The last few years have seen the rise of a new form of YouTube content, so much so that it’s almost become an art form in of itself: the apology video. You know, the videos where some YouTube content creator speaks to the camera in a serious voice with a serious look, apologises profusely (and insincerely) for some offensive act of idiocy they partook in recently, and try to squeeze out a tear or two for extra sympathy.
Well the folks over at The Pudding have analysed some of the biggest YouTube apology videos over the last few years and found a lot of interesting info in what makes an apology video work.
Applying some good old-fashioned data analysis to 34 YouTube apology videos, a list that includes the likes of renowned dickbag Logan Paul and drama magnet James Charles, The Pudding found that the most common “controversy type” were apologies for insensitive videos (like Logan’s infamous “suicide forest” vid), closely followed by apologies for making racist comments and stupid YouTuber beefs.
There were also a bunch of random ones that didn’t quite fit in a clean category, like Jenna Marbles’ apology video for not properly caring for her new fish. Yeah.
Interestingly, the YouTubers who make the most apologies happen to be beauty content creators, who do seem to be in the headline a lot these days for doing and/or saying something idiotic.
Focusing on this subset of YouTubers, the data revealed that all their channels were gaining in subscribers prior to their big controversy, and this trend was common for nearly all the analysed content creators.
Following the controversy, The Pudding found that some YouTubers’ subscriber count continued to grow at varying rates while others dropped, also at varying rates.
Gabriel Zamora got a massive subscriber jump after getting into a feud with Jeffree Star and Logan Paul’s apology didn’t really dent his subscriber base at all as his audience still continued to grow steadily, while Laura Lee’s half-assed apology saw her subscribers dip viciously.
Since there was no clear trend on how an apology video affects a YouTuber’s subscriber count, The Pudding decided to dig deeper into the videos themselves and the results were hilariously eye-opening.
The data revealed that apology videos with more “apologetic phrases” per minute tended to do better overall based on the ration of likes to dislikes, though there were a few exceptions.
But most interestingly, the most revealing metric on how well a YouTube apology video is received is the number of cuts per minute. Long videos with little to no takes (like Gabriel Zamora’s 40-minute one-take video) tended to do better as it gave off an air of authenticity.
Other successful YouTube apology video “approaches” included Jeffree Star and James Charles’ meticulously planned videos do well, even if their sincerity was in question. Turns out acting well and saying “I’m sorry I effed up” in a convincing manner will also work.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest apology video flops had fewer “apologetic phrases” per minute, more cuts per minute, and were just so obviously insincere. In the case of Jaclyn Hill, her “apology” doubled as a product plug for her lipstick, which didn’t go down well with viewers.
So next time you did or said something bad, just do what Logan Paul and Gabriel Zamora did and film yourself saying sorry at least once per minute in one long, unbroken take and you’ll be forgiven sooner rather than later. Just remember to meticulously prepare beforehand or people will see through your “authentic but not really” apology.
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