Remember the Pewdiepie, YouTube's most subscribed channel? For the longest time, it was a fiercely fought battle for the top spot between Pewdiepie and Indian entertainment channel T series for the most subscribers. There was even a short, intense spat between Pewdiepie and Ekta Kapoor that snagged our attention. Now T series has finally overtaken Pewdiepie.
There is a live counter video on YouTube. It tells you in real time how many subscribers Pewdiepie and T series have, new subscriptions and unsubscribing as it happens. So avid is the interest in this competition, at any given time, there are 7 to 8 thousand viewers keeping a watch on the live video.
Pewdiepie or Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg has conceded defeat. He isn’t happy about it, but he conceded. To his credit, it took a lot longer for T series to overtake him than was expected.
He says congratulations, but here is a definite sting his best wishes for a corporation: “guess to beat one Swedish boy you need a billion Asians,” he says in his video. He points out that while he is a single person, T series is a massive corporation with “every song in Bollywood”. He also goes on to throw shade on T series by pointing out how the company started by selling pirated music and levelling several other accusations. He also gets in digs against Indians; suggesting that we get rid of the caste system.
For diehard fans of Felix, nothing has changed. They continue to be loyal to their favourite, even as they express sadness at his finally being edged out of the top spot on YouTube.
People are full of admiration at the new video Pewdiepie released after being edged out by T series. Some actually cried; others pledged their undying support.
Here, fans of Pewdiepie reprise on trombone, his hit song Bitch Lasagna (for that is the sort of song he makes), whereby he exhorted more people to subscribe and to keep T series stuck at number 1.
Pewdiepie has a significant following in India, but a lot of Indians were rather put off by this newest song in which he disses not only T series but Indians in general. Many Indians (and we tend to be notoriously thin-skinned) took umbrage at a silly video; at something that makes Pewdiepie what he is: rude, irreverent, and unapologetically conceited.
Is it poetic licence or is Pewdiepie's geographical knowledge really that poor?
Though T series is now ahead, the gap between Pewdiepie and T series subscribers keeps going back and forth. There are many who believe that Felix will be back – the tide with turn, believe the faithful.
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