h3h3Productions is an Israeli-American comedic YouTube channel run by the married couple Ethan Edward Klein (born: June 24, 1985) and Hila Klein (née Hakmon; born: December 12, 1987), commonly consisting of comedic reaction videos with sketches. Aside from that, they also hold their own podcast. Ethan started the group and Hila joined with him.
In 2016, Ethan was one of the most beloved YouTubers of all time. His reputation dwindled in 2020, mostly due to his online feud with Keemstar and the actions during his feud. Ironically, Keemstar was one of the most hated YouTubers at the time.
About[]
The channel typically features videos of Ethan reacting to content (ranging from pranksters, hip hop artists, and other YouTubers) uploaded on the video-sharing platform in a light-hearted, humorous manner, intermixed with surreal and comedic sketches.
The channel has gained a reputation for aggressively criticizing certain Internet trends and personalities as well as the policies of YouTube itself. The channel experienced rapid growth in viewership in 2015, due to frequent exposure on Reddit, reaching a million subscribers in March 2016.
Ethan also discusses trending or random topics and situations in what many deem a clever, interesting manner. In the past, he was a prominent critic of YouTube's management. He met with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
Ethan has also appeared in crossovers with other YouTubers, some of them featuring IDubbbzTV, PewDiePie, and most notably Filthy Frank.
History[]
The channel released its first reaction video, about the video poem "Girls Who Read," in November 2013. In April 2015, the couple moved from Israel to New York City in the United States, where they resided until 2016, when they moved to Los Angeles. The channel joined the Freedom! network after their old partner, Collective Digital Studio, turned on them, after their most popular video, Kissing Pranks, was forcibly removed by Fullscreen, a move which Collective supported after legal action was threatened against them.
h3h3 has a long-standing dispute with SoFloAntonio and the whole SoFlo enterprise ever since their SoFloAntonio reaction video was uploaded on April 2, 2015. h3h3 criticized SoFloAntonio for freebooting, the practice of ripping videos and articles off the internet for the purposes of personal re-distribution for attention and monetary gains for YouTube. SoFlo (including SoFloAntonio and the rest of the SoFlo employees) in turn have threatened legal action multiple times for libel, slander, and defamation against h3h3 and other YouTubers who make videos criticizing them (this includes Lewis Spears and Marcus Dibble). In the timespan of February 9-11, 2016, h3h3productions released two videos, critical of SoFlo's freebooting practices on their Facebook and YouTube pages.
In December 2016, h3h3 productions launched its own podcast which features popular YouTubers and other celebrities.
Personal Life[]
Ethan Edward Klein was born in Ventura, California to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. From 2004–2009, he attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied English Literature and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing. He is of Czechoslovakian descent.
Hila Hakmon was born in Holon, Israel to a Sephardic Jewish family. She was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces and served as a soldier for two years.
The couple now has a son named Theodore. They have a second son named Bruce, born in 2022.
Copyright Infringement Lawsuit + FUPA[]
On May 24, 2016, H3H3 productions released a video confirming that they were being sued by Matt Hosseinzadeh (MattHossZone) based on the fact that their reaction video involving Matt Hosseinzadeh violated US copyright law. This incited Philip DeFranco to create a donation fund on the site GoFundMe.com. A vast range of popular YouTubers and general celebrities donated to the fund, such as Garry Newman, Keemstar, jacksepticeye, kwebbelkop, penguinz0, Shane Gill, Markiplier, TheAngryGrandpa, vsauce3, GradeAUnderA, boogie2988, Notch and most famously, considering the famous drama between the two merely weeks before, LeafyIsHere.
On May 26, 2016, just two days after bringing the lawsuit to light, Ethan and Hila uploaded a video titled 'A New Chapter for Fair Use on YouTube' in which they thanked the "overwhelming support" on the GoFundMe fund, and expressed their awe at the unexpectedness of the support. In the video, the couple went on to explain that with all of the money raised for their court case is going directly into an escrow account in care of Morrison Lee attorneys and is to be used by them to protect unfair copyright claim victims. The account is known as the 'Fair Use Protection Account' or FUPA.
Late in 2017, Ethan and Hila announced that they had finally won the lawsuit.
Other Channel: Ethan and Hila[]
Ethan and Hila also have a second channel of entertainment. Ethan and Hila had tried to make videos every day on both the Ethan and Hila channel and the h3h3productions channel.
In 2016, Ethan announced that the two channels would blend together and that Ethan and Hila would be inactive. However, at the start of 2017, the channel was used again for vlogs and extra content, but became inactive again since November of that year.
Podcast Channel[]
h3h3 Podcast Highlights is a side-channel from h3h3Productions that shows some H3 podcast highlights. Most of the highlight videos are shorter than the regular podcast videos, and there are multiple videos on each person. Most of the thumbnails have two faces which are split, and the titles are descriptive. Even though there are fewer subscribers than on the other channels, there are still often uploads. Most of the more popular videos are about other YouTubers such as Ninja, Jake Paul, IDubbbzTV, etc., and these YouTubers are often mentioned in interviews.
Controversies[]
SomeOrdinaryGamers[]
On April 10, 2020, YouTuber SomeOrdinaryGamers called out h3h3Productions for donation-shaming Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos after he had donated $100,000,000 to coronavirus reserach, abandoning the FUPA fund, and backstabbing Keemstar. In a video uploaded a few days later, Mutahar corrected himself by saying that Ethan didn't outright donation-shame Bezos.
However, on April 18, 2020, Ethan made a 37-minute response video to Mutahar called "Everyone Loves Ethan." He brought up Mutahar's networth as $1,000,000, which Mutahar himself later corrected to be $45,000,000.[1] He also accused Mutahar of doxing him, even though Mutahar had merely used information that was available publicly on the internet. Ethan also started raising $100,000 to coronavirus research.
Mutahar responded on Twitter by accepting he was wrong and took down both of his videos criticizing h3h3. YouTuber Memology 101 made a video in which he defended Mutahar by saying that Ethan had lied about not donation-shaming Bezos, providing a clip from the h3h3 podcast in which Klein did apparently donation-shame him. Memology 101 also insisted that "raising other people's money is not the same as donating your own."[2]
On April 19, Mutahar uploaded a video titled "I Owe An Apology," in which he apologized to Ethan and averred that the clip used by Memology 101 was taken out of context.
Dr. Jordan Peterson[]
In 2017 and 2018, Ethan invited clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson to his podcast. In late 2021, after starting a political podcast with Hasan Piker, the two began mocking Peterson for his depression, his drug addiction, and his self-help book 12 Rules for Life, most notably Rule Six therein, which is to "Set your house in order before you criticize the world." Ethan brought up an image of him in a dirty room and called him a hypocrite. In January 2022, he stated on Twitter that he deleted both interviews because he believed that Dr. Peterson was "a gateway to alt-right, transphobia, and Covid misinformation."
Dr. Peterson and his daughter Mikhaila responded, to which Ethan claimed that Mikhaila was "posting cute selfies while her father was dying," and that Dr. Peterson opposing Bill C-16 "resulted in a surge of transphobia." This resulted in massive backlash by many YouTubers. Bowblax pointed out that he deleted the Peterson interview, but not iDubbbz, where he repeatedly used the words, "N*gger F*ggot." Dr. Peterson later asked for the footage of the interview, so he could upload it to his channel. He would also make a video criticizing Peterson, which would be negatively received. Dr. Peterson later warned Ethan about cancel culture, and that Ethan would be held to impossible standards to maintain, which Ethan ridiculed. Dr. Peterson would then be proven right after Ethan's fans cancelled him for alleged homophobia a few months later.
Ethan then posted a photo of Jordan Peterson in a messy room[3]. This was criticized because the photo was of him realizing his wife was battling cancer, and both friends, admirers and detractors of Ethan and Peterson called Ethan out for being tone deaf and mocking a woman with cancer[4][5][6].
Ryan Kavanaugh Lawsuit[]
In 2020, Ethan was sued by Triller CEO Ryan Kavanaugh for copyright infringement. The lawsuit claimed that H3H3 had violated copyright of Triller by posting portions of Jake Paul vs Ben Askren fight. Klein contended it was fair use. This resulted in Ethan making many defamatory statements regarding Kavanaugh and mocking him in H3H3 Youtube videos. Ethan, Def Noodles and their followers claimed that Ryan looked like Harvey Weinstein, a former Hollywood film executive who is currently in prison and on trial for many charges of rape. The joke went on to the point where a website was created by H3 fans. Kavanaugh ended up filing defamation lawsuits against Ethan. In 2022, Ethan later won two of the four lawsuits.[7][8][9]
H3 Podcast Highlight[]
H3 Podcast Highlights is a side-channel from h3h3Productions that shows some H3 podcast highlights. Most of the highlight videos are shorter than the regular podcast videos, and there are multiple videos on each person. Most of the thumbnails have two faces which are split, and the titles are descriptive. Even though there are less subscribers than the other channels, there are still often uploads. Most of the more popular videos are about other YouTubers such as Ninja, Jake Paul, IDubbbzTV, etc., and these YouTubers are often mentioned in interviews. The channel airs clips from Ethan's other shows, such as H3TV, Off The Rails, H3 After Dark and Leftovers.
Trivia[]
- Ethan has a mild form of Tourette's syndrome, resulting in constant eyebrow movements that his viewers often notice. He has revealed that his Tourette's syndrome has gotten worse over the past few years, saying that the syndrome used to affect the other parts of his body more and has since been channelled into his upper facial area.
- Based on their DNA Test, Ethan is:
- 99.7% European
- 99.1% Ashkenazi Jewish
- 0.6% Broadly European
- 0.2% Western Asian & North African
- 0.2% North African & Arabian
- 0.1% East Asian & Native American
- 0.1% Broadly East Asian
- 99.7% European
- While Hila is:
- 77.4% Western Asian & North African
- 43.2% Western Asian (Iraqi)
- 28.0% North African & Arabian (Libyan)
- 6.2% Broadly Western Asian & North African
- 21.9% European
- 10.1% Italian
- 4.0% Ashkenazi Jewish
- 3.9% Iberian (Spanish)
- 3.5% Broadly Southern European
- 0.4% Broadly European
- 77.4% Western Asian & North African
- Ethan is a big fan of the late Christopher Wallace, better known as "The Notorious B.I.G.", or "Biggie Smalls".
- The name of the channel's origin was supposed to be named "HEHE" (or heheproductions), but it was taken.
- On September 15, 2019, it was announced that Hila had acquired American citizenship.
- They have their own DLC in the game Payday 2.
- Ethan hosts a political podcast called "Leftovers" with Hasan Piker.
Channel milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
Subscriber milestones[]
- 1 million subscribers: February 29, 2016
- 2 million subscribers: August 4, 2016
- 3 million subscribers: December 27, 2016
- 4 million subscribers: June 12, 2017
- 5 million subscribers: November 4, 2017
- 6 million subscribers: September 29, 2018
Video view milestones[]
- 1 billion views: April 3, 2018
References[]
- ↑ https://twitter.com/OrdinaryGamers/status/1251684301911085062
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7tQmfxOp4k
- ↑ https://twitter.com/h3h3productions/status/1482474939215015937
- ↑ https://twitter.com/KalebPrime/status/1483044736336338948
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Actually_Tina/status/1483046512347148288
- ↑ https://twitter.com/SpookyWebtrash/status/1483073202016432130
- ↑ https://www.techtimes.com/articles/286962/20230130/ryan-kavanaugh-wins-slapp-motion-ethan-klein-loses-with-damages-potentially-in-the-millions.htm
- ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/triller-troll-reviews-suit-tossed-by-judge-1235075271/
- ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ryan-kavanaugh-podcaster-lawsuit-1235054660/
