Entertainment

‘He learned nothing’: Logan Paul draws fresh criticism with trailer for his return

The jokey trailer comes just a month after Paul’s controversial Japanese suicide video.
The jokey trailer comes just a month after Paul’s controversial Japanese suicide video. The jokey trailer comes just a month after Paul’s controversial Japanese suicide video.

Vlogger Logan Paul has posted a controversial trailer for his comeback, just over a month since he hit headlines for posting a video showing what appeared to be the body of a suicide victim.

The internet personality was suspended by YouTube after the post appeared to show a body hanging from a tree in Aokigahara forest in Japan – a location known as a frequent site for suicides.

The trailer for Paul’s return comes just days after his first interview on the controversy, in which he told ABC he is a “good guy who made a bad decision” and “will think twice in the future” about what he posts.

The tone of the trailer has been criticised on Twitter for its apparent jovial nature, depicting Paul as a hermit by the sea and describing him as a “maverick”.

Some particularly took aim at the relatively small amount of time Paul has waited for his comeback.

While some thought he should not be returning to the platform at all.

However, his fans were pleased by the news of his return to creating videos and even enjoyed the style of the trailer.

This division of opinion is perhaps best exampled by a tweet from one of his fans saying “like if you forgive Logan” and another which reads “like if you don’t”.

Both have thousands of likes, but the second post won out with more than 25,000 – five times that of the first post at the time of publishing.

Since his controversial post a month ago, Paul issued an apology online and made a video on suicide prevention for his YouTube channel, which has 16 million subscribers – many of whom, critics point out, are young viewers.

He told Good Morning America this week the post showed a “horrible lack of judgment”, criticism he received has been “fair” and suggested he had intended the video to be educational.

“The idea was to shock and show the harsh realities of suicide and get people talking about something that I don’t think people are talking about much,” he said.