Waking up to realise your hero sucks

Infamous youtuber Miranda Sings came under scrutiny after she was accused of “inappropriate relationships with minors”. Photo: Getty.

There’s nothing more soul-crushing than realising your childhood idol might actually be a piece of sh*t.

Celebrity culture has enabled society to elevate humans beyond normal personhood, and our brains are wired to idealise these people, transforming then them into the most ideal versions of themselves.

These idols often do things we always wish we could do, hence our admiration. Whether it’s a youtuber, a sports star, a musician or a family member, sometimes as we grow and mature, we form morals which don’t always align with those we’ve labelled as superior.

It is with great sadness that I admit, I used to be a loyal Gabbie Hanna fan, as well as David Dobrik and Miranda Sings.

I paid good money to meet Miranda Sings. I dressed up with all the other fans and had a blast. At the time it brought me so much joy, and I simply cannot deny that. But that sickening feeling does hang around when you realise that your childhood idol may not be a good person.

When YouTube was absolutely thriving, and youtubers were the biggest and best thing to run the earth, content was wild. Clickbait was genuinely outrageous, to the point sometimes even our 12-year-old selves said huh?

To reminisce on some of the glorious darkest days of coming of age, let us rejoice on the biggest plot twists of narcissists and unhinged assholes that were exposed.

Photo: Youtube/David Dobrik.

David Dobrik

David Dobrik’s Youtube channel. What an era. Four minutes and twenty seconds, three times a week. I was absolutely captivated by his essence for life, it felt ethereal. Motorbikes into pools, massive parties, crazy stunts, car giveaways, it was addictive, as it was so hard to digest that a world with such fun could exist.

Until coming of age reaches its peak, and David Dobrik is revealed to be someone who exposes and uses his friends for ‘comedic’ stunts that sometimes go awfully wrong. In June of 2020, David Dobrik was illegally controlling a excavator in a shallow lake, whilst Jeff Witteck swung from an attached rope. The speed increased immensely and Witteck was flung into the side of the excavator, shattering his skull, breaking his hip and foot, whilst almosting loosing an eye.

A friend…that almost lost you your life? An accident? The questions have rolled out, but Dobrik really lost a lot of support after the incident, and many were left wondering how eager for views could you be to put your friends at such risk?

My flatmate, Amy Morrison said, “I idolised his sense of humour and his friends and their comradery, their lifestyle, and how they all seemed to be so inclusive. But in reality they were emotionally and physically hurting each other and I couldn’t watch anymore without knowing the turmoil behind the scenes, and it was all a facade and for clickbait.”

Period flatmate Amy.

Photo: Getty.

Lizzo

Hot off the press, famous musician Lizzo has plastered the headlines, after three former back up dancers sued her on nine counts, including sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment, religious harassment, disability discrimination and intentional interference with prospective.

It really took the internet by storm, especially since she is fresh off her world tour. Lizzo attracts a huge audience, which has endorsed a musical realm that thrives off positivity and body confidence. Therefore, the distribution of these terrible accusations, is of mass distress to her fanbase.

Lizzo denied these allegations, but I’ve seen a lot of TikTok content that opens up the concept that even if the allegations aren’t true, maybe Lizzo isn’t actually that nice of a person. She might possibly be a really tough/mean boss. But this is the conversation people don’t like having, why would we ever see that our idols are anything but perfect?

The on-going silent argument of ‘separate the art from the artist’ proposes a proposition that is hard to digest for some people. And in my opinion, is an argument different for everyone. Because with someone being your idol, and fandom culture enabling a deeper sense of connection to an idol, it is pretty crushing to have someone you idolise publicly do something wrong.

For a musician, listening to their music after a scandal can leave a feeling of guilt. Shit You Should Care About covers this well in detail.

Miranda Sings

As mentioned previously mentioned, Miranda sings was a youthful obsession of my best friend and I’s. It quickly faded out as we got older, but only due to what we believed was outgrowing the humour.

To those whose tik tok feeds haven’t been smothered in the tune ‘toxic gossip train’, Colleen Ballinger posted an apology video last week after fans resurfaced allegations of past inappropriate relationships with minors, including accusations that she sent a pair of underwear to a teenager in 2016.

To watch someone you once paid good money to meet take the mick out of an apology through a poorly written ukulele song, was downright embarrassing and really disappointing. I don’t agree with anything she has got away with, and my support will never reside back in her hands, but it does hurt my inner child. It’s not nice to see content resurface that slid through the cracks of my premature brain.

But hey, that’s the beauty of a generation that’s prides itself on accountability of those in the limelight.

Photo: AFP.

Ellen DeGeneres

Ummm, a lot to unpack here with minimal time to spare. To sum it up, Ellen conducted a few very strange interviews where she made guests feel rather uncomfortable, a perfect example; her pulling up multiple images of different men in which she made Taylor Swift lift a paddle saying whether she’d dated them or not.

I could go on about the objectification of T Swift and how society has depicted her to be a man hungry woman, but I’ll bite my tongue here, as I’ll presume you reading this can see why this is just wrong of Ellen.

Grandparents

Let your mind wander with this one but after asking an anonymous source about someone he idolised until he grew up, his first answer was Granddad. Now, I can completely understand this one, as generational differences can often cause a real divide in moral code.

Anonymous Mr P said, “when I was growing up I always thought he was such legend, now, the naivety has kind of worn off and he’s actually not that all good of a dude aye.”

Flatmate Amy Morrison commented, “she ain’t bad, she a f*cking psychopath,” in terms of talking about one Grandma in particular.

So you can see the spectrum may vary…

We also have parents and siblings. Personally I adore my mama and paps, but that isn’t consistent across the board. Whilst being youthful enables a rose-tinted lens on life, our depiction of our parents can dampen as we age. Which may possibly be the most heart-breaking idol loss of them all.

The list could keep going and going and I have word count restrictions, but you have brains! Let the story continue amongst your peers as I’ll tell ya, it’s an incredibly interesting one.

Loosing an idol is never easy, and there’s no shame to once admiring someone and valuing their involvement in your life. It’s okay to cherish the good things and acknowledge the bad things, because they do not reflect your morality, you do.