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YouTube Suspends H3 For Holocaust 'Joke,' Host Ethan Klein Reacts On Twitter

'I do want to apologize to our fans. I hate that we'll miss a week of the show because of another stupid joke'

Published: October 21, 2022
  |   By Christopher Bertman

Ethan Klein announced the H3 Podcast was suspended by YouTube for a week and called his critics “white supremacists” in a Thursday Twitter post.

YouTube reportedly took down Monday’s episode of the podcast in which Klein made a holocaust “joke” saying “if they start rounding up the Jews again [he hopes] Ben [Shapiro] gets gassed first.”

“A few white supremacists successfully lobbied YouTube to suspend me, a Jewish dual citizen of Israel & USA, for anti-semitism,” said Klein, announcing his YouTube suspension Thursday evening. “Ben Shapiro & friends can virtue signal all they want but ultimately they are the ones platforming dangerous anti-semites. All I did was point it out.”

The H3 host went on referring to a previous tweet from Shapiro as a “purity test.” In the aforementioned tweet, Shapiro criticized Klein’s May 2021 post explaining his stance on the Palestinian/Israel conflict.

Klein continued his Twitter thread saying Shapiro was a “useful idiot” that was “desperate to be accepted” — further claiming he was suspended by the streaming platform because “tiki torch carrying white Christian nationalists” reported his episode, alluding to the 2017 Charlottesville car attack.

“They are currently the greatest beneficiaries of cancel culture, identity politics and moral outrage,” Klein said in an apparent reference to conservatives largely. “It’s incredible that they have become the party of ‘free speech’ while decrying and lobbying for my deplatforming. They both condemn and defend cancel culture in the same breath.”

Klein claimed he was an advocate for the First Amendment by referring to a copyright infringement claim from fellow YouTuber Matt Hoss. Klein ultimately prevailed in the lawsuit by citing “fair use” regarding the copyright claim in 2017.

The H3 Host mentioned a separate lawsuit against Hollywood executive Ryan Kavanaugh surrounding further copyright infringement and defamation, which is currently in litigation, before incorporating a tag-line famously used by Shapiro: “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”

“And I, once again, humbly request that all naysayers, haters, detractors, and fallen fans alike, suck my tiny Jewish d—. Thank you,” the H3 host said at the end of his tweet thread.

“I do want to apologize to our fans. I hate that we’ll miss a week of the show because of another stupid joke,” Klein said several hours later referencing his previous YouTube suspension in late May after suggesting someone commit a terrorist act during an NRA meeting in Texas.

“Obv Ben Shapiro & friends can go f— themselves but Im very sorry to everyone who relies on the podcast to get them through the week. I’ll do better for you guys I promise.”

“If there were another Holocaust, I would hope that Ethan and his family escaped. But maybe that’s just me,” Shapiro said in a response to Klein’s “joke” early Thursday morning.

“Hey Ben. It’s a joke. Do conservatives know what those are?” Klein responded to Shapiro before his YouTube suspension. “And sure, in poor taste, but not as poor taste as you platforming anti-semites who spread dangerous conspiracies that leads to REAL violence against Jews. Thats the meaning of my joke, but ofc you don’t care about context.”

The H3 host followed up his response with a photo of himself with his hair shaved down the middle, saying, “Ben Shapiro, intellectual titan, arguing with this guy btw.”

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