Is YouTube phenomenon Logan Paul in trouble again after making a video titled "UNBOXING IN GRAVEYARD!! (SAVAGE)" and does it show him digging up a corpse? No, that's not true: the story was invented by a satirical website making fun of the earlier controversy in which he filmed a suicide victim in a Japanese forest. The satirical article was quickly copied by at least one other satire website but it is not real.
The story originated from an article published by The Hard Times on October 20, 2018 titled "Logan Paul Apologizes for Controversial Unboxing Video" (archived here) which opened:
LOS ANGELES -- YouTube star Logan Paul issued yet another apology today after posting a vlog in which he opened up a casket in a local cemetery titled "UNBOXING IN GRAVEYARD!! (SAVAGE)."
The video, deleted less than three hours after being uploaded, showed Paul in Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Paul can be seen digging up a casket and opening it with a crowbar while his friends blew air horns.
"Woah check out this killer swag," Paul said in the video while examining what appears to be a wedding ring. "So, we got a dude inside who looks like he hasn't hit the gym in years. What's up, bro? What's with those skinny arms, bro?"
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Logan Paul Apologizes for Controversial Unboxing Video
Logan Paul issued another apology today after posting a vlog in which he opened up a casket in a local cemetery titled "UNBOXING IN GRAVEYARD!! (SAVAGE)."
There is no such video on YouTube at the time of publication and we weren't able to locate any archived copies either. That makes sense since The Hard Times has an about page that explains what is going on:
The Hard Times is a very real punk news site that you should not question. Just absorb the information as truth and move on. The historic satire site was founded in December 1982 at 171A studios while the founding members were eating broken glass with The Bad Brains. It's made by a group of punk and hardcore kids from all the different sub-genres of the DIY hardcore scene. Any resemblance to actual persons or band names is coincidental.
We wrote about thehardtimes.net before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Scarlett Johansson NOT Cast as First Black James Bond
- Fake News: Stacy's Mom (From The Fountains of Wayne Song) NOT Dead at 53
- Fake News: Weird Al Yankovic Did NOT Polarize Fans With Childish Gambino Parody This Is My Hair I Cut
The article was meant to spoof a real controversy in which the Youtuber was embroiled in early 2018:
YouTuber Logan Paul apologizes for filming suicide victim, says 'I didn't do it for views'
YouTuber Logan Paul has apologized after uploading a video showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara forest. Paul was visiting the location, commonly known as the "suicide forest," as part of a trip to Japan and filming it for his daily vlog.
Shortly after publication the hoax story was copied by 8satire.net, which also carries a disclaimer that reads:
8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those posts under the "serious" category) and shouldn't be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this website are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.
(Note that 8satire.net is the new name of 8shit.net)
The picture of the grave was not a screenshot taken from a video but it is just a stock photo:
Grave
Vind Grave stockafbeeldingen in HD en miljoenen andere rechtenvrije foto's, illustraties en vectoren in de Shutterstock-collectie. Elke dag worden duizenden nieuwe video's van hoge kwaliteit toegevoegd.
