It s not that expectations are high when it comes to YouTube movies. Despite being released by Universal Studios, vloggers Caspar Lee and KSI s latest feature film Laid In America always looked set to be cheap and cheerful rather than a cultural blockbuster. It s just that the opening scene of the movie in which KSI humps a blow-up sex doll doggy style while forcing its head down on Caspar Lee s crotch, before ejaculating into his own boxers jars a little when you consider the relative age of the pair s fan bases. Caspar Lee is a 22-year-old South African YouTuber whose prank videos and vlogs have earnt him 6.79 million subscribers. KSI real name Olajide Olatunji is a year older and has double the influence, with 14.64 million people subscribed to his video gaming channel. Although YouTube doesn t allow the public to see the demographics of any particular YouTuber s audience, videos of Olatunji and Lee s meet-and-greets with fans reveal that the former is idolised by teenage boys1 and the latter beloved of pre-teen and teenage girls2. Search Caspar Lee book review on YouTube and the first non-branded result shows a very young girl waxing lyrical about the star.
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KSI and a 13-year-old fan, via kalabza19733
Despite Laid in America s Red Band trailer4 and raunchy premise of two English students in America desperately trying to lose their virginity, la American pie it seems the filmmakers, Bad Weather Films and The Fun Group, are aware of the pair s audiences. The movie premieres tonight at the O2 in London and is then available for digital download only. This isn t a reflection on the limited influence of YouTubers whose transformation of the publishing industry5 alone shows they could easily sell out cinemas but a savvy business decision that allows children to watch a film that has been rated 15 by the British Board of Film Classification. Rather than trying to sneak into a cinema, kids can affectively undo 104 years of film classification history with just a few clicks. It s not that it s particularly shocking that 12-year-olds can easily watch this gross-out comedy complete with the requisite sex party, dwarf in a cage, plethora of swear words, and obligatory That was awesome! .
No, the most offensive thing about the film (aside from KSI s abysmal acting) isn t the sex, it s the sexism. embedded content
Tabitha is a complete BLOB, says Duncan (Olatunji) when Jack (Lee) asks why, if he s so desperate to lose his virginity, he doesn t sleep with the girl who keeps passing him love notes. You know that girl that you d never have sex with and then the night is coming to an end and you run out of options? Basic Last Option Bae. BLOB.
The credentials that make Tabitha a BLOB, appear to be to the naked eye that she is not tall, she is a normal weight, and she doesn t wear concealer under her eyes. Heather Cowles, the actress who plays her, is in fact so attractive that you almost wish they d gone down the old-fashioned fat-suit and fake-acne line. When a preteen girl who idolises YouTubers so much that she sets them as her profile picture6 watches them mock and deride what is essentially a normal looking girl, how will they feel?
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Caspar Lee with fans at a book signing via Getty
There are a multitude of similar instances in the movie. Did you get a chance to experience any American girls? asks Jack and Duncan s headmaster in one of the opening scenes of the film, as headmasters are wont to do. When the duo reveal they are both virgins, the principal acts shocked. No girls? Not even fat girls? he says.
None of this would be particularly damaging to the normal, adult audiences of similar Hollywood comedies. But YouTubers have an incredible influence over their fans, so much so that brands are willing to pay between 20,000 and 50,0007 for them to recommend a single product in their videos. It seems a shame that this influence will be used to increase the insecurities of young girls and reinforce, yet again, that Sex Is Everything to young boys. The attitudes to women in the film are beyond outdated. To begin with, Duncan and Jack need to find hot girls in order to be allowed into cool-kid Tucker Jones party.
From this point on, women are a commodity. The more money we appear to have, the hotter girls we ll get, says one of the stars god, don t ask me which when the pair try out a dating app. Next we see them ride a Boober (like an Uber, but with two complimentary large-chested girls), leave a woman passed out in her lingerie after she hits her head, and be rewarded with sex for and truly, romance is dying, dying, dead as I write this telling a girl s ex-boyfriend that she s not a bitch . But surely, surely, in 2016 this is all redeemed by a heartfelt message about how actually, losing your virginity and getting hot girls isn t everything? No such luck. The ending of the film is basically softcore porn, though the final shot features Jack and Duncan riding a Segway shouting: We go in your country and take your women! They saw.
They conquered. They came. It’s not yet apparent whether the film will be a commercial success, though the pair think that if it is, other studios will also begin making download-only films. “I guess the studios will be like, ‘Oh this worked, let’s try this’ and follow,” KSI told the BBC8.
If this is the case, hopefully more consideration will be put into making movies with a positive message for YouTubers’ young audiences.
References
- ^ idolised by teenage boys (www.youtube.com)
- ^ pre-teen and teenage girls (youtu.be)
- ^ kalabza1973 (www.youtube.com)
- ^ Red Band trailer (www.youtube.com)
- ^ transformation of the publishing industry (www.newstatesman.com)
- ^ she sets them as her profile picture (twitter.com)
- ^ pay between 20,000 and 50,000 (books.google.co.uk)
- ^ KSI told the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)