Fousey is letting anyone submit a video to his channel. But is there a catch?
The last few months of Yousef Erakat’s life have been hectic, to say the least. He hosted an event at the Greek Theatre called “Hate Dies, Love Arrives,” that ended abruptly after a bomb threat was called in. He then gave an impromptu motivational speech in the parking lot to his fans.
This set off a wave of speculation about Fousey’s state of mind and whether or not he was making the best decisions for his mental health. And let’s back up a bit here and say that Fousey’s been open about his bipolar disorder and how it’s impacted his life. He told CNN in 2016 “I just decided to be completely open with [my audience] and to tell them the struggles that I go through, and surprisingly it was the best decision I ever made in my career”, and in April of this year he told his fans he was entering a rehab facility for addiction.
So the speculation about Fousey’s mental health is no surprise – though for someone who’s lived so much of his life in public, it can’t be easy for him to witness, which might be why he’s deleted many of the videos on his channel and scrapped entire social media accounts.
Then on September 15th came a major announcement. Yousef’s girlfriend, creator Simmi Singh, read a message from him saying that he was going to be “giving away his channel” to other creators who submitted videos to him.
How does this work?
You go to GoFousey.com, fill out a quick form, and submit your video. And he’s already published several of these videos to his 10 million subscribers.
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The first video was from a channel called “ObeyMyHumor” called “How To Sneak Into A College Party”. And the gambit might be paying off for these smaller creators. Since the video went up, ObeyMyHumor’s channel has grown from 500 subscribers to over 4,000.
But at the beginning of this video, we hinted that there’s a catch. And here it is. Any ad revenue earned through that video, Fousey gets to keep.
The fine print on GoFousey.com says that by submitting your video, you’re giving FouseyTube the right “to use, edit, publish and otherwise exploit your User Content and your name in connection with your User Content without any obligation or liability to you or any other party whatsoever.”
It’s up to you, as a creator, if you think that’s worth it. Fousey pockets the hundreds of dollars your video generates in ad revenue, but you get a momentary boost of exposure you wouldn’t have had otherwise.
ObeyMyHumor is certainly pleased with the results. But there are some people out there who are skeptical about the arrangement.
The Verge thinks Fousey may have been using his mental health, including suggestions that he’d considered suicide, as a promotional tool They take aim at the second user-generated video posted to FouseyTube, called “Fousey Bought My Dad A Car” from creator YouKnowRem.
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The Verge writes: “Jose, the Uber driver, does repeatedly thank Erakat for buying him a new car, but the whole thing seems forced — he doesn’t really seem excited, for one, but also, the whole thing comes across as an advertisement for FouseyTube’s immense generosity, as if to make you forget he messed up the man’s car in the first place.”
And Oliver Colton, also known as Colossal Is Crazy, who’s been a frequent critic of Fousey’s, told Polygon: “It’s all an illusion. 100 percent. The only big shocker to me is that people continue to fall for it. I just can’t believe that people have fallen for it for so long. Everything he’s done has been under this guise of positivity. The event was called ‘Hate Dies, Love Arrives.’ It was going to end racism. But really the event was about getting attention and being relevant.”
According to Fousey’s channel, submitted videos will be posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
What do you guys think? Is this a good opportunity to get exposure for smaller channels? Or does Fousey have other motives? Let us know what you think in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
