With over 24M followers on YouTube and another 23M across Instagram and TikTok, KSI has been one of the most dominant personalities on the internet in the last few years. So I guess it was only a matter of time before he did something to put himself in ‘cancelled’ territory.
That moment came last night during the release of the new Sidemen video, in which the boys tried their hand at Countdown. At one point KSI managed to bag himself a 4 letter word, which unfortunately turned out to be ‘Pxki’:
It’s so sad to me that the rest of the guys including a fellow south Asian just laugh it off.
Sadly there’s not many/if any Pakistanis that have substantial followings to make a case for us and so the wider world just won’t take us seriously when stuff like this happens. pic.twitter.com/iNwft89XOO
— Nubaid Haroon (@RamboFYI) April 2, 2023
Given how young and impressionable the average Sidemen viewer is, it probably wasn’t a great idea to air that. Pretty wild how their editors kept it in, although I guess they thought KSI is so popular that he’s basically untouchable. Maybe they watched the south Asian Sideman cracking up on the panel and figured that since he was OK with it, everyone else would be?
Not the case, judging by the reaction online. KSI has since issued the following statement apologising and announcing that he’s going on a little hiatus:
Probably a good idea. Not only is KSI one of the biggest names on YouTube and social media, he’s also spent the last few months securing mega money deals for his Prime energy drink, so the last thing he needs in his life is a racism scandal. Probably should’ve thought of that before, I reckon.
KSI takes Joe Fournier in a boxing match at OVO Arena in Wembley next month. There’ll probably be even more people hoping he gets sparked out now.
Not to worry though, Wakey Wines has his back (presumably).
