Logan Paul has taken to an MMA Show to claim that the 2017 Japan incident, which saw Paul film the body of a man who had committed suicide, was "the best thing" that ever happened to him.
Back in 2017, Logan Paul made a pretty big mistake. Whilst filming a vlog in the forests of Japan, he filmed the body of a man who had taken his own life and his response to the discovery. Claiming that the behavior exhibited in the video was "raw" and "unfiltered", apologizing in a two-minute video that he posted to Twitter and other social media platforms.
No one really thought that this YouTube star would survive the outrage, which was in many ways more "raw" and "unfiltered" than his highly-edited YouTube video. People were angry, seeing it as an affront on people suffering from mental health issues, those who had encountered suicide in their life, and an unforgivable misdemeanor.
You couldn't blame them either. After all, this was the same man known for flaunting his profound wealth in his YouTube videos, making off-colour jokes and engaging in highly-promoted events with famous professional wrestling stars. Whilst Logan Paul's apology did ring true, his bounce-back over the last five years has really been something to behold. Now he's speaking out about that time.
Why Was The Japan Incident The "Best Thing" For Logan Paul?
Featuring on The MMA Hour, Paul claimed that the incident ended up being the "best thing" for him because it forced him to re-evaluate and become a better person. He even believed at the time that wasn't "a more hated person in the world" than him, something that was surely untrue, despite the widespread outrage.
At the time, it seemed like the worst thing ever. I don’t think there was a more hated person in the world than me. It ended up forcing me to become someone I loved, and I’m not sure I loved myself back then.
The podcast saw Paul explain that he learned a lot from the incident, and that it allowed him to rediscover himself and become the man he wanted to be. This is a huge turnaround for the YouTube star, who could easily have become the "jackass" he expressly doesn't want to be.
I often look back at that time of my life and the person I was unfortunately becoming, and now at 26, I can safely say Japan was the biggest blessing of my life... I became a person that I ended up loving instead of becoming a jackass. I was headed down a nasty path that was validated by clout, money, fame, wealth.
For a star once so mired in the mud of his inappropriate actions, the turnaround is quite a moment. Where you forgive Logan Paul or not, or whether you like him or not, you do have to admit that this introspection is certainly not something we would have expected all of those years ago.