2015–2017: YouTube beginnings

 

By the time Paul began attending college, his YouTube channel had attained a modest following via the platform Vine.[29] He took classes in industrial engineering at Ohio University before dropping out in 2014 to pursue a career as a full-time social media entertainer in Los Angeles,[25][31] moving into an apartment complex in the city with other Vine stars.[26][25]

Paul rose to fame as a member on the Internet video sharing service Vine.[32] In February 2014, he had over 3.1 million followers on various social media platforms.[33] By April 2014, he had attained 105,000 Twitter followers, 361,000 Instagram followers, 31,000 likes on his Facebook page and about 150,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. A YouTube compilation video of his Vine work garnered more than four million views the first week it was posted.[29] In 2015 he was ranked as the 10th most influential figure on Vine, with his six-second videos earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue.[25] By that October, his Facebook videos alone had more than 300 million views.[26] Logan refers to his following as the "Logang", a portmanteau of "Logan" and "gang".[34]

In early 2015, Paul appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.[35] He also appeared on the Fox TV series Weird Loners, where he appeared in the role of the Paul Twins. He starred in two episodes of the Freeform series Stitchers. In 2016, he starred in the YouTube Red movie The Thinning opposite Peyton List. In early 2016, Paul trained with drama coaches and the comedy troupes The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.[26] Paul wrote the screenplay for an adult comedy, Airplane Mode, which has been described as "American Pie for Gen Z", and by Paul himself as "Expendables with Internet stars".[26][36] The film was originally planned to be released in 2017, but was eventually released on August 2, 2019, after being delayed. He was also involved in a number of advertising campaigns, including for Hanes, PepsiCo, and HBO.[26] In 2016, Comcast purchased a short form digital TV series from Paul called Logan Paul VS.[37]

In February 2017, Dwayne Johnson released a YouTube video entitled "Logan Paul has been cut from, like, all of The Rock's movies", in which he informs Paul that he has been cut from all of Johnson's films, and subsequently consoles him by making him the "ambassador" to his upcoming Baywatch feature film.[38] On November 23, 2017, Paul released his new single, "No Handlebars", a track that draws heavily on an interpolated sample of the song "Handlebars" by the American alternative hip hop group Flobots. The song was heavily criticized for its perceived sexual objectification of women, including a scene in its music video where Paul rides several women like a bicycle. Flobots frontman Jamie Laurie lambasted Paul for both the "sexist" lyrical content of the song and for unauthorized use of the sample, calling him the face of "douchebag entitlement". Laurie would later go on to release a track with lyrics deriding Paul, titled "Handle Your Bars". Paul did not respond to Laurie's comments nor the backlash towards "No Handlebars".[39] After Flobots sued Paul for copyright infringement in 2019, he deleted the song from YouTube.[40]

2017–2018: Suicide forest controversy

Further information: List of YouTube videos § We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest... (2017)

On December 31, 2017, Paul uploaded a vlog to his YouTube channel depicting the corpse of a recently-deceased man who had died by hanging himself in Aokigahara at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, known as the "suicide forest" due to its infamy as a suicide site. Initially intended to be part three of his "Tokyo Adventures" series, Paul and his group had planned to camp in the woods, but in response to finding the corpse, decided to notify the authorities and cancel their plans. The video gained 6.3 million views within 24 hours of being uploaded.[17] Paul's video depicting the corpse, whose face was censored, and his group's reactions to it, were criticized by celebrities and politicians.[41][42] In addition, he was accused by other members of the YouTube community of being insensitive to suicide victims.[43] He was also criticized for other misbehavior he was captured taking part in during the trip, including climbing onto a moving forklift truck at the Tsukiji fish market, removing his clothing on a crowded street and then proceeding to fight with one of his traveling companions, and throwing a giant Poké Ball plush toy at passing citizens, including an officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.[44] Several petitions were posted to Change.org urging YouTube to delete Paul's channel in light of the controversy, the largest of which received more than 720,000 signatures as of February 9, 2018.[45] As a result of the backlash, Paul removed the video from his YouTube channel, following up with a written apology on Twitter on January 1, 2018. The following day, on January 2, a subsequent video apology was released to YouTube in which Paul admitted to making "a severe and continuous lapse in [his] judgement" and described his behavior as a "coping mechanism", asking his fans to stop defending his actions in the process.[46][47][48] On January 9, YouTube issued a statement via Twitter condemning Paul's video: "It's taken us a long time to respond, but we've been listening to everything you've been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we'll have more to share soon on steps we're taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again."[49] On January 10, YouTube announced it was removing Paul's channels from Google Preferred, its preferred ad program, and New World Order, the sequel to his YouTube film The Thinning, was placed on hold,[50][51] with the airing of Logan Paul VS. being halted as well. He was also cut from season 4 of the YouTube Red series Foursome and the role of Alec Fixler was terminated.[52]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer postponed the release of the film Valley Girl, featuring Paul, following the controversies.[53] On January 15, Paul was seen at LAX by reporters from TMZ. He said that he has learned a lot from his mistakes and believes he has been treated "fairly". When asked whether he deserves a second chance, Paul replied, "Everyone deserves second chances, bro."[54] In response, he donated $1 million to suicide prevention agencies, a quarter of which is going to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.[55] In response to the controversy, Paul hired Mike Majlak, a former marketing manager at furniture company LoveSac, to "make sure that no bad things happen" and work with Logan to help improve his reputation.[56] On February 4, Paul officially returned to his daily vlogs on YouTube after taking a 3-week-long hiatus.[57] YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said on February 12 that Paul did not violate YouTube's three-strike policy and did not meet the criteria for being banned from the platform.[58] In the wake of the controversy regarding the suicide video, Maverick Apparel, a brand for juniors and children, threatened Paul with legal action for giving his clothing line a similar name ("Maverick by Logan Paul"), believing shoppers are confusing their line with Paul's, resulting in a deep decline in sales.[59][60]

2018–present: boxing, podcast, and further controversies

 

On February 9, 2018, YouTube suspended all advertising on Paul's channels due to his "pattern of behavior", referring to a joke he tweeted about the Tide Pod challenge, removing a fish from his pond to "jokingly give it CPR", and tasering two dead rats.[61] His revenue was temporarily halted as a result,[62] and as a result of the suspension, he broadcast live on Twitch for the first time.[63] Two weeks later, on February 26, YouTube restored ads on Paul's channel; however, his channel was still on a 90-day "probation period" during which time content from his channel was not eligible to be on YouTube's trending tab.[64]

 

On November 20, 2018, the first episode of Paul's Impaulsive podcast was aired.[65] In January 2019, Paul remarked on the podcast, "What is it, male-only March? We're gonna attempt to go gay for just one month." He received widespread criticism for implying that being gay is a choice, with LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD responding to Paul's statement on Twitter, writing, "That's not how it works, Logan Paul."[66] In March 2019, Paul released what has been described as a mockumentary exploring the Flat Earth Theory. In the video, he interviewed many self-proclaimed "Flat Earthers", and spoke at the 2018 Flat Earth International Conference, which took place in Denver, Colorado.[67] Logan Paul was sued by Planeless Pictures in December 2020 for the aforementioned 2017 incident in Aokigahara, when he posted a video including a recently deceased suicide victim. Planeless Pictures accused him of posting the video in order to escape a movie deal he had with them where he would star in, write, and produce their film Airplane Mode. They also claimed that the video led to Google suspending their contract with them, leaving them $3 million in debt.[68]

In 2021, Paul competed on the fifth season of The Masked Singer as "Grandpa Monster". He was unmasked after his second appearance where one of his clues was a foreshadowing of his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr.[69]

In September 2021, Paul released an NFT-based game called CryptoZoo,[70] which was mocked for using stock images and was poorly received.[71][70] In December 2022, YouTuber Coffeezilla released a docuseries exposing the game's lack of functionality despite substantial funding.[72] Criticisms included marketing towards children and pre-launch cryptocurrency purchases by the team. Paul disputed these allegations, threatened legal action against Coffeezilla, and later deleted his response video.[73] In January 2023, Paul apologized and promised a $1.3 million refund for NFT holders.[74] By February 2023, Paul faced a class-action lawsuit from investors.[75] A refund program began in January 2024, where Paul offered refunds to those agreeing not to sue,[76] and he also filed a counter-claim against co-defendants.[77] In June 2024, Paul decided to sue Coffeezilla for defamation, despite his earlier apologies.[77][78] Coffeezilla responded that the lawsuit was filed in response to him asking Paul for a new investigation into Liquid Marketplace, a company co-owned by Paul and being accused of multi-layered fraud by Canadian authorities.[79]

Paul was criticized in January 2023 when his former pet pig, named "Pearl", was found abandoned by The Gentle Barn Sanctuary in California, USA.[80] Rescuers said she was "lucky to be alive" after being diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening uterus infection, which they said has since healed. Despite facing online criticism, Paul denied any wrongdoing, stating that he responsibly re-homed the pig in 2021 when he moved to Puerto Rico, and that the pig was subsequently re-homed again unbeknownst to him at a later date.[80] In August 2024, the BBC, wanting to cover Paul's cryptocurrency controversies, was asked to fly into Puerto Rico in the middle of Hurricane Ernesto, and instead of Paul turning up at his gym for the interview, a lookalike came instead. This was followed by a crowd which shouted abuse at the BBC. The BBC then received a letter from Paul's lawyer, who warned the BBC not to publish what they had found.[81]

Leading up to the 2024 presidential election, then-former president Donald Trump appeared on the Impaulsive podcast for a 45-minute interview with Paul.[82]