What happens when a YouTube star writes a book

Since the dawn of the Web and its many versions, numerous Internet sensations have come and gone, but only a few have sustained and continue to increase their following. One of them is Felix Kjellberg, popularly known by his Internet alias “PewDiePie.” He is a 20-something Swede who has lingered as YouTube’s biggest star since 2013, garnering over 40 million followers on his channel. This makes him the holder of the Guinness Book of World Records title for generating the most number of subscribers of all time. What’s more astounding about his fame is that his videos have been viewed over 10 billion times but he remains strange and nameless to most of his audience.

PewDiePie is a social media phenomenon whose popularity emanates from his one-of-a-kind approach to his video productions, which usually start off with a shrill declaration of his name before he slides into mocking, panicky reactions to various games and activities. At the end, he thanks his “bros” for tuning in. PewDiePie’s fans have multiplied swiftly and become more pervasive because instant communication facilitates increased word of mouth.

Following his social media success, PewDiePie ventured into book publishing and came up with This Book Loves You, now a New York Times bestseller that is poised to become an international sensation as well. The tome is an extremely imaginative pictorial collection of direction and advice manifested in gags and witticisms that lampoons Internet memes and passages. As he declared, it is a “parody on self-help books” and is “full of useful quotes.”

This Book Loves You serves up a lot of toilet humor and impassioned communication. The heftiest improprieties, though, are masked by intriguing visuals or cheeky figures, while still making the message quite apparent. The images are caricatures, executed mostly as cartoony patchworks, and are funny bordering on the ridiculous. Hostility is not a prevalent theme and the sexual content is manageable. The character of the opinions listed is ironic and satiric and projects the persona of the author and the tonality of the message he wants to convey.

What’s the narrative?

The book — jokingly or seriously — was a byproduct of the author’s discovery of his “great wisdom,” or so it seems.  He claims that he needs to share it with a world that desperately needs to read it. His exasperation with the invariable quotes and memes cluttering social media pushed him to put together this “first-rate, highly flavored, and optimistic” book.

A fan pic on Twitter inspired him to counter those bothersome memes with his own take. “I turn these one-liners and quotes upside down by adding acerbic, smart-alecky, tongue-in-cheek punch lines and colorful, witty and sometimes irreverent visual supports,” says PewDiePie.

Millennials will surely get some laughs out of this paperback, which appears superficial and thoughtless on the surface but holds a certain charm for a specific audience. But knowing that millennials now number in the millions, who needs breadth and depth? Certainly not PewDiePie.

This Book Loves You provides a window into the wacky mind of one of YouTube’s best entertainers. Here are samples:

• “My favorite quote? It’s like being asked what my favorite child is. I don’t have a child.”

• “Money can’t buy you happiness; but it buys you all the things you don’t have, even friends. I feel sorry for poor people.”

• “Don’t be afraid to say how you feel, because no one is going to care anyway.”

• “If you can fight your way out of a situation, don’t. You’ll die.”

• “To fly, you must get rid of the things that weigh you down. This is why all your friends left you.”

• “Don’t sugarcoat everything… you’ll get diabetes.”

• “Impossible is nothing. Doing nothing is easy. So do nothing!”

• “You can’t watch YouTube in prison, so don’t kill anyone.”

• “Running out of money doesn’t count as exercise.”

• “Running away from problems won’t make you skinny.”

• “You can never fail if you never try. So why bother.”

• “You’re not bad, everyone else is just so much better.”

• “You can’t make everyone happy. So focus on making yourself happy so that maybe one day your happiness will evolve and eat everyone.”

• “Don’t listen to haters. Live your life the way you want to live it.”

• “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Unless you don’t have any friends, then just sit in a corner and cry.”

• “Don’t worry about your problems. If you end up dead tomorrow, they’ll all be gone.”

• “Every second you’re closer to oblivion. No quote in the world is going to change that.”

• “If you can’t beat them, there’s still a good chance to annoy them.”

• “Change your life today, for the worse!”

• “Quotes are the most important thing in the universe, and you should always take them to heart.”

If you’re dedicated PewDiePie fan you might just love him enough to buy the book out of support for the phenomenon and his unusual, confusing and unique approach to book writing. But expecting anything beyond a momentary laugh might be asking too much.

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