Brendan Schaub has had the most interesting career trajectory. Notwithstanding his meteoric rise in popularity and exposure in the last few years, Schaub’s star has fallen drastically in recent months. Once the host of two Showtime podcasts, he is now struggling to make ends meet on his newly founded network ‘Thiccc Boy‘. On this youtube housed network, Schaub currently features podcasts from various supporting characters in the “TFATK universe” (his original podcast) in addition to hosting a reboot of Joe Rogan’s fight companion podcast titled “Calabasas Fight Companion” (Joe Rogan is not involved). The only ‘redeeming’ factor for his network in terms of numbers is the said fight companion. And this is mostly due to Schaub’s heavy reliance on cancelled comedian Chris D’elia to prop up his numbers. Prior to getting cancelled over snapchats and DMs sent to various minors – D’elia had a burgeoning acting career in addition to his own youtube channel (581k subscriptions).
But the community of those who do not like Schaub – just keeps growing. A subreddit dedicated to his oldest venture, the podcast “thefighterandthekid“, has more than doubled its size since June of 2020. Filled with MMA fans and those just interested in the podcast, it’s mostly dedicated to posting various gaffes Schaub makes day in and out of podcasting.
Without the patronage of Joe Rogan, Schaub is often forced to reinvent the wheel in order to gin up interest in his brand. However pivoting from one controversial take to another can lead to unintended, if not sometimes comical results. In the latest example of contradictory positions – in spite of heaping praise at Spotify’s ‘anti woke’ CEO just last month, Schaub has repeatedly attempted to censor a small channel dedicated to reacting to his own content.
Recently, a creator named Yew Neek Ness™ lost his main channel “Yew-neek-ness” thanks to copyright strikes he has received from Schaub, and is now being sued. During a 3 minute video on his new channel, the creator shared some bits from the law suit filed by the THICC BOY Productions Inc. Creator is reportedly being sued for copyright infringement.
The channel “Yew-neek-ness” has reportedly been struck after posting a video of Schaub exchanging a phone number with a young lady. While this infraction is nothing compared to the trouble his comedian buddies get into (h/t Chris D’elia & Bryan Callen ) – Schaub is currently married and has two kids.
Schaub’s sudden need for image control through the court process comes less than a month after a female comedian posted a clip about an “unnamed comedian” who is ‘bad at comedy’ suggesting she service him sexually by accompanying him to his truck. While still unverified, there is rampant speculation in his subreddit that he may be said “unnamed comedian”.
Now, before we judge Schaub for his litigation, it’s fair to mention that he’s just doing what he’s always done – copying Joe Rogan albeit unsuccessfully. Joe Rogan has been carefully curating his image for years – by copyright striking selected content. While Rogan doesn’t mind typical commentary – he is more than capable of ending a certain narrative. This was once done when Brendan Schaub asserted he (Rogan) was ‘slanging dick’.
Schaub’s aggressive escalation of the situation by filing a lawsuit appears to be cynically calculated. A creator going through the copyright dispute process would take more than 30 days, during which time the channel taken down remains suspended – ie the clips would completely lose their relevance. Not to mention, youtube specifically has a new mechanism to allow a creator to be put on notice of a potential claim, whereupon the creator has the option to try resolve the issue amicably with the claimant. Going from being a champion of free speech to a litigious plaintiff looking to protect their brand rather than uphold the sanctity of copyright cannot bode well for the Brendan Schaub brand.
The notion of Schaub copy striking commentary content is especially funny considering that The Fighter of the kid podcast constantly provides commentary to other mainstream media videos and articles.
https://youtu.be/MVtaogVa_pY