Content Warning: This article contains mentions of gore, blood, and violence.
The famous YouTuber Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) has recently come under fire after an old video of his allegedly contained images of real-life gore.
Known for his horror playthroughs and various gaming videos, Markiplier has garnered a large audience with 35.1m subscribers.
Little did he know that a video from January 2016 would surface again years later.
The Game
The video in question, titled The Hospital, was a playthrough of a horror game with the same name. This video can still be found on Markiplier’s YouTube channel.
Horror games with bloody violence are nothing new to the world of gaming YouTubers. However, TikTok and Reddit have several posts claiming that the jump scares in this game are of real people.
One jump scare is a close-up image of a woman’s face without skin, allegedly a victim of a cartel flaying torture. The other has gained less traction, it is an image of an autopsy. Eagle-eyed viewers believe that it is either an autopsy dummy or an image from a medical education book.
One Reddit user has claimed that these images are indeed real, and they said: “Yea saw those pics on r/gore”. For those that don’t know, r/gore was a subreddit where people would post real gory images. It has since been removed from the site.
As fans continue to debate whether these images are real, Markiplier so far hasn’t addressed this. Now, fans are asking, should he address it?
The Controversy
There is a divide between Markiplier followers about who is to blame for these images being shown on a public platform.
Some are blaming the game developers. One commenter on the video said: “I doubt Mark realised those were real, really wanna know about the creator of the game though”.
Another said: “Anyone else thinks it’s lame that the game’s creator decided it was so boring that it needed actual gore to be interesting?”.
Others are questioning why it’s still up on YouTube, especially since YouTube became so strict about what you could post.
One commenter said: “Ok but how is that on youtube?”.
Then comes the debate on whether Markiplier is at fault or not.
A Reddit post from seven years ago had initially spotted these images, although it never sparked any controversy at the time. Now, with cancel culture being so engrained into social media, people are paying attention to this story.
Some fans have jumped to Mark’s defence. One said: “God with how sudden it was, no wonder Mark didn’t realise it’s real. I feel bad ‘cause he’ll probably figure it out now from the attention and be mortified […]”.
Another commented: “It’s [two] seconds of gore. Plus, it looks real enough to be fake. Who cares?”.
Yet another said: “I don’t think anyone cares about a [seven] year-old video with [two] seconds of gore in a horror game”.
Others are worried about younger audiences viewing this content and developing a traumatic response to these images. However, fans have argued back that Markiplier has never advertised his channel to be child friendly.
Will This ‘Cancel’ Markiplier?
As mentioned, someone spotted these images when the video first came out and nothing came of it. So, is there any reason for Markiplier to address this problem?
And even if he does address it and perhaps take the video down or censor it, should he have to apologise when YouTube is supposed to monitor what content is posted on the site? Knowing Mark’s usual content, it is tough to believe that he would’ve knowingly posted something as upsetting as this.
It is an interesting story to follow. We will just have to wait and see what the outcome is, that is if any action is even taken.
Although, it will be difficult for the cancel-culture obsessed to try and tarnish Mark’s image because of this when YouTube and even the game developers let this slide.
Featured Image Credit: @markiplier / Instagram
Second year student journalist studying Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Journalism Studies.
Writer for Brig and Discovery Music
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