iShowSpeed lived a fever dream in real life recently after accidentally exposing himself to thousands of fans, and it’s safe to say the internet isn’t letting him live it down.
The 18-year-old was live streaming to 24,000 fans when the incident took place and he inadvertently flashed the camera, before immediately ending his stream with a look of panic on his face.
He escaped being banned by YouTube, but since then, he’s been subjected to trolling by fans – and he recently took issue with people “reposting” the clip and laughing at his expense.
It’s clearly getting to iShowSpeed. One stream filmed since the incident shows his frustrations, standing up and screaming at the camera: “Like bro, how the f*** would you f***ing feel motherf***er? How the f*** would you feel?”
“How would you feel? Just because you didn’t have any clean f***ing underwear? You had no clean underwear so you put on some goddamn pants! How would you feel?!”
Showing how much the constant messages and trolling had impacted him he added: “I’m sick of f***ing chilling! You can’t chill! Don’t tell me to calm down.”
It’s been clearly evident in the days since that he’s been suffering. The streamer also spoke about the "embarrassing moment," and how it's impacted him mentally.
He begged his viewers to stop trolling him over the incident during his first stream back, but people still constantly calling him "IShowMeat" and flooding the chat with steak emojis and other comments.
The impact of something like this is impossible to comprehend – especially for most of us whose life hasn’t been lived out with millions watching.
The cruelty of the internet has always been evident in his streams. Even with the outpouring of support from fans in Japan, which saw them show up outside the building in Tokyo to show their support, thousands unsubscribed just at the moment he was due to hit 19 million subscribers, even when he’d “nearly died” just days before and was suffering with horrendous cluster headaches.
The idea of having the worst moment of a person’s life at a young age broadcast to millions is the stuff of nightmares. Everyone knows how awful discourse online can be, with millions seemingly unable to respond with any degree of empathy to major events, and it’s no surprise to see social media users respond in such a way.
"These past days and hours, I've been suffering very mentally, genuinely," iShowSpeed told viewers recently, honestly discussing his feelings since the incident. "At the end of the day, I'm still a human being."
He said it was "one of the worst fears" that has happened and that it's "just depressing."
"You guys are joking, you guys can crack your jokes – but you're genuinely not looking at the bigger picture," he said. "Do you all know I have family, little siblings?"
"I don't know what to do anymore, bro," Speed added.
As another TikToker pointed out, even his dad repeated the words “ishowmeat” in a recent stream, which has been used to refer to the incident. While it’s not clear whether or not Darren Watkins Sr knows of the relevance of his words, the fact others are asking him to say it and perpetuate it on his own stream speaks volumes.
@noahglenncarterPeople are upset with IshowSpeed’s dad for saying this #foryou #ishowspeed #live
Due to the permanence of the internet it’ll never go away completely, but we can only hope that things can move on for iShowSpeed soon. Thankfully, many have shown him support in the comments section.
“Remember speed always make people laugh don't let him be sad. Stay Strong speed,” one said.
Another wrote: “Its okay speed! People wont understand what you feel! I hope you get over this soon!”
One more added: "Don't beat yourself up about it bro, we all make mistakes it'll pass and be forgotten, here for chats anytime, I didn't see the live and plan to avoid seeing any reposts. everyone should take a second and have some tact he's only 18 where I'm from thats a teenager."
We hope these are the sorts of comments iShowSpeed sees more of over the coming days.
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