YouTube star Shane Dawson, pictured here at the Starz television series "The Chair" during the 2014 TCA press tour, recently issued a video apology to his fans. (Reuters)
Disgraced YouTube sensation Shane Dawson has issued an X-rated apology after an old podcast was uncovered in which he was heard joking that he Googled naked babies - and found them sexy.
Pop Blast posted a shocking clip of the 29-year-old's "jokey" comments about paedophilia in the Shane And Friends audio show four years ago.
Now the much-hyped American has posted a 14-minute apology saying his words were taken out of context - after he was lambasted by his own fans.
Dawson, who has 11m YouTube subscribers, tells his fans: "I am not a f---ing paedophile!"
In the outrageous original podcast Dawson talks about meeting a six-year-old girl with over 100,000 Instagram followers.
He said: "I said OK, why do you have so many followers? And she said, 'Oh I’m a cheerleader' Oh really? And she shows me her Instagram which are like… First of all, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but she’s like sexy.
"Here’s my justification for paedophilia - people have foot fetishes, people have fetishes about everything, that’s fine, do your thing.
"So why is it when somebody looks at and Googles like ‘naked baby’ on Google and jerks off to it, they can get arrested? I don’t understand that.
"Here’s the worst part of it, I actually went to Google… I didn’t want to see child porn but I just thought okay let me pretend like I’m a paedophile for a second.
"So I typed in 'naked baby'. First of all I don’t know why anybody would be turned on by that. But they were sexy. I’m kidding."
After the video went viral and made headlines around the world, Shane promptly recorded an apology.
In it he states: "I am not a f---ing pedophile! Everybody's saying, 'Shane, make a statement.' There's my statement. I am not a f---ing pedophile.
"It's disgusting that some people are saying I'm a f---ing paedophile because of some s---ty a-- f--king jokes on a podcast from six years ago!
"I loved the feeling of making somebody shocked and laugh because they couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. I wasn't confident enough to make smarter jokes. I was making the easy jokes.
"I was playing crazy stereotypical characters. I was doing s--- that was racially insensitive, I was doing s--- that was homophobic, I was doing s--- that could be considered fat shaming, I was doing some f---ed up comedy stuff that I'm not proud of."
He now claims he is a very different person
"I have changed so much as a person and as a creative and as a director and a writer. The stuff that I was saying back in those times I would never say now. Ever. Because I don't think that's funny. Listening to that clip now, I didn't laugh.
"I didn't think it was funny. But when you hear that clip, you hear my co-host laughing, which was my goal. I wanted to always make her shocked and laugh. That was our thing."
This isn’t the first time Dawson has faced an extreme backlash. In 2014, he issued an apology after he wore blackface.
Earlier this month, vlogger Logan Paul has come under fire for a sick YouTube video in which he showed a man hanging from a tree in Japan's notorious "suicide forest."
This article originally appeared in The Sun.
Trending
Who's making headlines in television, music, movies and more from Hollywood to the Heartland.