The Rise and Fall of JiDion

When it comes to popular internet stars that are as divisive as they are talented, it's hard to look
much further than Jidion for the top spot on that list. Never shy of controversy or running the fine
line between humour and causing offence he has as many fans as he has haters. How did he
get to the top level of Youtube, and why has he caused so much offense?

The rise

Jidon Adams was born on December 12, 2000, in the USA, and is better known online as Jidion
and demarcus cousins the third. He created his Youtube channel back in 2018 when he was still
just a high school student and nobody knew his name, and didn’t upload any content until
February 2019. He built a modest following on Youtube but hadn’t really took the next step, until
a fateful meeting with one of his Youtube heroes in 2021 it sparked something in Jidion that took
him to the next level.

Jidon said to Desmond Johnson from the RDC World content group that he was a huge admirer
of Johnson and had ran into him while returning to his hotel room at DreamCon in 2021. He’d
complimented Johnson on the RDC World network, the success they’d built and how they’d
influenced him as a creator. The problem? Johnson had no idea who he was talking to. Although
he appreciated Jidion’s words, Desmond actually didn’t know who he was.

This had been a common theme for Jidion that weekend and more generally and it compounded
some frustrations he was feeling at the time. Even though he had reached 900,000 YouTube
subscribers, Jidion was far from the huge name he is today and he wasn’t getting recognised
amongst his peers or the public at the time. This was beginning to frustrate Jidion and make him
doubt himself.

In what would become a pivotal moment in his rise, he simply vowed to Johnson that everyone
would come to know the name Jidion, and the content he was creating both on Twitch and
Youtube.

That moment in 2021 was a turning point. Jidon told himself it would be the last time he
attended an event where his peers didn’t recognize him just refer to him as a “friend of Kai,”
when he entered the room. Kai Cenat was his real life friend who, at the time, was a bigger
YouTube star and Jidion definitely felt like he was living in Kai’s shadow a lot of the time.

He had already considered calling it quits on his YouTube channel by then, wondering if he
should pursue other interests. However, that chance meeting with a respected peer who didn’t
recognise him changed his outlook, made him more determined to succeed and ultimately got
him to where he is today.

Jidon was working at a Lowe's hardware store at the time and he admits he felt ashamed of it,
he had close to a million followers on Youtube, but his content wasn’t pulling in enough views to
allow him to pursue it full-time and quit his job. That’s when he decided to leave his retail job
and start working night shifts as an Uber Eats delivery guy, which gave him hours every day to
make more content and get better and better at his craft.

Jidion came to the realisation his content wasn’t true to him or what he loved, and instead he
was putting too much effort into trying to get his videos to achieve viral success, causing his
content to just not stick with his viewers. After some consideration, he vowed to make sure it
was the kind of content that he enjoyed making, and would enjoy watching, and this proved to
be the perfect formula for Jidon.

He’s gone on to create massive viral moments across all social media platforms, without that
being the primary driver behind the content. On average, his videos bring in around 4.2 million
views and he now has over 6 Million subs, with public endorsements from NBA players and
other famous public figures who have all praised Jidion’s content. Whether it’s his public pranks
like pretending to get a hair cut at a sports event, impersonating a basketball scout or just
making vlogs, Jidion’s personality and his fondness for controversy in name of humour is what’s
got him to where he is today, right at the top of Youtube’s A List.

However, whilst being controversial has been a huge factor in building his success and making
him stand out amongst other creators, it’s safe to say it’s led to a number of black marks against
his record, including getting banned from Twitch, a platform that played a big part in his content.

What caused these hits to Jidion’s credibility and reputation, and how has it affected his channel
and brand?

The Fall

It all started in September 2021 when Jidion brought shirtless men into a Best Buy store in order
to harass an employee who was strict over the store’s customer dress code in a prank video.
This prank has been widely condemned by other creators, and is one of the first examples
where Jidion took a prank too far, causing distress to someone just to gain views on Youtube,
and it was clear that Jidion wasn’t scared to make the laughs at someone elses expense if it
helped him grow his brand. Sadly, over time it has been content like this that has done more to
hurt that brand than to help it grow.

Other videos that have got the wrong kind of attention for Jidion have been his sports events
pranks. He’s been removed from both Wimbledon, and the US Open Tennis Championships for
being disruptive while filming content during matches. At Wimbledon he was caught using an
airhorn during a match, which any tennis fan will tell you is way out of line. At the US Open it
was his staple event prank of pretending to get a haircut while watching a Novak Djokovic
match that got him in trouble. He had previously pulled this prank sitting courtside at basketball
games but the security at the US Open was quicker to remove him than he had experienced in
the past and news of his ejection from the event hit the internet, causing people to question
whether again he was pushing the boundaries of what was funny too far.

Then, at TwitchCon in 2022, rumours surfaced that fellow Youtube star TommyInnit had accused
Jidion of harassing fans at the event, leading to him being kicked out. It’s never been confirmed
exactly what happened, and it has always been a case of Tommy’s word against Jidion’s, but it’s
hard to see why a smaller creator like TommyInnit would make accusations like that if there
wasn’t any truth behind it. Jidion has of course always denied doing anything wrong at the
event.

Those all pale in comparison to what is by far the biggest controversy that Jidion has been
involved in, his public feud with the Twitch Streamer Pokimane. In January 2022, she accused
Jidion of sending his viewers into her Twitch stream to post misogynistic comments and hate
speech in her chat. Jidion admitted sending the viewers but denied that the motivation behind
this was sexist. Things began to escalate with many fellow streamers and content creators
speaking out against Jidion’s actions, and some defending them.

This all led to Twitch taking their own action against Jidion, handing him a lifetime ban from the
platform, which has never been dropped. This is something Jidion has claimed to be
discrimination against him and unfair, but Twitch maintains that their terms of use policy is clear
and was breached.

In the end, the drama concluded with Jidion apologising privately to Pokimane who accepted
Jidion’s apology and the two even went on to collaborate on Youtube content together. Jidion’s
critics claim that this was just an effort to try and rebuild his reputation and his actions were not
genuine, something he of course denied.

There’s no doubt that being banned from Twitch in some ways hurt Jidion’s reputation, following
and status, but the numbers don’t really show it. In 2023, he still holds a Youtube following of
over 6 million subscribers and his content still pulls millions of views. It’s clear that Jidion is far
from scared of controversy, and instead of allowing these drama filled scandals to bring his
brand down, he has instead used them as a platform to continue to grow a fanbase that
appreciate his prank filled comedy based content and it doesn’t look likely that this will slow
down any time soon. He may no longer be able to stream on Twitch but, as they say, what
doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Script for Shorts video

When it comes to popular internet stars that are as divisive as they are talented, it's hard to look
much further than Jidion for the top spot on that list but why is he so hated amongst the Youtube
community? Let’s take a look.

In 2021, Jidion brought a group of shirtless men into a Best Buy store in order to harass a strict
employee in a video. This prank has been widely condemned by other creators as pushing
things too far.

He’s been removed from both Wimbledon, and the US Open Tennis championships for being
disruptive while filming content during matches, at Wimbledon he was even caught using an
airhorn during a match when the crowd was supposed to be silent.

Then, there’s the huge feud and drama between Jidion and Pokimane, where his viewers
verbally attacked Pokimane on stream with misogynistic and hateful comments in her chat,
which led Jidion to get a lifetime ban from the platform.

Jidion certainly doesn’t mind blurring the lines between offending people and making jokes but
love him or hate him, he sure knows how to convert drama into views, and he still has over 6
million subscribers on youtube today!

Sources

https://www.complex.com/sports/jidion-youtube-interview - background and rise to fame

https://www.insider.com/jidion-jidon-adams-life-controversies-youtube-prankster-2022-
11#adams-became-explosively-controversial-when-one-of-twitchs-biggest-female-streamers-
blamed-him-for-an-influx-of-online-hate-she-received-3 - Dramas and controversies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JiDion - Basic info only