YouTube star Logan Paul took a tremendous amount of flack for a video he posted over the weekend in which he and his crew take a trip to Japan’s supposedly “haunted” Aokigahara forest — a popular destination for those looking to commit suicide — and stumbled across the body of a recently deceased suicide victim. Paul and his friends then snickered and made jokes at the expense of the victim, zooming the camera in close to the body. (Although at least they had the decency to blur out his face.)
Shortly after posting the video (but not before it accumulated millions of views) Paul was forced to take it down, and late Monday he issued a written apology on his Twitter account. That didn’t stop the public outcry for his YouTube account to be deactivated, so on Tuesday Paul gave another shot at an apology, this time in video form.
“I’ve made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement, and I don’t expect to be forgiven,” says Paul in the video, while making a super sorry-looking face. “I’m simply here to apologize.” Paul goes on to state that the stunt was not planned, and that in the moment neither he nor his friends knew how to react. He admits however, correctly, that he should have never posted the video and that he should have put the cameras down. “There’s a lot of things I should have done differently, but I didn’t,” he continued. “And for that, from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry.”
He goes on to implore his fans not to defend his actions, as many are doing online, and ends the video by saying that he’s disappointed and ashamed in himself and promises to be better. As of now Paul’s YouTube account remains intact, so how much damage — if any — to career the stunt will cost him remains to be seen.