How controversial influencer Ethan Klein rose to fame with feuds and Frenemies
Charlotte Colombo
- Ethan Klein started h3h3 Productions in 2011 to commentate on and satirize online culture.
- The main channel has 6.37 million subscribers. The H3 Podcast, which started in 2016, has 3.05m.
- Klein also co-hosted the hugely popular "Frenemies" podcast with Trisha Paytas until June 2021.
Ethan Klein joined YouTube in 2011, along with his wife Hila.
Ethan Klein was born June 24, 1985 in California, and according to his LinkedIn profile, studied English Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz between 2004 and 2009.
In a 2017 YouTube video, Klein said that he experienced generalized anxiety disorder throughout college, which led to him taking a trip to Israel in 2007 as part of the Birthright program, which offers to fund 10-day trips to Israel for people of Jewish heritage. Klein's family is Ashkenazi Jewish. It was during this trip to Israel that he met his now-wife Hila Hacmon, who was then serving as a soldier in the Israel Defence Forces as part of a two-year mandatory military service.
After moving to California, the couple started a YouTube channel called H3H3Productions (an ode to Ethan and Hila's initials) in April 2011, followed by a second channel called H3 Podcast. Both channels are extremely popular, with million subscribers each, but the Kleins' content — which frequently involves commentating on other YouTubers — has led to a number of clashes and controversies over the years.
H3H3Productions grew in popularity with reaction content before going viral with a video called "VAPE NATION."
Taking advantage of the "reaction video" trend that swept YouTube in the early 2010s, the Kleins put their own twist on it. The usual formula for an H3H3 reaction video involved intercutting pieces of the source video with biting commentary and related skits.
The channel soared in popularity in 2016 when they posted a video titled "VAPE NATION," which satirized the cultural obsession with vaping at the time. Dressing up as a "typical vaper" with psychedelic glasses, a marijuana-patterned headscarf, and a socks-with-sandals combo, Klein interacted with various members of the public in New York without breaking character.
The persona Klein adopted for the video became an established meme, and H3H3Productions reached a new phase of popularity. Today, the video has over 28 million views and remains their most popular video to date.
Klein's first big YouTube feud was with former friend LeafyIsHere who mocked an autistic YouTuber in March 2016.
Klein's first significant clash in the YouTube community was with streamer and fellow commentary YouTuber LeafyisHere.
On March 20, 2016, LeafyIsHere uploaded a video mocking autistic YouTuber TommyNC2010, ridiculing his appearance and mannerisms.
The following day, Tommy said in a tearful video that he was receiving death threats from Leafy's fans as a result of the video. Klein then uploaded a now-private video calling out Leafy for his actions.
Although Leafy apologized to Tommy in a public video, Leafy's fans called Klein a "backstabber" because Klein and Leafy had been friends.
Klein was involved in a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit and was backed by other YouTubers like Phillip DeFranco.
Two weeks after their drama with LeafyisHere, H3H3Productions posted a video entitled "We're Being Sued," in which Klein said that they were being sued by fellow YouTuber Matt Hosseinzadeh based on the allegation that their reaction video involving him violated US copyright law, as they used clips of his content.
In response to this, YouTube star Phillip De Franco created a donation fund on GoFundMe to help the Kleins with their legal costs. Ultimately, $170,765 was raised for their "defense fund" and various YouTubers including Daniel "Keemstar" Keem and LeafyisHere donated. Video-game designer Garry Newman also donated to the fund.
Responding to the fund and people's "overwhelming support," Ethan and Hila uploaded a video entitled "A New Chapter for Fair Use on YouTube."
In the video, Ethan and Hila explained that they would be putting the funds raised into a "Fair Use Protection Account" (FUPA), to help finance small creators who needed legal defense for a fair-use lawsuit.
The Kleins revealed they won the lawsuit the following year, as confirmed by the BBC.
Ethan and Hila called out two of the biggest gaming YouTubers in July 2016.
On July 4, 2016, Klein uploaded a video entitled "Deception, Lies and CS:GO."
In the video, he accused two popular gaming YouTubers, ProSyndicate and TmarTn, of an illegal gambling operation through the online game "Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Klein said the two YouTubers were founders of gambling site CS:GO Lotto, which allows players to gamble using in-game items.
According to EuroGamer, fans of ProSyndicate and TmarTn were unaware of the YouTubers' link to the site, and the two YouTubers often posting videos showing themselves betting and then winning huge amounts of money.
Following the release of Klein's video, which was a collaboration with fellow YouTuber Honor the Call, Polygon reported that a lawsuit was filed against Valve, one of the creators of CS:GO by a player, who accused the developers of allowing an "online gambling market" to develop in the game. CS:GO Lotto was shut down soon after. A year later, Polygon reported that the Federal Trade Commission, as part of a legal settlement with ProSyndicate and TmarTn, demanded that the two be more transparent about their business ties moving forward.
Klein's video, which has over 9 million views, was widely praised for bringing attention to the situation.
After being called out for criticizing fellow YouTuber PewDiePie, Klein went on his podcast drunk and ranted about other YouTubers.
In an episode of the H3 Podcast on September 13, 2017, Ethan and Hila publicly criticized popular gaming YouTuber PewDiePie for using the N-word during a gaming livestream.
This led to Klein receiving a lot of backlash. Some fans accused him of "backstabbing" PewDiePie by not publicly defending him, and others suggested that Klein's response to PewDiePie was hypocritical because he also said the N-word in a past episode of his podcast.
Commentary YouTubers including Keem and Scarce later reported on the backlash Klein received on their own channels. This led to Klein hitting out at the pair and going on what he later admitted was a drunken rant about the backlash he had been receiving during the September 17, 2017 episode of his podcast.
Klein addressed his behavior and apologized in the following episode.
Throughout 2018, several YouTubers made videos calling out H3H3Productions.
After Klein had various clashes and confrontations with people in the YouTube community, commentary YouTuber Gokanaru made a (now-deleted) video criticizing Klein titled "The death of h3h3productions - Video Vigilante." In the hour-long video, which was posted on October 27, 2018, Gokanaru said Klein was arrogant, rude to podcast guests, overly-cynical, and money-orientated.
Gokanaru also said that Klein was "bullying" Shoenice — a YouTuber with OCD and who is known for his eating and "liquor slam" videos — by mocking him on his channels and engaging in arguments with him online. The video led to Klein receiving a lot of backlash, with many members of the H3H3Productions subreddit saying the video was the final straw in their increasing disillusionment with Klein.
After taking a short hiatus from the main H3H3Productions YouTube channel, Klein responded to the backlash in a November 16, 2018 episode of his podcast, saying that he had become "arrogant and overconfident" and had "slipped into a very unhealthy place" with his mental health. Addressing the claims made in Gokanaru's video, Klein said that he made "a lot of mistakes" and didn't respond well to criticism — saying he was "defensive."
The podcast was positively received by Klein's fanbase, and the following year, Klein and Shoenice made peace after Klein invited him onto an episode of the H3 Podcast.
In 2019, a feud erupted between Klein and fellow YouTuber Trisha Paytas.
In a video posted on May 8, 2019 entitled "Instagram vs. Reality," Klein criticized heavily edited social-media photos. He made several references to YouTuber Trisha Paytas (who has since come out as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) in the video, calling them "the spokesperson of Instagram vs Reality."
Paytas responded on Twitter, calling Klein "disgusting" and "a bully," and posted a video entitled "h3h3 is HARMING YOUNG GIRLS!, saying Klein's video was harmful and urging him to take it down. Paytas also tweeted that Hila should "divorce [Ethan] ASAP." Days later, Paytas tweeted they were a fan of H3H3Productions and wanted to appear on their podcast.
The pair clashed again in October 2019, when Paytas posted a video entitled "I AM TRANSGENDER (FEMALE TO MALE)," which was broadly criticized as people thought they were mocking transgender people. Paytas later apologized.
Commenting on the backlash against Paytas in an episode of the "H3 Podcast," Klein dubbed them "insane." In response, Paytas posted a video entitled, "H3H3 is worse than Donald Trump," criticizing Klein for commenting on their mental health. A few weeks later, on October 26, 2019, Paytas appeared on the "H3 Podcast."
"Despite our differences and a few rocky moments, it was really fun having you in the studio," Klein said in a tweet to Paytas afterward.
In early 2020, Klein and Paytas began a friendship after Paytas started dating his brother-in-law, Moses Hacmon.
Following Paytas' appearance on the "H3 Podcast" in 2019, Ethan and Hila made their own version of the realiity-TV dating show "The Bachelorette" to try and find Paytas a partner. Although they did not end up dating anybody from the video, which was entitled "The Bachh3lorette," Paytas did show an interest in Hila's brother, 43-year-old Moses Hacmon.
Paytas shared an image of the pair at the end of March 2020 on Twitter, saying, "At the end I won The Bachelorette." Paytas thanked Klein in the tweet, tagging his Twitter account, but Hila responded at the time saying "stop this right now" with a vomiting emoji.
Paytas later revealed that they had spent the whole of lockdown with Moses, and the two got engaged last December.
Later in 2020, Ethan became embroiled in a vicious feud with YouTuber and commentator Daniel 'Keemstar' Keem.
On May 18, 2020 Klein uploaded a video entitled "Content Nuke - Keemstar."
The video targeted Daniel Keem, who is known as "Keemstar" online. He is best known for running the DramaAlert YouTube channel, which provides updates and commentary on various events occurring within online spaces including YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.
In the video, Klein describes some of Keemstar's various feuds and controversies, showing clips from his YouTube channel and tweets.
As well as alleging that Keem made false felony fraud allegations against Klein, one focal point of the video is Keemstar's relationship with YouTuber Etika, who he publicly mocked and feuded with in the past. Etika, who lived with bipolar disorder, took his own life in June 2019.
In the video, Klein also criticized G-Fuel, one of Keem's sponsors, for continuing to work with the Keem despite his various controversies. Following the video, Keem announced that he had made the decision to "walk away" from his partnership with the energy drinks brand.
As reported by Insider, trolls and fans of Keem then appeared to contact Old Spice, which sponsored Klein, and alerted them to Klein's controversial podcast episode with iDubbbz. This led to speculation that Klein was dropped by Old Spice.
According to Dexerto, Keem responded with a now unavailable video entitled "h3h3 lies," where he showed evidence of his friendship with Etika as well as text messages from his mother. This then led to a public back-and-forth of posts and videos between the two.
When Klein tweeted a reference to notorious streamer Britbong, Keem said he was 'promoting a psychopath.'
On September 7, 2020, Klein posted a tweet saying, "Keemstar is literally human scum, pass it on." Accompanying the tweet was a four-minute video about YouTuber and streamer Britbong. Klein accused Keem of using his influence to "target" and ban Britbong on several platforms including Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter.
Klein's reference to Britbong in this tweet led to controversy because, as reported by Sportskeeda, several serious allegations had been levied against Britbong. Fellow creators like Bowblax highlighted how Britbong has been accused of doxxing (leaking someone's personal information online), swatting (calling the police to someone's house and falsely accusing them of a crime), and "false-flagging" (flagging a creator's content as being inappropriate when it isn't) in order to disrupt their streams and get them banned from platforms like Twitch and Discord.
Keem then posted a video on Twitter where he warned Klein that by posting content about Britbong, he was "promoting a psychopath." In the video, he said that several creators warned Klein against "promoting" Britbong, and added that Klein's promotion of Britbong had consequences.
"Now you've built that guy up, he's jumping in Discords, false-flagging, and harassing multiple creators," Keemstar said.
While Klein didn't directly respond to this criticism, his tweet referencing Britbong is now no longer live.
Britbong did not respond to the accusations but has called out Keemstar in the past for "deplatforming" him.
In late 2020, Hila and Ethan accused James Charles of ripping off Hila's design in his new clothing collection.
In September 2020, Klein said on Twitter that beauty YouTuber James Charles' new clothing line looked "pretty much identical" to items from Hila's recent Teddy Fresh collection.
When Charles responded by saying they could continue the conversation via direct messages, Klein tweeted that Charles "admitted the similarity wasn't a coincidence." These tweets have since been deleted.
Klein later leaked the purported DM conversation between him and Charles on Twitter, in which Charles appears to say that it is possible that a member of his design team might have copied the Teddy Fresh design.
In September 2020, Klein launched 'Frenemies,' a podcast co-hosted with Trisha Paytas, which would become a huge success.
That same month, on September 15, 2020, Paytas and Klein launched the "Frenemies" podcast. It was praised by fans for its handling of mental health issues as well as its coverage of the Vlog Squad sexual assault allegations, which spanned several episodes.
Totalling 39 episodes, Media Monitors ranked the podcast 14th for the first quarter of 2021, while Radio Online reported that the "H3 Podcast" feed, which hosted "Frenemies," experienced a significant surge in listeners in 2020.
In June 2021, Paytas abruptly quit 'Frenemies' over payment and ownership disputes.
After nine months, "Frenemies" in its current form came to an end, with Paytas announcing in a YouTube video on Tuesday, June 8 that they were leaving the podcast, and the final live episode was released soon after.
In their video, Paytas said they decided to leave because they wanted to be more involved with the production of the podcast, and was unhappy with some of the decisions made by Klein about revenue and production crew, who also work on other H3H3Productions projects.
The feud soon got ugly, as the two posted various videos and tweets back and forth with name-calling, leaked screenshots, and various accusations.
Although Paytas later posted a video apologizing to Klein, he did not appear to accept their apology, tweeting that Paytas had "tried to ruin my life, my reputation, my business."
As of now, "Frenemies" seems to be over for good. While Paytas started their own podcast entitled "Enemies," Klein briefly replaced "Frenemies" with the podcast "Families" which featured his mother, Donna Klein, as a co-host.
After a Twitter spat between Paytas and Donna, Klein announced he was ending the "Families" podcast "to protect my parents from the internet."
"Coming off my mom's beef with Trisha, and like, how they're getting into stuff with people on Twitter. They don't need this in their retirement, in their old age," he said.
The feud between Klein and Keem reignited after Klein accused the commentator of being responsible for his YouTube suspension.
After Keemstar announced that he had a new girlfriend, several YouTubers, including Klein, ridiculed the commentator due to the 19-year age gap between the pair.
Not long after Klein uploaded an episode of the "H3 After Dark" podcast discussing Keem's relationship, the YouTube channel which hosts the podcast received its first strike. Among other things, this led to Klein being unable to post on the H3 Podcast channel for a week. Both the podcast episode in question and a shorter clip of the podcast referring to Keemstar's then-girlfriend were also removed.
According to YouTube's guidance on its strike system, a channel's first strike occurs if it is found that it has broken YouTube's community guidelines for a second time. If a channel is found to post content that breaches its community guidelines again within 90 days, it will be issued with a second strike. This restricts the channel from posting content for two weeks.
If a channel breaches YouTube community guidelines again within 90 days, it will receive its third and final strike. This leads to the channel being removed. Each strike will not expire until 90 days from the time that it was issued.
At the time, a representative for YouTube told Insider that it "removed a video from H3H3 for violating our harassment policy, which prohibits content degradingly sexualizing an individual."
Klein then hit out at Keem on Twitter, saying Keem "cried to YouTube about me making fun of his creepy ass dating a 20 year old."
Keem later confirmed he had flagged H3H3Productions videos on two occasions in the August 18 episode of his "Mom's Basement" podcast, which drew controversy for featuring Klein's former friend Paytas.
Klein's fans were accused of harassing Paytas after he deleted an episode of 'Frenemies' where she said she was sexually abused as a child.
On September 11, Klein posted a statement to Twitter announcing that he was taking down episode 17 of "Frenemies." In the statement, Klein said that the misconduct accusations Paytas made about a former teacher during the podcast "contradict available evidence," and said he wanted to remove the podcast so Paytas could "better illuminate the situation."
The following day, Keemstar said in a tweet that fans from the H3H3 subreddit were going after Paytas' sponsors, with Paytas adding in several tweets and tearful videos from their now-private Twitter and Instagram accounts that they believed these fans are also responsible for doxxing their mother and harassing their fiancée, Hila's brother Moses.
Paytas also shared purported text messages between herself, Hila, and Ethan, which appeared to show Ethan urging them to "make a statement" addressing the controversy around the teacher accusations.
The text conversation also addressed "stealthing" accusations made against Moses from women who say they dated him. Stealthing is when someone removes a condom during sex without consent. In the texts, Ethan appeared to say that he believed one of Moses' accusers.
In the screenshots, Hila appeared to add that that she and her mother were "having a mental breakdown" over the situation.
Since the text conversation and Paytas' tweets and videos were posted on Sunday, Klein tweeted that he and Hila would be taking a break from the "H3 Podcast" the following week for their mental health.
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