Background
- Over 11 years ago, when the h3h3Productions channel had just 4k subscribers, Ethan made a video to be posted on the /r/braveryjerk subreddit. In the video, Ethan was mocking people who had "brave" opinions about the Boston Marathon Bombing victims.
- Being "brave" is often along the lines of taking a viewpoint/stand just because of its edge, rather than its merit. At the time, /r/braveryjerk was dedicated to mocking Redditors who held such controversial/edgy opinions, thus its name.
- This post on /r/pics was one of the main examples and likely what motivated Ethan since it was posted just a few days before Ethan's video. You can see that the controversial comments are quite inflammatory and disturbing.[1]
Claim
Ethan sexually harassed a Boston Marathon Bombing victim who was a minor.
Truth
- Ethan made a crass video mocking "edgy" people on the internet that were making inappropriate jokes. In the video, he visibly has flour on his nose to pretend it is a coke fueled rant, further emphasizing the satirical nature of the video.
- Ethan took down the video in 2016 and apologized publicly multiple times for the incident.[2]
- The young woman in the picture is not a minor. You can view the caption of the article this image was pulled from to see that she was 18 at the time of the picture.[3] Another article corroborates that she was 18 while she was in the hospital.[4]
Conclusion
- Ethan made a very offensive commentary video over 11 years ago. His intent was to mock people that were seriously making these disgusting comments. In the video, he lampooned comments that were being made towards a specific photo of a victim that was posted on Reddit. He took the video down in 2016 and has apologized for it. The girl in the picture was not a minor.