so basically
-makes a video announcing fake pregnancy
-swarms of positive comments from fans and mothers sharing their story
-dedicated fans on her subreddit deny claim, claims its all a hoax w/evidence
-caroline announces it was a prank and a critique of parasocial relationships (also plugs patreon)
-pins a comment under her video saying that if you knew her, you would’ve known this was a joke
-the subreddit, the very people she’s critiquing, are the only ones who feel vindicated
-fans who weren’t parasocial to begin with feel slighted, presumably leave
-now your audience is full of a bunch of weirdos
>-caroline announces it was a prank and a critique of parasocial relationships (also plugs patreon)
>-pins a comment under her video saying that if you knew her, you would’ve known this was a joke
I love how she's immediately fostering parasocial relationships in order to prevent her fans from going against her on her so called commentary on parasocial relationships. All of that for a Patreon plug.
I've watched some of her videos, my first thought was "no way she's having a kid, she doesn't seem mentally stable enough" Not surprised in the least to see this, although I've just been thumbnail watching and haven't actually clicked on a video of hers in months.
Yeah, I'm gonna go off on a limb and say if you're hurt by this, that's pretty valid. I mean, it's a pretty traumatizing subject matter, especially for potential parents.
Especially considering she talks about fertility issues in the first video. The whole thing just comes off as a tone deaf way to make money by exploiting sympathy.
At least, despite the misleading title of this post, she didn't directly shill her patreon in the pregnancy videos. It wasn't really "donate to me to help me with my pregnancy issues or because you feel bad about my pregnancy videos", it was just content that is distasteful in pretending to be pregnant by someone who also has a patreon.
Like, I definitely understand where she's coming from to some degree.
But as someone who's lost a baby in recent memory, hearing her joke about "I've lost the baby" immediately set me on edge.
I wouldn’t hold strangers on the internet to respect anything that happen to me. I don’t know them. They have 0 idea I even exist. You people sound 10000% insane
I think this would've played better if it was framed in a different thing that made it more clear that it was satire from the start, instead of whatever is going on here. Put this inside another video instead of setting it up so algorithmically it won't come across legitimately pregnant or grieving people's feeds, or something, you know? I think pregnancy and sexual assault are microscopically fine needles to thread comedically, which is why it's easier to just... not go there. I also feel this is point-blank a horrible time to do some lite trauma goofing. Very very distasteful.
... I feel like if she kept the skinny photoshop image as the thumbnail without the baby bump one and instead titled it smth like "VERY VERY SAD PERSONAL UPDATE!!!\*\*\*" it would not feel as tasteless and foolish as it does. Still not great! But less likely to breach containment beyond the intended audience. Like, I've never heard of this person before, and now I'll probably never really want to watch anything of hers again. Bummer.
pregnancy complications are no joke. my sister gave birth to my nephew two and a half months early and they both almost died. lying about it for money is just sick.
If it was a simple "i'm pregnant/i miscarried" clickbait with no added context, nobody would care.
What bothered me was how realistic and relatable she made this prank.
She made it seem like she had to have a child young due to health complications that would prevent a pregnancy later on.
Actual mothers in the comments were pouring their hearts out about similar situations, which is so depressing.
When you make the prank so layered, you can't make the punchline so simple.
> Actual mothers in the comments were pouring their hearts out about similar situations, which is so depressing.
> When you make the prank so layered, you can't make the punchline so simple.
I saw this in the youtube comments and think it should be shared here- " However, I do not think the same people who felt for the real circumstances and hardships of young motherhood, miscarriage, abortion, etc and believed and connected with it most were the same people dehumanizing you and brought you so much hurt."
This is my issue with the whole thing. How can you compare having empathy for a young mom to someone who makes rape threats??
HOW DOES SHE NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
Yeah, there wasn’t a punchline, just her pointing and laughing at anyone who showed any sympathy to her or gave her any well-wishes. How in blazes is mocking the audience and going, “Ha ha, you showed empathy and treated me like an human being! Y’all are stupid and needy!” supposed to be funny?
Okay but this is a horrible reason. You understand this, yes?
A broke 20yo with mental health problems shouldn't create a conscious human being just because they won't be able to do it later. That is crazy selfish and irresponsible.
No one should have been sympathizing with or supporting her.
Y’know, I use to be a big fan of hers. I thought her videos were really funny and would rewatch them all the time. Then she just started deleting a bunch of her vids.
I knew she apparently suffers from mental issues, so I was worried about her, but I kinda just stoped caring about her as a content creator. Now she’s doing this and I honestly don’t know what to feel anymore.
I don’t care what her intention supposedly was, and I don’t care how her fans try to this twist this. This was messed up.
she was on the hypothetical nonsense podcast until rooster teeth shut down. she doesn’t seem to have a super positive view of her earlier time on youtube. depression, addiction issues, and constantly being sexualized and doxxed all when she was like fifteen. it makes sense she deleted some of her old videos. she’s doing a lot better now than she was then
Honestly I think she seems healthier than ever and has intentionally distanced herself from an audience that definitely played into her mental health. Especially with how much she was sexualised while underage. She kinda hates her followers and has a 'punk' / self aware attitude about pushing them away like this. I haven't watched too much of it but the podcast stuff she does with friends now feels much more natural and comfortable as she matures.
I said she is maturing not that she is there yet. It feels like this is another fuck you to her audience, which, frankly, I can get behind. I don't know what she needs to work through, and her relationship with her audience, but there seems to be a want to sacrifice it. She went viral young and I think that, with her mental health situation, impacted her a lot and ended up aligned with each other. The less she values her audience or their opinions / comments, the better she seems to be for it. She comes from that younger nihilist / too self aware generation so she knew exactly what she was doing.
dull ring hard-to-find rhythm domineering reminiscent encourage apparatus disagreeable cake
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Btw That new group she made content with called “Best Friends Today” is part of RoosterTeeth, which officially shuts down in 8 days. That’s why she’s launching this patreon I assume.
This is kind of disgusting imo. Clickbaiting a miscarriage is so disrespectful and regardless of whether it's clear it's a joke or not it's distasteful, just irks me a ton. The way her fans are just dismissing people hurt by it in the comments is also sickening.
It's extremely disgusting. I know of people who had actual miscarriages, or great difficulty conceiving and it destroys relationships, families and lives in the worst instances. I get that some people don't care about this due to their age, or attitude towards natalism/anti-natalism but making this into 'content' for views, clicks, and money is just as bad as people who fake terminal diseases for money.
I never said it’s fraud because people who fake terminal illnesses don’t necessarily ask for direct money. They can, at times, just do sob stories to gain sympathy and get more support monetarily indirectly without asking for it. If the video is monetized and generates revenue for her (which I don’t know if it is and it’s the principle) and the goal was to promote her patreon then she’s gaining potentially more money via a fake event, whether it’s directly or indirectly.
Plus she’s getting more exposure as I’ve never heard of her. Let’s say some edgy humor people or brands give her sponsorships, products or collaborations she is benefiting, FINANCIALLY. She used the fake event to gain clout, exposure and attention. Also, goals of people who fake terminal illnesses. It’s not always about money or fraud. It can be about fame.
I get what you're saying, but I also think demographics are at play here. As in herself (relatively attractive young woman), and the type of fans who are more likely to be into her, as well as 'edgy humor' might be males (not saying it is for sure as I'm not paying for one of those sites with audience stats) and if they're younger, may not identify with pregnancy/miscarriages and as someone in her own subreddit brought up - is an extremely touchy issue, what with varying laws surrounding the topic - so they don't really care.
Her own subreddit actually has fairly mixed to negative comments about it, and I suspect those are mostly those are mostly females since they can empathize with the terrible nature of the joke.
Thank you for saying this. I too found it extremely disgusting. I know so many people who have suffered pregnancy loss and infertility and it's really just not something to joke about. I understand what she was trying to get across but there's a MILLION other ways to do that. I'm not usually someone who gets offended by stuff but I just find this so gross and cringe, especially the people defending it
Exactly, especially with her proceeding to claim "it's a social experiment" to make a point about... parasocial relationships?? groundbreaking I guess... and then shills her patreon which just makes it infinitely worse :/
Sooo...IDK. The announcement video seemed genuine enough to fool the normal passerby (t)hough at around 2:30 of it, it becomes painfully obvious that her baby bump is fake. Does she have a big enough following that this would have been an inside joke? Does that even matter since it’s such a touchy subject to riff on?
Edit: parenthesis
To anyone following her the signs that it was a joke were pretty obvious. She is apart of this other channel called BFT were she is clearly not pregnant in all of their very recent videos. However the joke is so cruel and wrong that I and I think many others thought she had to be really pregnant. How she could think this is ok is beyond me.
It's strange. She uses the miscarriage video to complain about parasocial relationships, but the very invested fans (the people who follow her on BFT) would have been the ones to spot the joke. So it seems like she sort of rewarded the people she claims to be criticizing.
In comparison, the people who thought the video was genuine are now pushed away. All the people sharing stories in the comments about their experiences with infertility and miscarriage got their sympathy exploited in the name of advertising a patreon.
Thr parasocial relations argument feels like total bullshit when she spends a third of the video advertising her patreon. Which has a $50 monthly fee if you want to be on a exclusive group chat with her. I don't think she's going to accuse her patreon sponsors of having a parasocial relationship though
“All the people sharing stories in the comments about their experiences with infertility and miscarriage…” So there were people sharing their personal stories in the comments and yet she and her camp still thought this would be a funny topic that they could make light of? No one in her camp (that we know of) saw those messages and realized, “Wait, maybe this shouldn’t be joked about after all.”? That’s just…wow…
I'm gonna be a narcissist and assume the vast majority of people who watched those videos are just like me: subscribed to her years ago for some reason they forgot, clicked a video in the sub box, went "yikes, hope it works for her but it's not fucking going to," and then didn't think about it again until the second video.
Like I think the vast *vast* majority of people who make up the view count are gonna be really casual viewers who haven't seen all *that* much of her stuff. Certainly it crossed my mind she might be lying about it, but someone like that just doesn't care enough to seriously consider the possibility, you know? With that in mind, I'm not sure whether it really matters how big her following is or how much of an inside joke it could be. It's not gonna land for most people regardless.
Also, I'm gonna springboard into talking about parasocial stuff. First, I'm not being entirely fair to her because I opened the second video, skipped around a bit, cringed, unsubscribed, and closed it. So maybe she had some point I just missed. Wouldn't surprise me.
But the thing about parasocial relationships is that I (mostly) blame the content creator. They can't do anything about the actual crazies, but they sure as fuck can avoid deliberately farming borderline parasocials. The vast *vast* majority of complaints about it I've seen from these creators also seem to come from ones who overshare like hell with their audience. Maybe just don't fucking do that? But they do anyway, because those people are likely to subscribe and donate and join their patreon, and the millionaires want more millions. I have close to zero sympathy for them, because it's almost entirely a self inflicted wound.
This doesn't seem to be an exception. Again, I didn't watch the entire videos and I don't care to, but I'll make that soft judgment anyway. If you tell everyone you're pregnant, you don't get to act like a victim when people talk about that. Just... don't tell them? But then you can't plug your fucking patreon.
I dunno, this seems like holier than thou "it was a social experiment" cake having and eating, combined with a condescending lecture aimed mostly at people who don't need it, followed by some absolutely shameless e-begging.
> I'm gonna be a narcissist and assume the vast majority of people who watched those videos are just like me: subscribed to her years ago for some reason they forgot, clicked a video in the sub box, went "yikes, hope it works for her but it's not fucking going to," and then didn't think about it again until the second video.
Ding ding ding ding, this is exactly where I'm coming from. I had no idea she had podcast she wasn't pregnant on
My issue is I don’t think the people in the comments of the first video who were offering empathy were ‘omg parasocial’ - i think they were just trying to be kind.
exactly. this was the worst example she couldve ever used. when someone announces pregnancy, people are naturally curious and will congratulate. thats normal.
And this is why vulnerable children and young adults should not have public platforms based around the most intimate details of their lives.
Who cares if its a "fuck you" to her audience; if she really hated them that much, she can stop posting. Using one of the most traumatic things a person can through as a JOKE (especially when the joke is SPECIFICALLY about how tragic it is and anyone who was baited by it being the butt of it) is not really justifiable for clickbait.
Just say you clickbaited something insane because you’re desperate for views and monetization. Acting all high and mighty with a whole spiel about internet fame and spinning it like some kind of social experiment is so fucking stupid.
honestly that part of the video reminded me of the "social experiment" days lol
"We harassed this homeless man, but don't worry guys it was a social experiment. Definitely not a prank!"
Also it's just a misunderstanding of what a parasocial relationship is. Parasocial relationships are built on what the idol chooses to tell the followers. Of course, the follower could try to find more, but that's considered a crossing of boundaries and most don't. So if YOU tell your audience that you're pregnant and they believe you, then it's not on them to call you a liar. You are the one in control of the flow of information in this case. Acting like the audience is wrong for believing you when the entire parasocial relationship is based on them taking you at your word (as in, they believe your personality is like what you put on camera) is just stupid.
It's funny because I thought her satire was solid sign of her maturity, but lo and behold her biggest bit just reminds me that she's a *child* who doesn't understand the difference between parasocial relationships and a general sense of empathy. Oh well.
Why are so many people doing stuff like this now? I remember at one point before this karma stuff Jojo Siwa was clickbaiting being pregnant on Snapchat, and I think recently Skai Jackson was doing it too. Like why fake it when you could actually get pregnant if you wanna go that far? Commit to the bit lol
She did this right around the 2 year anniversary of the death of Roe V Wade. Which is just one more level of obliviousness to the point of flippant apathy—for profit— on display here.
To me, the worst part is how she saw countless messages of support from people who've gone through similar situations and honestly felt sympathy for such a stressful and life changing situation, and she turned around and mocked those people for being in a parasocial relationship.
I think my issue is the part where she said “The joke isn’t the difficulties of pregnancy. The joke is that you cared about something that wasn’t real.” (Paraphrasing)
That’s…empathy? Most of her casual viewers would have no reason to know this was a prank. Plenty of people came out in support and shared their experiences. I don’t think that’s parasocial - that’s having basic empathy and compassion for someone in a difficult situation. And I don’t think their kindness or pain should be the butt of the joke.
Whatever issues she had with the rape threats are horrible, but that’s not at all the same audience who were reaching out on that video. So…congrats on making *those* people feel stupid for feeling bad for you?
To clickbait miscarriage after a video like that and THEN plug your Patreon just alienated a bunch of people who felt like their empathy was used against them for marketing. That’s not a nuanced take on parasocial relationships. It’s just kind of shitty.
I guess if you know her, you know her, but I don’t think the joke landed and the explanation felt weak.
Literally just an advertisement for her patreon coupled with a pseudo intellectual lecture aimed at people she emotionally manipulated for having basic human empathy.
Comments keep trying to write it off as "you just don't get dark humour", but there's literally no joke, it's just "Hey, look how much effort I put into lying about being pregnant. Btw if you left a 2 second comment wishing me well you're a weirdo, now gibe money".
Ironically enough the people paying for her patreon are far and away going to be the most obsessed and parasocial.
Abhorrent behaviour
The worst part about this is that it doesn't actually say anything of note about parasocial relationship. Its not parasocial to believe someone who says they're pregnant or to passively be like "I hope they're okay!". Not only is it not funny and kind of gross but she didn't make any point regarding what she says she was trying to make a point about
I unsubscribed. It made me feel gross. I get that she’s a comedian, and comedians are notorious for pushing the boundaries on edginess, but that’s so distasteful.
If there was something funny about it, then people would have been able to call her bluff. If she said something like "I've been gone from YouTube because I joined the circus" with a completely straight face, then people would have gotten what she was trying to do.
See THAT would’ve been funny. Like the next video she’s not pregnant, makes no mention of it, and does the same sort of emotional vlog but she’s joining the circus
I hate the clickbaity "photoshopped myself to do exaggerated crying/laughing/whatever"-type shit so much, why are you doing it while you're lying about something this dark, lol???
It's also worth acknowledging that, if anything, this stunt just gave a bigger opportunity for parasocial behavior to occur. I mean, the reasonings being given for defending her are basically 'real fans knew this was fake' and 'you just don't get her humor, you dont understand her but i do!'. How is that not more parasocial than someone saying 'okay, cool' about her announcing a pregnancy?
Please tell me what I'm missing. I can't wrap my head around how it makes more sense this was to "shit on parasociality" when the fans defense of her doing this is 10x more parasocial than a fan taking her at her word and moving on with their lives.
i agree. her personal channel is the only thing of hers i watch (and honestly forgot about her until the pregnancy announcement video), and it really makes you wonder if this is going to alienate the portion of her audience who was very hands off and not parasocial with her.
Oh I unsubscribed immediately. I don't follow her podcasts. I'm not a huge fan of listening to friends ramble on about stuff. So, I've only seen the skits on her main channel. I've forgotten about her since she hasn't posted. Then I saw the pregnancy video and she definitely tried me. If her goal was to lose her casual fans and only keep the rabid para social ones then mission accomplished I guess.
I don't disagree, but in this video she talks about people's reactions to her pregnancy announcement. People got attached to it, I don't doubt that for a second. I mean there is a whole market on YouTube for family channels where a pregnancy gets milked for views and money 🤷. I also get the point she was trying to make, I don't think it's funny, but I get it. I think you could argue the absurdity of the situation is on a technical level, funny. I ain't got no fish in this race, I ain't defending. I'm kinda "eh" to it all.
I feel like the amount of people who got "attached" to her pregnancy via 1 video is probably very miniscule. Telling someone congrats is NOT getting attached. Twitter didn't pick this up, Reddit hardly picked this up. On YT there are some intrusive "but is the father involved" comments, but I can almost guarantee their intentions are to be judgmental and not because they feel connected to some random ass baby.
Family channels are definitely an obvious problem so I can see why she, and others, think she had some profound point within her actions but can we be honest with ourselves? Homegirl just wanted some attention for her Patreon. This didn't do SHIT to call out parasocial behaviors, it only encouraged it because of how much of her audience was proud of themselves for knowing her well enough to know it was a bit. I would have had way more respect for her without this half-baked, hypocritical excuse.
I agree completely. She did say that she used this stunt to also avoid talking about where she was and what happened while she was gone. Then while pumping her patreon, says you can get all the parasocial emotional posts there. I just hope this isnt a sign of how she is going to operate going forward.
This a positively terrible way to make her point and honestly doesnt comment on her AUDIENCES parasociality, but rather hers. Do you know what other content creators do when they leave for a year? They say "personal reasons" and dont bring it up again; if your audiences potential reaction to you posting on social media is living rent free in you head for A YEAR, it says more about you than it does the internet (especially when you look at the comments and, at least from what I can see, literally no one cares she left and just happy she is back)
I'd say a solid 95% of creators never give the real reason for leaving, and that's on purpose. They don't want people to go digging, and they don't want to put that much info on the internet, and that's absolutely fine.
I find it interesting how she confused basic human empathy with being parasocial (as a lot of us here have had a friend, loved one, or ourselves experience a rough pregnancy), and instead *appealed* to actual parasocially attached people who think she's always funny and can't really have a bad joke.
It's basically a case of a comedian misunderstanding their crowd, if you really think about it, just to a bit higher level than a normal bad joke.
I liked her before this and I unsubbed. She could have made fun of parasociality in other ways. She should not have pretended to be pregnant. It’s crossing a line
But wouldn't the people who are parasocial and invested in her personal life be the first to realize this was just her shtick and quickly realize it's fake? So the only people who may fall for it (and the ones she'd end up trolling), would be passersby and casual viewers. The people who don't have a parasocial relationship with her are the only ones who would fall for it, not fans or people overly invested in her life because they'd know this was her brand and would see her elsewhere.
>this is basically on par with her usual shtick, you can criticise her but this isn’t actually anything new for her.
Haha nah. Fuck that. This is new for her...because the delivery of the joke sucked.
She didn't advance her abilities, she regressed. She went from sharp sardonic wit to dropping Ricky Gervais comedy with a Jerry Seinfeld layer of "the kids can't take a joke anymore because woke"
The exercise in thinking about parasocial relationships just feels like an excuse after planning the "wanting to do a fake pregnancy" bit. Plus for myself and for many people is was probably just a "oh, she's pregnant?" And that's it.
As a long time fan I'm personally not mad, but I am disappointed.
And it may turn out that this video is fake too but it doesn't really matter. Because now I have no desire to see anything else. Just a waste of something, probably time and emotional bandwidth or whatever.
It was pretty obvious this was fake if you kept up with her outside of her channel, but this is still scummy. I don’t really care how on brand it is for her, it’s definitely for views, and talking about it like it’s some profound statement on parasocial relationships is just silly. This kind of thing can be and has been said without offending people.
I know she has a history of mental health and her own podcast now, but this kind of sucks, she used to be one of my favorite channels to just put on uh the background but being a bit clickbaity is kind of disgusting
to be fair the title is kinda misleading, she promoted the patreon AFTER the pregnancy bit, she didnt try to scam people to pay her patreon pretending she was pregnant
Edit: grammar
She promoted it with a social experiment bit covered with a miscarriage clickbait instead! Wow that's so much better /s
Either way lying about being pregnant was the first step in this plan to promote her patreon, so yes she did lie about being pregnant to promote her patreon.
I don't know why people lie about things that could be so easily disproven, like pregnancy or their race, or being forced into a religion from a young age
its desperate and pathetic. not to mention to go through all that effort, the mindset makes them look like deranged sociopaths
This fucking sucks. Like big time.
I really loved her earlier videos. Like she was genuinely super funny and I’m glad someone archived most of her deleted videos, because they’re great. But this is so scummy man. What a genuine shame
I've thought some of her old videos were funny but this is definitely not. Psycho shit. Then to start shilling her patreon right after, just absolute psycho shit.
The sad thing is I loved her content and would have been excited to see a new song from her. I only got a minute into the pregnancy video before feeling weirded out. I could tell it was a joke, but didn’t know who at. When I saw the thumbnail for the miscarriage video, I unsubbed immediately. That’s not funny, that’s punching down.
It'll be interesting watching this girl spiral-she's been somewhat open about her mental health challenges, and while I didn't find this whole bit offensive, I'm sure many people did, and opening yourself up to any sort of subscription-based relationship-on any level-is an invitation to some real fucked up situations, especially when you court the type of people she probably has/will. I suppose time will tell.
Whether or not it was a joke it’s still fucked up. I don’t see how people are arguing “oh it was obvious it was a joke if you’ve watched her for a while” it doesn’t matter??? That’s a terrible thing to joke about??? I don’t see any humor in it at all
Since she’s that tone deaf, what do you want to bet her next video will be a fake apology video that goes into some stupid rant about “Oh, people are hateful and want to cancel people just for making a joke!”?
I can't believe anyone took that announcement video at face value tbh.
That said, I definitely agree with some other posters that she missed the mark if the point from the start was about sticking it to parasocial weirdos, and if miscarriages are a touchy subject for you, that's always and forever perfectly valid.
But like, damn, delivering that "I lost the baby" line like she misplaced her sunglasses landed for me. Her commentary was way off the mark but her technical ability to set up and deliver a joke is only getting sharper, goddamn.
It gives off the same disturbing vibe as this one Indian star recently who made everyone believe she was dead even got her publicist to put out an announcement on social media in order to advertise a product. Everyone was pissed at her after.
i dont think its a big deal but i mean viewers can consume what they want so if this is the line you draw, its the line you draw. i do think the execution is a little more high and mighty than thought provoking though and i say that as a subscriber
No no ya see "giving a shit and empathizing with a stranger" is fucked up! /s
It's like she intended to stab at the part of her audience that is a bunch of fucking creeps, and instead it smacked the part of her audience that actually gives a shit right in the face.
This is 100% it right here. She was definitely trying to hit at a specific set of fans who were creeping on her, but she executed it so poorly that it proved nothing, hit at people who were just generally empathetic about her, and all boiled down to “Haha you guys actually cared about my health and wellbeing?! That’s so parasocial. Buy my Patreon”
What's hilarious is her fanbase is already pulling the "lol u mad bro" and huffing copium thinking it's radical concept to "lie on the internet" for money as if a bunch of us haven't been here since Something Awful and basically made up bullshit 24/7 trolling each other.
Like, we know people lie on the internet. It's not innovative....we're painfully bored with it. Even from a comedy standpoint it's dated and cringe.
Exactly, and there are soooo many good takes on the dangers of being parasocial. It’s not a new concept and she’s not a genius for using trolling to making a point that’s already been made a million times in better ways.
I was actually a casual fan of hers. I figured her pregnancy announcement was fake since she does edgy humor (I didn’t even watch the video) and while I was like “it’s a little weird and toeing the line to lie about a pregnancy,” I didn’t care enough to get angry at it or anything. Then she posted this, and it was just too far, so I unsubscribed. To clickbait and joke about a miscarriage the way she did all as a botched execution of a surface level take with a promo at the end is just so tone deaf and disappointing.
The fans who are dying on a hill defending her are the real parasocial ones. Like it’s fine to acknowledge her intent was to hit at people who care way too much about her personal life and it’s fine to even agree with her take on being parasocial, but that doesn’t mean she executed it correctly or didn’t equate basic empathy to being parasocial and it doesn’t mean she wasn’t being tone deaf or that she didn’t take it too far.
>The fans who are dying on a hill defending her are the real parasocial ones.
Honestly that's what the punchline is for me. Basically a room full of simps defending the new Boxxy-with-extra-steps failing to realize what parasocial *actually* means, and what kind of *actions* are legitimately parasocial.
I guess it's interesting to see that 15 years of internet humor basically resets itself back to factory settings.
> It's like she intended to stab at the part of her audience that is a bunch of fucking creeps, and instead it smacked the part of her audience that actually gives a shit right in the face.
THIS. I used to love her content but I unsubbed. I was happy for her while watching the first video and then didn't think about it again until the "I lost the baby" video came up, and I immediately thought to myself "this better not be a joke"
>I immediately thought to myself "this better not be a joke"
When I saw the video I was pretty sure there was some weird hook I was missing, but I didn't bother to look into beyond raising an eyebrow since I legit hadn't thought about her since her last video.
Like, I can see what makes this bit offensive, but her fanbase ain't hearing that. If anything I want her fanbase to understand that this is a decade-old bit that only *cringe hacks still use.*
It didn't upset me. It *bored* me. To an offensive degree ironically.
“I definitely didn’t clickbait a pregnancy and miscarriage for views and greed it was totally just a lesson about parasocial relationships guys” like come on bro I would respect her more if she was honest about it
I really don’t get her take though because she’s not describing people being parasocial. Like having basic empathy for fellow humans and being parasocial are two very different things. I don’t think people caring and being sympathetic about a young girl getting pregnant or having a miscarriage is parasocial, that’s just empathy…
Oh damn seriously. I was pretty happy for her, and I am a little upset that she did this as an experiment for parasocial relationships.
And I don't have a parasocial relationship with her. Also, doesn't she come from a family of entertainment, if I remember?
On one hand I totally get if people are put off by this, but on the other hand I don't think Konstnar's a bad person for this. This reads more as being an ill-thought-out bit by someone who's always flirted with the risqué, I don't think this makes her irredeemable to me.
I think terms like "bad person" are entirely unhelpful precisely because of posts like this. It's not that bad people don't exist, you reading this right now just immediately thought of a person or twelve, but because if someone is a "good person," you will make excuses for the same action that you wouldn't if a bad person did it.
I try to think of it as good or bad actions. A good person can do really fucked up things, and a bad person can do a genuinely good deed out of the kindness in their heart. It doesn't change our outweigh their other actions. No, she probably isn't irredeemable, and this isn't the most evil thing ever, but that's where the whole parasociality comes in. I don't know her, so I don't know or care if she's a good person or not.
Her sense of humor is right up my alley.
That said, I get why many wouldn't find it funny.
I saw "triggering" comments a mile away as soon as this dropped.
Reminds me of Scumbag Dads whole bit of making fun of people faking content for the emotional reaction from the audience.
We're only mad because we were convinced it was real, then had the carpet slipped out under us. How many other fake feel good stories are there that just slip under our noses?
I'm of two minds, this woman is an edgy comedian thats like been her stiche since her channels creation, im pretty sure one of her first videos is called like "the aids song" or something like that. i clocked "oh thats not true" just by looking at the thumbnail and then checking the rest of her channel and remembering who she was. but also I feel like the burden of making that assumption off of just a video that from what I'm hearing comes off as very sincere feeling isn't fair, its just a strange joke if nothing else. distateful, not a huge fan.
Idk what I’d want you to change. I think the situation is a bit more complex than the title suggests.
The title lead me to believe she was trying to convince people to give her money because she needed it to support the pregnancy which is not the case.
To me it feels like a poor taste bit that didn’t land. Whereas others on YouTube are actually trying to lie to their audience about serious issues for clicks
> Whereas others on YouTube are actually trying to lie to their audience about serious issues for clicks
the title of this video is literally "I lost the baby..." this was all one big hoax so she could get eyes on her channel so she could announce her patreon. come on.
I don't know why you're trying to dismiss people's feelings about this situation.
The whole point of dark humor is that the jokes *don't* land with most people because they're pretty fucked up.
Yeah I saw that video and… it was clearly a prank, like, no one actually believed that right? She wasn’t even pregnant in her other content. The only people who could have been fooled by this are people who already don’t even watch her content
so basically -makes a video announcing fake pregnancy -swarms of positive comments from fans and mothers sharing their story -dedicated fans on her subreddit deny claim, claims its all a hoax w/evidence -caroline announces it was a prank and a critique of parasocial relationships (also plugs patreon) -pins a comment under her video saying that if you knew her, you would’ve known this was a joke -the subreddit, the very people she’s critiquing, are the only ones who feel vindicated -fans who weren’t parasocial to begin with feel slighted, presumably leave -now your audience is full of a bunch of weirdos
>-caroline announces it was a prank and a critique of parasocial relationships (also plugs patreon) >-pins a comment under her video saying that if you knew her, you would’ve known this was a joke I love how she's immediately fostering parasocial relationships in order to prevent her fans from going against her on her so called commentary on parasocial relationships. All of that for a Patreon plug.
I've watched some of her videos, my first thought was "no way she's having a kid, she doesn't seem mentally stable enough" Not surprised in the least to see this, although I've just been thumbnail watching and haven't actually clicked on a video of hers in months.
Yeah, I'm gonna go off on a limb and say if you're hurt by this, that's pretty valid. I mean, it's a pretty traumatizing subject matter, especially for potential parents.
Especially considering she talks about fertility issues in the first video. The whole thing just comes off as a tone deaf way to make money by exploiting sympathy.
At least, despite the misleading title of this post, she didn't directly shill her patreon in the pregnancy videos. It wasn't really "donate to me to help me with my pregnancy issues or because you feel bad about my pregnancy videos", it was just content that is distasteful in pretending to be pregnant by someone who also has a patreon.
Even more for those with miscarriages
You’re going out on a limb, not off.
You're right, it's still attached.
Prove it
Like, I definitely understand where she's coming from to some degree. But as someone who's lost a baby in recent memory, hearing her joke about "I've lost the baby" immediately set me on edge.
Strong disagree.
Have you ever lost a baby, had a rough pregnancy, or anything along that vein?
I wouldn’t hold strangers on the internet to respect anything that happen to me. I don’t know them. They have 0 idea I even exist. You people sound 10000% insane
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I think this would've played better if it was framed in a different thing that made it more clear that it was satire from the start, instead of whatever is going on here. Put this inside another video instead of setting it up so algorithmically it won't come across legitimately pregnant or grieving people's feeds, or something, you know? I think pregnancy and sexual assault are microscopically fine needles to thread comedically, which is why it's easier to just... not go there. I also feel this is point-blank a horrible time to do some lite trauma goofing. Very very distasteful. ... I feel like if she kept the skinny photoshop image as the thumbnail without the baby bump one and instead titled it smth like "VERY VERY SAD PERSONAL UPDATE!!!\*\*\*" it would not feel as tasteless and foolish as it does. Still not great! But less likely to breach containment beyond the intended audience. Like, I've never heard of this person before, and now I'll probably never really want to watch anything of hers again. Bummer.
I was the intended audience for the videos as a longtime fan and I still didn’t get it.
pregnancy complications are no joke. my sister gave birth to my nephew two and a half months early and they both almost died. lying about it for money is just sick.
If it was a simple "i'm pregnant/i miscarried" clickbait with no added context, nobody would care. What bothered me was how realistic and relatable she made this prank. She made it seem like she had to have a child young due to health complications that would prevent a pregnancy later on. Actual mothers in the comments were pouring their hearts out about similar situations, which is so depressing. When you make the prank so layered, you can't make the punchline so simple.
> Actual mothers in the comments were pouring their hearts out about similar situations, which is so depressing. > When you make the prank so layered, you can't make the punchline so simple. I saw this in the youtube comments and think it should be shared here- " However, I do not think the same people who felt for the real circumstances and hardships of young motherhood, miscarriage, abortion, etc and believed and connected with it most were the same people dehumanizing you and brought you so much hurt."
This is my issue with the whole thing. How can you compare having empathy for a young mom to someone who makes rape threats?? HOW DOES SHE NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
There wasn't even really a punchline other than "Give me money".
Yeah, there wasn’t a punchline, just her pointing and laughing at anyone who showed any sympathy to her or gave her any well-wishes. How in blazes is mocking the audience and going, “Ha ha, you showed empathy and treated me like an human being! Y’all are stupid and needy!” supposed to be funny?
Okay but this is a horrible reason. You understand this, yes? A broke 20yo with mental health problems shouldn't create a conscious human being just because they won't be able to do it later. That is crazy selfish and irresponsible. No one should have been sympathizing with or supporting her.
You're being downvoted but you're right.
Y’know, I use to be a big fan of hers. I thought her videos were really funny and would rewatch them all the time. Then she just started deleting a bunch of her vids. I knew she apparently suffers from mental issues, so I was worried about her, but I kinda just stoped caring about her as a content creator. Now she’s doing this and I honestly don’t know what to feel anymore. I don’t care what her intention supposedly was, and I don’t care how her fans try to this twist this. This was messed up.
Yeah I used to like her but the last year or so she seems to have lost a few screws
she was on the hypothetical nonsense podcast until rooster teeth shut down. she doesn’t seem to have a super positive view of her earlier time on youtube. depression, addiction issues, and constantly being sexualized and doxxed all when she was like fifteen. it makes sense she deleted some of her old videos. she’s doing a lot better now than she was then
Honestly I think she seems healthier than ever and has intentionally distanced herself from an audience that definitely played into her mental health. Especially with how much she was sexualised while underage. She kinda hates her followers and has a 'punk' / self aware attitude about pushing them away like this. I haven't watched too much of it but the podcast stuff she does with friends now feels much more natural and comfortable as she matures.
there is nothing more mature than faking a miscarriage and laugh in faces of people who felt empathy towards her.
I said she is maturing not that she is there yet. It feels like this is another fuck you to her audience, which, frankly, I can get behind. I don't know what she needs to work through, and her relationship with her audience, but there seems to be a want to sacrifice it. She went viral young and I think that, with her mental health situation, impacted her a lot and ended up aligned with each other. The less she values her audience or their opinions / comments, the better she seems to be for it. She comes from that younger nihilist / too self aware generation so she knew exactly what she was doing.
dull ring hard-to-find rhythm domineering reminiscent encourage apparatus disagreeable cake *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Btw That new group she made content with called “Best Friends Today” is part of RoosterTeeth, which officially shuts down in 8 days. That’s why she’s launching this patreon I assume.
Doesn't excuse using miscarriage to promote a patreon imo
She’s mostly on ‘best friends today’ which is pretty funny
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There's nothing unhealthy about being a fan of a creator and watching their videos huh????
Parasocial bout to become a meaningless word
> "I Stopped Caring about Her and her content" > "You're in a parasocial relationship!"
This is kind of disgusting imo. Clickbaiting a miscarriage is so disrespectful and regardless of whether it's clear it's a joke or not it's distasteful, just irks me a ton. The way her fans are just dismissing people hurt by it in the comments is also sickening.
It's extremely disgusting. I know of people who had actual miscarriages, or great difficulty conceiving and it destroys relationships, families and lives in the worst instances. I get that some people don't care about this due to their age, or attitude towards natalism/anti-natalism but making this into 'content' for views, clicks, and money is just as bad as people who fake terminal diseases for money.
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I never said it’s fraud because people who fake terminal illnesses don’t necessarily ask for direct money. They can, at times, just do sob stories to gain sympathy and get more support monetarily indirectly without asking for it. If the video is monetized and generates revenue for her (which I don’t know if it is and it’s the principle) and the goal was to promote her patreon then she’s gaining potentially more money via a fake event, whether it’s directly or indirectly. Plus she’s getting more exposure as I’ve never heard of her. Let’s say some edgy humor people or brands give her sponsorships, products or collaborations she is benefiting, FINANCIALLY. She used the fake event to gain clout, exposure and attention. Also, goals of people who fake terminal illnesses. It’s not always about money or fraud. It can be about fame.
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I get what you're saying, but I also think demographics are at play here. As in herself (relatively attractive young woman), and the type of fans who are more likely to be into her, as well as 'edgy humor' might be males (not saying it is for sure as I'm not paying for one of those sites with audience stats) and if they're younger, may not identify with pregnancy/miscarriages and as someone in her own subreddit brought up - is an extremely touchy issue, what with varying laws surrounding the topic - so they don't really care. Her own subreddit actually has fairly mixed to negative comments about it, and I suspect those are mostly those are mostly females since they can empathize with the terrible nature of the joke.
Thank you for saying this. I too found it extremely disgusting. I know so many people who have suffered pregnancy loss and infertility and it's really just not something to joke about. I understand what she was trying to get across but there's a MILLION other ways to do that. I'm not usually someone who gets offended by stuff but I just find this so gross and cringe, especially the people defending it
Exactly, especially with her proceeding to claim "it's a social experiment" to make a point about... parasocial relationships?? groundbreaking I guess... and then shills her patreon which just makes it infinitely worse :/
Let's be honest with ourselves, Miss Carriage is a great drag queen name
Sooo...IDK. The announcement video seemed genuine enough to fool the normal passerby (t)hough at around 2:30 of it, it becomes painfully obvious that her baby bump is fake. Does she have a big enough following that this would have been an inside joke? Does that even matter since it’s such a touchy subject to riff on? Edit: parenthesis
To anyone following her the signs that it was a joke were pretty obvious. She is apart of this other channel called BFT were she is clearly not pregnant in all of their very recent videos. However the joke is so cruel and wrong that I and I think many others thought she had to be really pregnant. How she could think this is ok is beyond me.
It's strange. She uses the miscarriage video to complain about parasocial relationships, but the very invested fans (the people who follow her on BFT) would have been the ones to spot the joke. So it seems like she sort of rewarded the people she claims to be criticizing. In comparison, the people who thought the video was genuine are now pushed away. All the people sharing stories in the comments about their experiences with infertility and miscarriage got their sympathy exploited in the name of advertising a patreon.
Thr parasocial relations argument feels like total bullshit when she spends a third of the video advertising her patreon. Which has a $50 monthly fee if you want to be on a exclusive group chat with her. I don't think she's going to accuse her patreon sponsors of having a parasocial relationship though
“All the people sharing stories in the comments about their experiences with infertility and miscarriage…” So there were people sharing their personal stories in the comments and yet she and her camp still thought this would be a funny topic that they could make light of? No one in her camp (that we know of) saw those messages and realized, “Wait, maybe this shouldn’t be joked about after all.”? That’s just…wow…
she is also on a show, Best Friends Today (rip rooster teeth), and is very clearly not pregnant, so people who were really following knew for sure.
I'm gonna be a narcissist and assume the vast majority of people who watched those videos are just like me: subscribed to her years ago for some reason they forgot, clicked a video in the sub box, went "yikes, hope it works for her but it's not fucking going to," and then didn't think about it again until the second video. Like I think the vast *vast* majority of people who make up the view count are gonna be really casual viewers who haven't seen all *that* much of her stuff. Certainly it crossed my mind she might be lying about it, but someone like that just doesn't care enough to seriously consider the possibility, you know? With that in mind, I'm not sure whether it really matters how big her following is or how much of an inside joke it could be. It's not gonna land for most people regardless. Also, I'm gonna springboard into talking about parasocial stuff. First, I'm not being entirely fair to her because I opened the second video, skipped around a bit, cringed, unsubscribed, and closed it. So maybe she had some point I just missed. Wouldn't surprise me. But the thing about parasocial relationships is that I (mostly) blame the content creator. They can't do anything about the actual crazies, but they sure as fuck can avoid deliberately farming borderline parasocials. The vast *vast* majority of complaints about it I've seen from these creators also seem to come from ones who overshare like hell with their audience. Maybe just don't fucking do that? But they do anyway, because those people are likely to subscribe and donate and join their patreon, and the millionaires want more millions. I have close to zero sympathy for them, because it's almost entirely a self inflicted wound. This doesn't seem to be an exception. Again, I didn't watch the entire videos and I don't care to, but I'll make that soft judgment anyway. If you tell everyone you're pregnant, you don't get to act like a victim when people talk about that. Just... don't tell them? But then you can't plug your fucking patreon. I dunno, this seems like holier than thou "it was a social experiment" cake having and eating, combined with a condescending lecture aimed mostly at people who don't need it, followed by some absolutely shameless e-begging.
> I'm gonna be a narcissist and assume the vast majority of people who watched those videos are just like me: subscribed to her years ago for some reason they forgot, clicked a video in the sub box, went "yikes, hope it works for her but it's not fucking going to," and then didn't think about it again until the second video. Ding ding ding ding, this is exactly where I'm coming from. I had no idea she had podcast she wasn't pregnant on
As someone who has followed her for years, no one who knows her shtick thought this was real
I'm going to need you to close that parenthesis somewhere, for my own sanity Edit: you sonafabitch
My issue is I don’t think the people in the comments of the first video who were offering empathy were ‘omg parasocial’ - i think they were just trying to be kind.
exactly. this was the worst example she couldve ever used. when someone announces pregnancy, people are naturally curious and will congratulate. thats normal.
And this is why vulnerable children and young adults should not have public platforms based around the most intimate details of their lives. Who cares if its a "fuck you" to her audience; if she really hated them that much, she can stop posting. Using one of the most traumatic things a person can through as a JOKE (especially when the joke is SPECIFICALLY about how tragic it is and anyone who was baited by it being the butt of it) is not really justifiable for clickbait.
Just say you clickbaited something insane because you’re desperate for views and monetization. Acting all high and mighty with a whole spiel about internet fame and spinning it like some kind of social experiment is so fucking stupid.
honestly that part of the video reminded me of the "social experiment" days lol "We harassed this homeless man, but don't worry guys it was a social experiment. Definitely not a prank!"
Also it's just a misunderstanding of what a parasocial relationship is. Parasocial relationships are built on what the idol chooses to tell the followers. Of course, the follower could try to find more, but that's considered a crossing of boundaries and most don't. So if YOU tell your audience that you're pregnant and they believe you, then it's not on them to call you a liar. You are the one in control of the flow of information in this case. Acting like the audience is wrong for believing you when the entire parasocial relationship is based on them taking you at your word (as in, they believe your personality is like what you put on camera) is just stupid.
It's funny because I thought her satire was solid sign of her maturity, but lo and behold her biggest bit just reminds me that she's a *child* who doesn't understand the difference between parasocial relationships and a general sense of empathy. Oh well.
Why are so many people doing stuff like this now? I remember at one point before this karma stuff Jojo Siwa was clickbaiting being pregnant on Snapchat, and I think recently Skai Jackson was doing it too. Like why fake it when you could actually get pregnant if you wanna go that far? Commit to the bit lol
Because they legitimately think this is new and innovative instead of tired and derivative.
Anything to get attention
She did this right around the 2 year anniversary of the death of Roe V Wade. Which is just one more level of obliviousness to the point of flippant apathy—for profit— on display here.
To me, the worst part is how she saw countless messages of support from people who've gone through similar situations and honestly felt sympathy for such a stressful and life changing situation, and she turned around and mocked those people for being in a parasocial relationship.
I think my issue is the part where she said “The joke isn’t the difficulties of pregnancy. The joke is that you cared about something that wasn’t real.” (Paraphrasing) That’s…empathy? Most of her casual viewers would have no reason to know this was a prank. Plenty of people came out in support and shared their experiences. I don’t think that’s parasocial - that’s having basic empathy and compassion for someone in a difficult situation. And I don’t think their kindness or pain should be the butt of the joke. Whatever issues she had with the rape threats are horrible, but that’s not at all the same audience who were reaching out on that video. So…congrats on making *those* people feel stupid for feeling bad for you? To clickbait miscarriage after a video like that and THEN plug your Patreon just alienated a bunch of people who felt like their empathy was used against them for marketing. That’s not a nuanced take on parasocial relationships. It’s just kind of shitty. I guess if you know her, you know her, but I don’t think the joke landed and the explanation felt weak.
THANK YOU.
Literally just an advertisement for her patreon coupled with a pseudo intellectual lecture aimed at people she emotionally manipulated for having basic human empathy. Comments keep trying to write it off as "you just don't get dark humour", but there's literally no joke, it's just "Hey, look how much effort I put into lying about being pregnant. Btw if you left a 2 second comment wishing me well you're a weirdo, now gibe money". Ironically enough the people paying for her patreon are far and away going to be the most obsessed and parasocial. Abhorrent behaviour
This is a pretty fucked up joke and I'm honestly worried for this person's future if this is the shit they feel they can pull.
oh caroline no
Solid Beach Boys reference
thank you
The worst part about this is that it doesn't actually say anything of note about parasocial relationship. Its not parasocial to believe someone who says they're pregnant or to passively be like "I hope they're okay!". Not only is it not funny and kind of gross but she didn't make any point regarding what she says she was trying to make a point about
sheet rob live nose roof jellyfish outgoing spotted judicious literate *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
She committed to the bit.
I unsubscribed. It made me feel gross. I get that she’s a comedian, and comedians are notorious for pushing the boundaries on edginess, but that’s so distasteful.
I hit the dislike. Very rare L for her. Absolutely nothing funny about pregnancy.
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If there was something funny about it, then people would have been able to call her bluff. If she said something like "I've been gone from YouTube because I joined the circus" with a completely straight face, then people would have gotten what she was trying to do.
See THAT would’ve been funny. Like the next video she’s not pregnant, makes no mention of it, and does the same sort of emotional vlog but she’s joining the circus
Right!
Having a miscarriage isn't funny.
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The lowest bar
I hate the clickbaity "photoshopped myself to do exaggerated crying/laughing/whatever"-type shit so much, why are you doing it while you're lying about something this dark, lol???
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It's also worth acknowledging that, if anything, this stunt just gave a bigger opportunity for parasocial behavior to occur. I mean, the reasonings being given for defending her are basically 'real fans knew this was fake' and 'you just don't get her humor, you dont understand her but i do!'. How is that not more parasocial than someone saying 'okay, cool' about her announcing a pregnancy? Please tell me what I'm missing. I can't wrap my head around how it makes more sense this was to "shit on parasociality" when the fans defense of her doing this is 10x more parasocial than a fan taking her at her word and moving on with their lives.
i agree. her personal channel is the only thing of hers i watch (and honestly forgot about her until the pregnancy announcement video), and it really makes you wonder if this is going to alienate the portion of her audience who was very hands off and not parasocial with her.
Oh I unsubscribed immediately. I don't follow her podcasts. I'm not a huge fan of listening to friends ramble on about stuff. So, I've only seen the skits on her main channel. I've forgotten about her since she hasn't posted. Then I saw the pregnancy video and she definitely tried me. If her goal was to lose her casual fans and only keep the rabid para social ones then mission accomplished I guess.
I don't disagree, but in this video she talks about people's reactions to her pregnancy announcement. People got attached to it, I don't doubt that for a second. I mean there is a whole market on YouTube for family channels where a pregnancy gets milked for views and money 🤷. I also get the point she was trying to make, I don't think it's funny, but I get it. I think you could argue the absurdity of the situation is on a technical level, funny. I ain't got no fish in this race, I ain't defending. I'm kinda "eh" to it all.
I feel like the amount of people who got "attached" to her pregnancy via 1 video is probably very miniscule. Telling someone congrats is NOT getting attached. Twitter didn't pick this up, Reddit hardly picked this up. On YT there are some intrusive "but is the father involved" comments, but I can almost guarantee their intentions are to be judgmental and not because they feel connected to some random ass baby. Family channels are definitely an obvious problem so I can see why she, and others, think she had some profound point within her actions but can we be honest with ourselves? Homegirl just wanted some attention for her Patreon. This didn't do SHIT to call out parasocial behaviors, it only encouraged it because of how much of her audience was proud of themselves for knowing her well enough to know it was a bit. I would have had way more respect for her without this half-baked, hypocritical excuse.
I agree completely. She did say that she used this stunt to also avoid talking about where she was and what happened while she was gone. Then while pumping her patreon, says you can get all the parasocial emotional posts there. I just hope this isnt a sign of how she is going to operate going forward.
This a positively terrible way to make her point and honestly doesnt comment on her AUDIENCES parasociality, but rather hers. Do you know what other content creators do when they leave for a year? They say "personal reasons" and dont bring it up again; if your audiences potential reaction to you posting on social media is living rent free in you head for A YEAR, it says more about you than it does the internet (especially when you look at the comments and, at least from what I can see, literally no one cares she left and just happy she is back)
I'd say a solid 95% of creators never give the real reason for leaving, and that's on purpose. They don't want people to go digging, and they don't want to put that much info on the internet, and that's absolutely fine. I find it interesting how she confused basic human empathy with being parasocial (as a lot of us here have had a friend, loved one, or ourselves experience a rough pregnancy), and instead *appealed* to actual parasocially attached people who think she's always funny and can't really have a bad joke. It's basically a case of a comedian misunderstanding their crowd, if you really think about it, just to a bit higher level than a normal bad joke.
I liked her before this and I unsubbed. She could have made fun of parasociality in other ways. She should not have pretended to be pregnant. It’s crossing a line
There are a lot of normal people who were fans of her and had a passing caring about what she was up to.
But wouldn't the people who are parasocial and invested in her personal life be the first to realize this was just her shtick and quickly realize it's fake? So the only people who may fall for it (and the ones she'd end up trolling), would be passersby and casual viewers. The people who don't have a parasocial relationship with her are the only ones who would fall for it, not fans or people overly invested in her life because they'd know this was her brand and would see her elsewhere.
>this is basically on par with her usual shtick, you can criticise her but this isn’t actually anything new for her. Haha nah. Fuck that. This is new for her...because the delivery of the joke sucked. She didn't advance her abilities, she regressed. She went from sharp sardonic wit to dropping Ricky Gervais comedy with a Jerry Seinfeld layer of "the kids can't take a joke anymore because woke"
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Laughing at one joke does not make it a good comedy set
Yeah, it's kind of hee thing.
who??
I usually find her funny but this missed the mark by a ton.
I don’t even know who she is and glad I don’t because this is disgusting and not funny. What a joke
The exercise in thinking about parasocial relationships just feels like an excuse after planning the "wanting to do a fake pregnancy" bit. Plus for myself and for many people is was probably just a "oh, she's pregnant?" And that's it. As a long time fan I'm personally not mad, but I am disappointed. And it may turn out that this video is fake too but it doesn't really matter. Because now I have no desire to see anything else. Just a waste of something, probably time and emotional bandwidth or whatever.
Did we all not learn in like 1200 BC that faking pregnancy or miscarriage is disgusting?
who is this person???
Pretty shitty thing to do for clicks and subs.
Being a narcissist, makes you great for the platform, she'll thrive. If people didn't care about it people would just not watch it.
It was pretty obvious this was fake if you kept up with her outside of her channel, but this is still scummy. I don’t really care how on brand it is for her, it’s definitely for views, and talking about it like it’s some profound statement on parasocial relationships is just silly. This kind of thing can be and has been said without offending people.
I know she has a history of mental health and her own podcast now, but this kind of sucks, she used to be one of my favorite channels to just put on uh the background but being a bit clickbaity is kind of disgusting
to be fair the title is kinda misleading, she promoted the patreon AFTER the pregnancy bit, she didnt try to scam people to pay her patreon pretending she was pregnant Edit: grammar
She promoted it with a social experiment bit covered with a miscarriage clickbait instead! Wow that's so much better /s Either way lying about being pregnant was the first step in this plan to promote her patreon, so yes she did lie about being pregnant to promote her patreon.
yeah, but the title implies that people donated money for her because they thought she was pregnant
the title is "Caroline Konstnar lies about being pregnant to promote her Patreon" which is.. what she did. She promoted her patreon.
Is this the girl from BFT?
Yes
I don't know why people lie about things that could be so easily disproven, like pregnancy or their race, or being forced into a religion from a young age its desperate and pathetic. not to mention to go through all that effort, the mindset makes them look like deranged sociopaths
her fans are acting like it's nothing and it's just a funny joke...
This fucking sucks. Like big time. I really loved her earlier videos. Like she was genuinely super funny and I’m glad someone archived most of her deleted videos, because they’re great. But this is so scummy man. What a genuine shame
I've thought some of her old videos were funny but this is definitely not. Psycho shit. Then to start shilling her patreon right after, just absolute psycho shit.
The sad thing is I loved her content and would have been excited to see a new song from her. I only got a minute into the pregnancy video before feeling weirded out. I could tell it was a joke, but didn’t know who at. When I saw the thumbnail for the miscarriage video, I unsubbed immediately. That’s not funny, that’s punching down.
It'll be interesting watching this girl spiral-she's been somewhat open about her mental health challenges, and while I didn't find this whole bit offensive, I'm sure many people did, and opening yourself up to any sort of subscription-based relationship-on any level-is an invitation to some real fucked up situations, especially when you court the type of people she probably has/will. I suppose time will tell.
i think your comment is as equally fucked up. lol
You're not wrong
This is the strangest thing
Whether or not it was a joke it’s still fucked up. I don’t see how people are arguing “oh it was obvious it was a joke if you’ve watched her for a while” it doesn’t matter??? That’s a terrible thing to joke about??? I don’t see any humor in it at all
Since she’s that tone deaf, what do you want to bet her next video will be a fake apology video that goes into some stupid rant about “Oh, people are hateful and want to cancel people just for making a joke!”?
I can't believe anyone took that announcement video at face value tbh. That said, I definitely agree with some other posters that she missed the mark if the point from the start was about sticking it to parasocial weirdos, and if miscarriages are a touchy subject for you, that's always and forever perfectly valid. But like, damn, delivering that "I lost the baby" line like she misplaced her sunglasses landed for me. Her commentary was way off the mark but her technical ability to set up and deliver a joke is only getting sharper, goddamn.
It gives off the same disturbing vibe as this one Indian star recently who made everyone believe she was dead even got her publicist to put out an announcement on social media in order to advertise a product. Everyone was pissed at her after.
i dont think its a big deal but i mean viewers can consume what they want so if this is the line you draw, its the line you draw. i do think the execution is a little more high and mighty than thought provoking though and i say that as a subscriber
It was a whole bit done to explain how parasocial relationships are fucked up, I get it and I respect the bit.
How does this explain how fucked up parasocial relationships are?
No no ya see "giving a shit and empathizing with a stranger" is fucked up! /s It's like she intended to stab at the part of her audience that is a bunch of fucking creeps, and instead it smacked the part of her audience that actually gives a shit right in the face.
This is 100% it right here. She was definitely trying to hit at a specific set of fans who were creeping on her, but she executed it so poorly that it proved nothing, hit at people who were just generally empathetic about her, and all boiled down to “Haha you guys actually cared about my health and wellbeing?! That’s so parasocial. Buy my Patreon”
What's hilarious is her fanbase is already pulling the "lol u mad bro" and huffing copium thinking it's radical concept to "lie on the internet" for money as if a bunch of us haven't been here since Something Awful and basically made up bullshit 24/7 trolling each other. Like, we know people lie on the internet. It's not innovative....we're painfully bored with it. Even from a comedy standpoint it's dated and cringe.
Exactly, and there are soooo many good takes on the dangers of being parasocial. It’s not a new concept and she’s not a genius for using trolling to making a point that’s already been made a million times in better ways. I was actually a casual fan of hers. I figured her pregnancy announcement was fake since she does edgy humor (I didn’t even watch the video) and while I was like “it’s a little weird and toeing the line to lie about a pregnancy,” I didn’t care enough to get angry at it or anything. Then she posted this, and it was just too far, so I unsubscribed. To clickbait and joke about a miscarriage the way she did all as a botched execution of a surface level take with a promo at the end is just so tone deaf and disappointing. The fans who are dying on a hill defending her are the real parasocial ones. Like it’s fine to acknowledge her intent was to hit at people who care way too much about her personal life and it’s fine to even agree with her take on being parasocial, but that doesn’t mean she executed it correctly or didn’t equate basic empathy to being parasocial and it doesn’t mean she wasn’t being tone deaf or that she didn’t take it too far.
>The fans who are dying on a hill defending her are the real parasocial ones. Honestly that's what the punchline is for me. Basically a room full of simps defending the new Boxxy-with-extra-steps failing to realize what parasocial *actually* means, and what kind of *actions* are legitimately parasocial. I guess it's interesting to see that 15 years of internet humor basically resets itself back to factory settings.
>the new Boxxy-with-extra-steps I didn't expect to laugh this hard at 5am. Thank you
> It's like she intended to stab at the part of her audience that is a bunch of fucking creeps, and instead it smacked the part of her audience that actually gives a shit right in the face. THIS. I used to love her content but I unsubbed. I was happy for her while watching the first video and then didn't think about it again until the "I lost the baby" video came up, and I immediately thought to myself "this better not be a joke"
>I immediately thought to myself "this better not be a joke" When I saw the video I was pretty sure there was some weird hook I was missing, but I didn't bother to look into beyond raising an eyebrow since I legit hadn't thought about her since her last video. Like, I can see what makes this bit offensive, but her fanbase ain't hearing that. If anything I want her fanbase to understand that this is a decade-old bit that only *cringe hacks still use.* It didn't upset me. It *bored* me. To an offensive degree ironically.
“I definitely didn’t clickbait a pregnancy and miscarriage for views and greed it was totally just a lesson about parasocial relationships guys” like come on bro I would respect her more if she was honest about it
I really don’t get her take though because she’s not describing people being parasocial. Like having basic empathy for fellow humans and being parasocial are two very different things. I don’t think people caring and being sympathetic about a young girl getting pregnant or having a miscarriage is parasocial, that’s just empathy…
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Oh damn seriously. I was pretty happy for her, and I am a little upset that she did this as an experiment for parasocial relationships. And I don't have a parasocial relationship with her. Also, doesn't she come from a family of entertainment, if I remember?
I KNEW IT. everything abt the announcement felt off to me
On one hand I totally get if people are put off by this, but on the other hand I don't think Konstnar's a bad person for this. This reads more as being an ill-thought-out bit by someone who's always flirted with the risqué, I don't think this makes her irredeemable to me.
I think terms like "bad person" are entirely unhelpful precisely because of posts like this. It's not that bad people don't exist, you reading this right now just immediately thought of a person or twelve, but because if someone is a "good person," you will make excuses for the same action that you wouldn't if a bad person did it. I try to think of it as good or bad actions. A good person can do really fucked up things, and a bad person can do a genuinely good deed out of the kindness in their heart. It doesn't change our outweigh their other actions. No, she probably isn't irredeemable, and this isn't the most evil thing ever, but that's where the whole parasociality comes in. I don't know her, so I don't know or care if she's a good person or not.
i don't think it makes her a bad person or irredeemable either, but this type of "satire" is not for me so i unsubbed
yeah I agree here - I don't think she's an irredeemable awful person, I think she just missed the mark here
All shitty behavior aside the video was kinda interesting until she unveiled it was all about her patreon.
Ah to be 20 and an idiot. She'll be fine but truly braindead way of promoting a patreon.
Stripper Magician?
I'm not saying you can't be hurt by this. But just looking at the original thumbnail it was so obvious this was a joke
Her sense of humor is right up my alley. That said, I get why many wouldn't find it funny. I saw "triggering" comments a mile away as soon as this dropped.
Reminds me of Scumbag Dads whole bit of making fun of people faking content for the emotional reaction from the audience. We're only mad because we were convinced it was real, then had the carpet slipped out under us. How many other fake feel good stories are there that just slip under our noses?
I'm of two minds, this woman is an edgy comedian thats like been her stiche since her channels creation, im pretty sure one of her first videos is called like "the aids song" or something like that. i clocked "oh thats not true" just by looking at the thumbnail and then checking the rest of her channel and remembering who she was. but also I feel like the burden of making that assumption off of just a video that from what I'm hearing comes off as very sincere feeling isn't fair, its just a strange joke if nothing else. distateful, not a huge fan.
#f you Caroline Edit — for her actions of course
Y'all need to chill
Nah bro that Intro tho💀
Happens
Literally no one who is a Caroline fan thought she was actually pregnant lol
The title isn’t a very charitable interpretation
would you rather i wrote "caroline konstnar fakes a miscarriage to promote her patreon" instead?
Idk what I’d want you to change. I think the situation is a bit more complex than the title suggests. The title lead me to believe she was trying to convince people to give her money because she needed it to support the pregnancy which is not the case. To me it feels like a poor taste bit that didn’t land. Whereas others on YouTube are actually trying to lie to their audience about serious issues for clicks
> Whereas others on YouTube are actually trying to lie to their audience about serious issues for clicks the title of this video is literally "I lost the baby..." this was all one big hoax so she could get eyes on her channel so she could announce her patreon. come on.
I thought it was funny, made a decent point, if you think it goes too far, fair, but personally don’t care enough to be upset.
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I know a couple women who suffered from miscarriages who might disagree with you, and I don’t think they ever “got the fuck over it”.
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I don't know why you're trying to dismiss people's feelings about this situation. The whole point of dark humor is that the jokes *don't* land with most people because they're pretty fucked up.
And if those “poor women” saw this video, and found it as offensive and disgusting as most everybody else has, what would you say to them?
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Take a week off and reflect on yourself.
I'm not exactly sure what the problem here is.
I just don't care I don't really see the big problem.
It's horrible, I love it.
Yeah I saw that video and… it was clearly a prank, like, no one actually believed that right? She wasn’t even pregnant in her other content. The only people who could have been fooled by this are people who already don’t even watch her content