business for awhile.

Leafy has gone full circle and is gonna play in mine craft monday

NOOOOOOOOO! The Reptilian-Gnome Empire has reemerged! what so ever will we do?!

My Master has arrived... now things shall return to the natural order.

I can hear.... a hissing in the distance.


Emp's production quality is so good, I just watched this whole video about some goober I've never heard of.


I rode the entire train, lurking in the beginning and spamming the dislikes once he had started falling and found other content, what a good documentary on the one the only Leafy


This video was ahead of it's time. We got to see youtube blatantly suppress leafy in his short comeback.


2016 will forever be one of the most culturally significant years of my lifetime


It’s a shame that YouTube would rather promote SoundCloud rappers and Fortnight gamers than videos that share history about their own platform.

Thank you EmpLemon. Probably the most informative 52 minutes I’ve spent on this site.

omg same! I thought that I was watching for like 20 minutes :P.

I had to see the vid to check the duration.<br>I thought it was 20 mins, time flies fast in good content

I had to see the vid to check the duration.
I thought it was 20 mins, time flies fast in good content


You entertained me for an hour straight. Take a like.


I love how pyrocynical outlasted every single one of these losers


His channel was damaged so badly, that when Leafy came back, he fell merely months later repeating the same mistake of falling too deep into drama. It's like sailing the same route as the Titanic, but in an alternate timeline where climate change created even more icebergs instead of melting them.


Becuause of LeafyIsHere, I almost drowned into the dark side, I almost had the purpose to hate and completely forgot about my true purpose. I'm glad I just became a better person over time, now I'm going to achieve my future career (not YouTube). I already began a long time ago, and waiting for the result. Maybe I could become popular on YouTube someday, even if I wouldn't care about attention and views.

EDIT: The reason why I once had the purpose to rise on YouTube and then abandoned it is because not only being "overrun" is too much for me, but also because it's far from what I enjoy. Everyone has a unique purpose and source of joy. I could upload scientific videos on YouTube, but I don't care about number of views and subscribers, even if ONLY ONE of my videos become the most viewed.


Interesting how you changed your mind recently about your vídeos.<br>Good to know.

Interesting how you changed your mind recently about your vídeos.
Good to know.


HOLY SHIT I can't believe how entertaining your videos are!! You are an inspiration


“Minecraft reached its cultural peak in summer 2013”

A Swedish guy, a sus mask and a couple of English children:


Holy shit I did not realise leafy is older than me, albeit only eight days. I remember when I first found him thinking this kid is funny, and I had stopped watching him by the time content cop happened so I'm fully onboard with the conspiracy.


I'm really glad this video exists considering that YouTube deleted Leafy's channel


very well constructed, thought provoking YT doc. <br>this series is EPIC

very well constructed, thought provoking YT doc.
this series is EPIC

Rajwinder Gill he has. he even recommended him

All we need is an eventual part two, with interviews with H3, iDubbbz, MrBlackDarkness, Keemstar and possibly even Leafy himself

AlienMyth64 Someone should like archive these videos because they're really good history.

yeah, i LOVE YouTube Geographic. i remember all of these events when they unfolded, but his research always shows me things i never knew.

AlienMyth64 ayeee emp you should check alienmyth64’s channel if you haven’t. Your both my favorite underrated youtubers

AlienMyth64 Is it just me or does it feel as if LeafyIsHere is like the Saddam Hussien of YouTube?


Most satisfying 51 minutes I've spent in a while, my dude. Great job


Good to see Leafy still hasn't changed in 2022 and is still posting "edgy" content with his tweets and other content...


There will Never Ever be another youtube channel like LeafyIsHere


Leary’s made me laugh, your generally putting leafy down in this video and he simply isn’t as bad as you make him out to be


I love Emp's dedication to consistently quality content. It's great that this video is so long, yet so consistently well written and editited. I get the sense that Emp really cares about what he does. Keep up the good work.


I think content cop didn't kill him, but it definitely helped. He started loosing subs in the greatest amount soon after content cop , then it mellowed to just under 0, so I think it it encouraged lots of unsubscribing for a bit, and youtube stopped growth


It’s the small things that make Emp’s videos great. The All Caps instrumental is so satisfying


Man I miss leafy and his non existent chin. It's hard to think his channels been gone for like 4 years now. His fan base did suckass tho. Also YouTube did kill him they love cencorship, they killed Alex Jones along with Twitter and if you have less than favorable videos they won't show up on people's home pages even if they're subbed with the bell dinged.


Not to sound too much like an English teacher, but you displayed some impressive critical thinking and thorough research in this video, not to mention successfully creating a well made visual aesthetic (a.k.a. nice editing, man). Excellent Job! Definitely one of the better video essays I've seen in recent years.


Honestly, I've always thought Leafy's "Commentary over Gameplay" videos echoed 2007-2010 era call of duty videos where it was one unedited match with commentary just talking about life and stuff. Jschlatt's WeeklySlap is an exact match to this style while Leafy mostly moved to a new commentary style to rant/bully whoever every week


If your all wondering what happened to Leafy himself he’s doing pretty well. So don’t worry for him he will be okay.


Watching this again after these years it's crazy what a come back Minecraft made.


can't believe that i actually agree with ethan. this seems to be a pattern with commentary that attacks others "satirically".

of course you cant control your fans, but the very least you could do is apologize to the person you hurt indirectly and tell your fans to stop bullying. It wont stop all the bullying, but at least advocate against cyberbulling and harassment.

these commentary youtubers cant just avoid their responsibility. Its not just the wierd mass comments, there are so many people who literally harass these victims. doxx them, tell them to kill themselves, body shame them, etc.

If they really are sorry, they woul at least apologize to the youtubers they hurt.


I guess this confirms emp’s theory. YouTube just deleted Leafy’s channel.

Yup the powers that be hated the powers we had in 2016 it was glorious

@The King calm down Itache, don’t shatter your precious ego lol. Brilliant insight. How long did it take you to think that one up?

@Willy Wonka idk man. If I was using anyone’s platform to say, express an attraction to children. Or express a tendency to violence against a group of people.. I wouldn’t blame them for censoring me.
It is free speech for me to do. And I don’t disagree that it is important to take that for it’s good and bad. But it’s a private company. Let’s not confuse someone’s rights for a terns of service agreement.
This platform is owned by google. It is their say at the end of the day.

I would not want someone to come into my house, talk down to another guest and sit idle while their friends proceed to follow in their footsteps.

I just don’t think I a quite as simple preserving freedom of speech.

@A Impatient Man nice I love being kind to women. Guess it sucks to be y'all who enjoy harassing em.

@Danzel Glovington Youtube is not trying to protect the oppressed, they are trying to make a squeaky clean platform that no brand can be offended by. They actively suppress LGB creators because certain markets (India and the Middle East) don't like these people. They are the same as every platform where brand identity and integrity has become the number one issue. Everyone who parrots the progressive speech rules are just useful idiots for the elite, and already it's backfiring. Pleroma (a decentralized twitter) was created because the ultra left have found themselves being removed from platforms, you can only make so much noise before its you who they will attack.

Free speech means free speech. One man's obscenity is another mans lyric (SCOTUS Judge John Harlan - Cohen Vs California 1971). You may disagree with Leafy and call him a bully, that may even be true, but who is to decide that. What entity are we going to allow to punish someone for speech, especially speech which can be ignored and silenced by the listener by simply turning it off. The only thing that should be the end of your right to speech is when it becomes violence. I say this as someone who stanchly hated Leafy, but as long as he never incited violence and didn't actually defame anyone he can say what he wants.

What is "Leafy" and why i can't find him on YouTube?

@Danzel Glovington YouTube is shit anyways, there’s no “marginalized people gaining rights” it’s just a big corporation tryna be “woke” to not lose money

@rusted Yeah after seeing some more people talk about it I see now there's definitely something fishy going on with his ban, same with his twitch ban

@Danzel Glovington he was cyber bullying before his return why didn't they delete the channel before hand

Doing my duty reporting

He might be back(sais in the tweets)

@refresh bullying doesn't capture it, the sum of his behaviour on YouTube nevermind  across multiple platforms would give a very solid ground for a criminal harassment charge in Canada where Pokimane lives. See: Canada Criminal Code RSC, 1985, c. C-46

It seems pretty black and white to me why YouTube removed him

@Willy Wonka The 'funny' thing is that if we assume Leafy was the unfortunate beta tester for demonetization, the slippery slope already happened. YouTube went from shadow-banning Leafy (EDIT: And to be clear, Leafy was well within the 'deserved it' territory. Point is, what *followed*.) to an automated system of mass censorship that successfully hurts even the people it's supposed to be trying to protect.

@Danzel Glovington Bans and censorship can never be positive. Even if a person is universally despised, allowing them to be censored creates an amazingly "slippery slope" that quickly hurts everyone, like the hysteria we see on the modern surface web. The belief that anything is bad or morally wrong is subjective and giving the power to make those determinations for everyone to an entity will inevitably lead to that entity's subjective opinion being enforced upon those who disagree with its beliefs. Just wait until something comes up that you disagree with Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc about and then tell us it's positive.

@refresh np, I'm still firm that Leafys ban is a positive thing but you've provided a lot of nuance, of course I have no intention of sucking up to google or YouTube as a corporation, that doesn't mean I can't praise certain decisions as progress, even in small increments. It is good to read the replies, I dont think there's a need for every comment to try and change someone's mind, just offer a perspective.

@Danzel Glovington oh and thanks for your understanding reply. Our views might differ but we can discuss it in a civil manner - on the YouTube comments section, lol

@Danzel Glovington In this case however the bully is the corporate overlords.

I could agree with you if the ban was for 1 week but permaban from a plattform who wants to be a plattform, not a publisher and be seen as somewhat safe... that is unbalanced and outright totalitarian.

I feel your point of view has validity, but I cannot reason why you'd let those totalitarian corporations or parties make you believe they are on your side when they use these totally unbalanced meassures.

They basically say what he did is not only wrong but that they will treat it as unforgivable and also specifically worse than anyone who wasn't banned. Good luck explaining that away and to be honest it would be bad luck if you could explain it because some things aren't to be explained-away but rather looked into the eye and resisted.

That is the "sane" left or the "heroic" and "good" left that is missing these days.

Someone willing to stand up for those disadvantaged by the system and letting their actions and way of standing up make it obvious to all that it's a good thing to stand up the way they do.

Not just random protest because it's trendy and some corporate and party overlords deem it so.

Again, I think balance is important but rebalancing should be balanced, transparent and not partisan.

Hope we're on the same page here.

@refresh I understand that, I see it as a need for balance. Believe it or not people saw Leafy as a role model. I'm all for not making yourself the easy target I think that's an important lesson, and taking some ridicule can be an effective way of learning it. I just think sometimes things go too far and I also like to see the authority or a professional step in when necessary (like removing bad behaving accounts from some internet spaces)

@Danzel Glovington
A difference in opinion is one thing.
A difference in weight of meassures taken against those differences is another.

I was bullied in highschool because I wasn't taught how to defend myself and not because YouTube didn't ban their accounts.

@Lovelace ψ Did you not just speak your mind in this comment here? Cyberbullying is against the YouTube rules, if that's what you consider being no longer a viable platform for discussion then I hope you stay away from the vulnerable online, as it seems your idea of discussion is the harmful type that makes YouTube unsafe. People haven't "become" anything. It's just that the sensitive and marginalized are finally starting to obtain a voice now that places like YouTube are fighting against oppression.  You are the one who is having a meltdown and failing to hold opposing thoughts in their head. By not understanding WHY leafy is banned and WHY what he was doing is banworthy, you yourself are guilty of what you accuse us of. I honestly don't get why you don't understand this because you yourself accuse ppl who are offended by Leafy as being unable to hold opposing thoughts in our brains, but it's clear you yourself are unable to hold two points of view in your mind at once, and are incapable of including a mind that wishes online platforms allow for safety from bullying. BTW none of this matters because Leafy broke YouTube terms of service for years, went away, and came back while continuing to break said TOS. It's no surprise he's banned.


Leafy could've been like mr beast if he decided to go from making fun of people to giving away money.


I appreciate your forgiveness.  You learn to find the truth, not just validate an emotion.  Thanks for sharing that truth

It's refreshing to hear a story about "The bad guy" without someone interjecting every few minutes to remind us that he did bad things.  You told the story from beginning to end, from perspectives of the victims, the aggressors, the bystanders, virtue signallers, and vigilantes, and did it all without needlessly insulting anyone.  YouTube Geographic earns it's status as the platform's most reputable history channel


5:50 Bring me back! I miss the carefree days where I'd get back from school, hop on my laptop, and game it out on some Minecraft or watch some Minecraft YouTube videos.
Never again will I have the amount of content to watch on YouTube as I did back then. I could watch anything Minecraft related and be satisfied. I remember a YouTuber I used to watch called PaperBatVG who posted a 10 hour long Minecraft 'Movie' and I watched it all the way through on the first go. Now I spend 15 minutes just scrolling through pages of shit that doesn't interest me at all until I find something that does (like this channel).


Your videos are fantastic. These are some of the only videos I see where no one is saying stuff like “pin me” or “17:41 lol” or “wow so deep” or some idiotic childish one off remark. These comments are long paragraphs, reflecting and more often than not adding to the topic of the video. It is highly impressive that emp has been able to keep his audience, and keep his intelligent audience. If only leafy had been able to do this, we may look at him through a different lens. Not to mention, these videos are incredibly well researched. Emp goes into the deepest corners of the internet to find his evidence, and find his points, and is able to keep the visuals intriguing and active for 51 minutes. I just can’t imagine how much time emp took to create this. And I’m grateful people like emp are willing to take their time to entertain us. I would wholeheartedly take this over National Geographic.

Coming back to this thread 3 months later, and I want to commit die internal

The problem was that leafy didn't have intelligent audience

Dude, you took the words out of my mouth, I couldn't agree more with what you said.


Man this was a journey to watch today, looking back at youtube like this is crazy how did I enjoy doing this lol


The fact that YouTube erased his channel without any warning proves your theory


5:48 "It would never be as popular"
Pewdiepie, Dream, the rest of the new generation of MCYT: Allow me to introduce myself


I love how I witnessed every second of this in real time other than the minecraft bullshit


Now here’s an informative program that’s actually entertaining. Unlike what’s been on tv recently, good job once again mah boi. (Also, 42:40 THERE I AM GARY THERE I AM!!!)

i SWEAR that you commented here just because you were mentioned in the video

Matthew Hagerty <br>YouTube is trying to become TV by promoting established news outlets, pushing uts new YouTube TV crap and becoming increasingly corporate.

Matthew Hagerty
YouTube is trying to become TV by promoting established news outlets, pushing uts new YouTube TV crap and becoming increasingly corporate.

Riley Morgan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTeMC81FV0
Hand-picked just for you.

YouTube is better then modern television.

THIS is what ALL true warriors strive for!


The internet is a place for people to build others up then enjoy themselves while they watch them get torn down.


This was sad story of a man who use his fame and power for his own gain. R.I.P Leafy 2011-2020


holy shit,it was so cool!the best documentary i've ever seen,i say this very seriously!


Back in those days I was being fiercely loyal to Ethoslab and didn't watch anyone else, so I had no idea any of this was even going on. Kind of feel like I missed out.


I'm sure 80 percent of viewers are going to simply disregard this video due to its length. That truly makes me sad.

Cheesetastical Sam so true.   i really should sleep but the video is soo goood   .    i wanna know the whole story

Well it's not like Emp cares about it anyway, he made it perfectly clear enough times.

Alex Reppert I watched the whole thing and i regret nothing,this is more professional than a lot of other tv documentaries


5:30 “Minecraft would reach its cultural peak”
     -emplemon 2018


at this point youtube geographic has to be a genre.


From 2021, and with daily youtube viewing. I've yet to see any single Leafy related media getting resurfaced  by the algorythm like all these obscure videos


After watching this video, I have learned that there is more to this story.


Woah. Okay, that was a lot to take in. This was more than a simple recount of events. You dug deep into the impact of Content Cop, and also a potential major conspiracy on Youtube's end. I haven't been this blown away by a video in a while. If this doesn't pick up big-time, I won't know what to think. You definitely deserve it.

I think this video will probably get blackholed when someone at YT realizes it's not just about leafy, but a direct accusation of corruption.

Game Revo check out his vid on Trump. Its even better!


bro your music selection in your videos is nuts, old school hip hop to pink floyd , i love it


The music scores on these documentaries is almost as good as the material itself. QUALITY stuff


“It would never again be as popular.”

About that…


Here's the thing about Leafy getting banned. The precedent for "bullying" and "harassment" content on YouTube had already been set months before when the Leafy Conent Cop and Gokanaru's H3 expose were both taken down. When Leafy came back, he was the same insecure cyberbully that he was before he left and he made dozens of personal attack videos on one specific person. At the same time, he was cocky and constantly bragged about what he was getting away with. He never changed despite having the opportunity to change.

You can complain about YouTube terminating his channel all you want, but he was too stupid to realize the content he was making went against every guideline the website had created. He was a toxic bully who deserved what happened to him.

I love how you call him stupid. He didn’t care about getting banned. He was literally asking for it and by making a thread on this, you’re feeding into what he wants.


Just watched 50 minutes of a Leafy documentary in december 2018.
And loved every second of it.
Great job, man.

Me too<br>It's almost 5 a.m. I don't know why I'm here

Me too
It's almost 5 a.m. I don't know why I'm here


Nah the dude was always toxic. Even in his Minecraft days he was known for being a scammer who would use his servers to nickel and dime his user base. He was a teenage scammer, then he became a toxic YouTuber. Even if he was disposed of with shady methods he deserved the public humiliation.


I can't believe this video only ever got 3.8million views. It's one of my favourite videos of all time.


I like the use of the titanic metaphor. Similarly, the iceberg is the content cop, while YouTube’s meddling is the incompetence of the crew and everything that went wrong.


Mr. darkness was playing a character and he trolled leafy hard. Leafy bought it hook line and sinker. Also Mr. darkness did make a video lifting the curse from leafy.


Your theory about YouTube burying Leafy surreptitiously seems highly likely to me. The only thing that makes it a bit questionable to me is that Keemstar was also included in the Tower Dog memo. However, it's also likely the Keem would have been better equipped than Leafy to work something out with YouTube behind the scenes.

I think one thing that is important to remember about Keemstar during this time is that his channel was constantly under attack by YouTube headquarters in general. My memory may serve me wrong and I'm too deep into finals right now to go down the Keemstar rabbit hole, but I remember him being really big on Twitter and Twitch ant this time, and even then catching flak from Twitch for essentially harassing people. He still kept his audience, and when he eventually came back to YouTube they just - followed. He's always been kind of a gypsy; it just feels like YouTube has bigger fish to fry at this point - and of course a little bit of payout.

@Nigerian Jesus he's more like the balding supervillain from an offbrand version of batman, can't fucking believe nobody's buried him yet

Also side note: Given the copyright system, I’m amazed that Emplemon got away with using Surfin USA unedited for a few seconds.

This will sound like a stupid question I’m sure:

If YouTube never implemented demonitization, advertiser guidelines, and never did anything to influence Leafy’s channel specifically, then would his channel still exist right now as it did?

Well Keem is the Batman version of youtubers, he always seems to have a plan that'll make him bigger and stronger then what he was before!

Look again at keems analytics, his supper peak of subscribers that saved him happened in summer of 2017, what was the main thing he was reporting on in that time, the paul brothers, and what does the youtube algorithm love to promote, well before they fucked up is the the paul brothers, they were the faces of you tube at this time, and by reporting on them keems videos were able to get back into the algorithm and he was saved

Whang! Scarce was included in the memo and just recently talked about some video tests that he did where any video that he uploaded was instantly demonetised... coincidence?

TicTacP leafy hated twitter. It was also hacked at some point and never got it back. He was just like fuck it. I see where he's coming from. Twitter is such a worthless time suck. But if you're trying to be a successful YouTube creator these days you gotta be on all the social media

I also think the reason keemstar got popular again was because scarce disappeared

Did Leafy have a big community/following outside of the Youtube platform? Keemstar has about 2.5 million followers on Twitter... Even if he's censored on Youtube, his promoting a new upload on Twitter would seemingly help his views stay at least stable and relevant. Especially since he tags other big creators, getting even more attention.

Leafy posting on social media seems like it would be a yell into the void, reaching only his most dedicated fans.

Whang! But what if, leafy stoping making videos was also an inside job, with other social media doing the same to his posts there?

It is an interesting theory, but we have never seen such a thing happen again. It is more the combination of many factors along with his hubris that was his real downfall. Besides, Leafy's content is not sustainable as his audience inevitably grows up and move on. Drama Alert will be on a similar path as YouTube cracks down on content creators behaving badly which is Keemstar"s bread and butter.

Whang! Ayyy its Whang! Didn't expect to see you here, although now that I think about it...why wouldn't you be 😅


"minecraft surpassed its cultural peak in 2013, it would never again be as popular"<br>lmao

"minecraft surpassed its cultural peak in 2013, it would never again be as popular"
lmao


"Any logical defense he could have made didn't matter - beacuse he had a weird chin."


This was great but I have to say I disagree with your conclusion. Leafy wasn't THAT blinded by success. If even I, who was a 16 year old edgy teen during his peak, started seeing how wrong it was of him to bully children/people who were clearly mentally ill, then there's no way he didn't see it as a 20 years old. His rants were really funny early on, but they quickly became just straight up personal attacks on people, mocking their appearance or way of speech, and also literally mocking some 10-13 year old children who were trying to make a youtube channel themselves. He knew it was wrong, he was just too self absorbed to ever draw the line. He said himself that he's an asshole, but he knows he is so that makes it ok (?). nope. He might have been too immature to understand the full extent of damage his content did to people, but he is no way a victim. I'm glad he was driven out of youtube and twitter.


Chris Smoove was one of the most popular YouTubers in 2011-2012 and he was doing unrelated commentary over gaming footage, 3-4 years before you say it was unheard of lol


This actually makes me anxious about YouTube. After watching this, it's pretty clear that YT was likely behind Leafy's demise. My question is: <b>will they do it again?</b>

This actually makes me anxious about YouTube. After watching this, it's pretty clear that YT was likely behind Leafy's demise. My question is: *will they do it again?*

@Lander Pagalanan but for other channels, like PewDiePie, possibly.

@Lander Pagalanan well, the Paul brothers probably make YT alot kf money, so killing then wknt do much good for them. I mean, in the video, it shows that his videos are pg-teen, even though this js CLEARLY false.

They are, look what they're trying to do to Pewdiepie

Youtube want family friendly content, it's obvious. It won't ever happen again because there's no way a channel like leafy would rise up again ever, especially that fast. They want Jake Paul, KSI, Tan Mongeau. They do not want politically incorrect behaviour, I'm surprised PewDiePie hasn't been blackballed yet

YouTube is clearly trying to knock pewdiepie out since he doesn't bow down like the Pauls

Lander Chad Pagalanan no, cause from the first place I steered clear from that shit

Lander Chad Pagalanan The Paul brothers kind of killed their own popularity outside of the preteen demographic. Not to mention after the whole suicide forest debacle, I can’t see any of them, ESPECIALLY Logan, appearing on the front page of YouTube for a long time.

They constantly do it. After Pewdiepie's shift towards not being lovable jump-scare boi anymore even he gets a fraction of his subs as views on each video, never gets on USA trending despite gaining more views faster than countless other content <b>on the trending page</b> and even though I am subscribed I have to dig for his videos in my recommended. They pop up once on my homepage, if I dont watch them immediately, I have to go directly to his channel, search, or to my sub feed to find it.

They constantly do it. After Pewdiepie's shift towards not being lovable jump-scare boi anymore even he gets a fraction of his subs as views on each video, never gets on USA trending despite gaining more views faster than countless other content *on the trending page* and even though I am subscribed I have to dig for his videos in my recommended. They pop up once on my homepage, if I dont watch them immediately, I have to go directly to his channel, search, or to my sub feed to find it.

Michael Woodward <br>God damn I forgot about the Yogscast

Michael Woodward
God damn I forgot about the Yogscast

Implying they're not doing it right now.

There is no free growth on this site you grow if YouTube wants you too

After the YouTube shooting we can only hope YouTube changes there ways

They might be already doing it....

I mean... do you ever see any Paul  videos in your recommendation?

(that are not from drama channels)

I think Leafy was behind Leafy's demise.

They did it for the Yogscast. Just watch GameTheory's video on it

Erick Alden They do it constantly, you just don’t notice it because it’s hidden behind a bunch of shit the average YouTube watcher don’t bother with.


5:50
"I hasnt been more popular since then"

2020: Allow me to introduce myself


6:45 I wonder if that STAR_ project ended up getting scrapped, seeing his "What happened to the old STAR_?" video was pretty heartbreaking.


"The Titanic... The story always ends the same way."<br>Unless your a European cartoonist.

"The Titanic... The story always ends the same way."
Unless your a European cartoonist.


MF DOOM over the leafy hiss shitposting is giving him wayyy too much supervillain credit haha

good that you remembered all caps when you spelled the name


wow.. I just watched through that whole thing and I have to admit, I never thought I would watch a documentary about a youtube nerd for almost an hour and not get bored. The production quality was insane and the effort and research put into it almost makes me question how much effort actual documentary producers put into their own works. Incredible video putting a less common view on a subject that I was also once part of. Thank you, for letting leafy go.

I had to check the video time when you said "Almost an hour."

It honestly did not feel like 51 minuets. I guess that foes to show you how interesting he makes the topic seem.


I never thought I'd be using an EmpLemon video as a reference for a paper I'm writing about LeafyIsHere for a college final. Thanks, I guess.


How tf is emperor lemon still a YouTuber after all of his talks about YouTube’s censorship

Didn’t know that, makes a lot of sense though

Half his videos are demonetized /age restricted though 👁


Fun Fact: at 26:12 , you can see the screenshot change from not being subscribed to h3h3 to being subscribed.


R.I.P leafy <br>thank you for inspiring me

Yeah...rip...the reason why I quit YouTube because its depressing to make videos.

tanta abotato ghadi f nfass trii9 daylo falldown


this video is amazing, and the music? incredible


2016: Leafyishere
2017:Leafyisgone
2020:Leafyisback
2020:Leafyisgoneagain

@Insert username you predict that he will die at 67/68 years old?

@. I think you should add the fact that he milked the harassment

2021: back with a different channel<br>Less then 6 months later: weafyisgone

2021: back with a different channel
Less then 6 months later: weafyisgone

His story can be titled:<br>Rise and fall and rise and fall of Leafyishere

His story can be titled:
Rise and fall and rise and fall of Leafyishere

don't forget minecraft being gone and back too!

@boomer funny jim gaffigan Leafy got banned 3 months ago for making a video on Pokimane

wait i dont get it what happened 3 months ago do you have a good video explaining?

2016: LeafyisHERE
2017: LeafyisGONE
June 2020: LeafyisBACK
August 2020: LeafyisDEAD


The end of leafy reminds me a bit about how YouTube hard-banned the Yogscast from the front page. Even if they were to peak again, they will never be suggested to new users, and so they've kinda died a bit too.


captain sparkles Reddit videos are actually really cool and chill to watch, he has also been doing them consistently for more then 3 years. Good video so far, just that rubbed me the wrong way I guess.


Its funny how at the end it started as a conspiracy while now its pretty much proven.


I both love and hate the use of ALL CAPS in a video about this guy of all people. Great one all the same!


im on Youtube since 2007 or 2008 and never saw a vide of Leafy ever, ive always heard other Youtber talking abiout him or making small little jokes about him and i never really though about him. i always was like "if hes a channel that is worth to watch than youtube will maybe recommend him" but that never happend. This video was perfect for me because i really had no single clue what is story is or was and to hear the full story from beginning to end was really interesting, Thank you for the Vid :)


The fact youtube deleted his channel only validates your theory even more


"Minecraft surpassed its cultural peak...it would never again be as popular."


06:25 - Reminds me of PewDiePie reading out criticisms about how his content became stale and repetitive only for him to remind everyone how nobody gave a shit when he made 75+ happy wheels videos back to back


Now that he is permabanned, leafy indeed <b>was</b> here.

Now that he is permabanned, leafy indeed *was* here.

I guess this confirms emp’s theory. YouTube just deleted Leafy’s channel.

HAHA ISN'T IT FUNNY? Yeah that makes more sense. Leafy may have been one of the first to be shadow banned. Thanks

@JNKN I feel like he's either revealing it publicly or showing how Leafy was one of the first ones to receive that

HAHA ISN'T IT FUNNY? I was going to ask..they basically shadow banned him right? He’s acting like this is a conspiracy but YouTube does it all the time. I know this video was awhile ago but still..

Instead of silently shadowbanning him, they just went with the direct approach


The nostalgia hits hard, some of the people that appear here  are aither a husk, a misserable shell of what they used to be. Or they are no longer here, or they just faded away... but hey, I REMEMBER WHEN WE ALL HATED KEEMSTAR.


Honestly, I LOVE the use of MFDOOM's songs in your videos, I think this was the best one because of how it portrayed the feeling of the Reptilians situation.


"Minecraft surpassed its cultural peak in 2013, it would never again be as popular"

I mean, we have the benefit of hindsight here in 2021,but wow