PewDiePie has called for an end to the “Subscribe to PewDiePie” meme, citing it as causing more harm than good, but the announcement came at a bad time for one group of fans.
For some time, a group of devoted PDP followers planned to fly a plane over New York City, displaying a banner in honour of the YouTuber.
The plane, which took off on April 29 (a.k.a International PewDiePie Day), received much criticism as its banner read “Subscribe to PewDiePie.”
Watching the video footage of the event, PewDiePie applauded the stunt, saying: “Just to be clear, they planned this for a very long time, so obviously they couldn’t change it.
“I think they would have if they could, but it’s good intention. I’m not, like, when I said the meme is over I meant it’s over, but this is a nice little wrap-up. They’ve been planning and spending money on this. So don’t take it wrong way…of course, someone will, as always.”
Despite his kind words, lots of people have been attacking the stunt and branding it as insensitive in light of PDP’s requests to end the meme.
Speaking exclusive to GameByte, one of the event organisers Nyani said: “I am happy [with the outcome], definitely I’m still happy about it!
“I was honestly worried [PewDiePie] would not have been amused especially from his reaction of LWIAY and his call to end Subscribe to Pewdiepie. I’m really grateful for his understanding. His words definitely made the best experience of it!”
Explaining what happened after PewDiePie called to end the meme and how it effected the plans for the plane, Nyani told GameByte: “There were discussions on cancelling the plane. Two meetings in fact.
“The first was when we discovered the banner [read] Subscribe to Pewdiepie when the banner we ordered was actually ‘ThankYou! Pewdiepie!’
“…The second meeting started when Pewdiepie released his video calling for the end of the meme. We discussed it with the admins and [streamer] voiceoverpete and we decided to make the best out of it.
“Cancelling it after everyone has been hyped for it would create a huge backlash and rift in the fandom’s trust of each other. So we decided to go with it. We rebranded it as a final send off for the meme but maintained that we would not advocate #subscribetopewdiepie as a hashtag and we will stick with #thankyoupewdiepie .
“We wanted to end the meme on a positive note especially after the 2 shootings and the defacing of a WW2 memorial. We felt these black marks to something that started out of fun and good intentions shouldn’t be the meme’s final memory. Its not fair to Pewdiepie, the community or all the people who participated in this who do not share the mindset of the shooters.”
Despite some negativity around the stunt, you can’t deny it’s a seriously impressive stunt!
Check out Pewds’ reaction to the plane in the video below.
Featured Image Credit: PewDiePie