31-year-old Reddit user E (who requested to remain anonymous) first started watching YouTuber Ethan Klein in 2015 as a college senior.
“Ethan came across as intangibly enigmatic, cynical, and sardonic in a way that came across as a cutting parody of the rest of the platform,” E told Passionfruit. “They had a fun catchy jingle at the start of their videos, didn’t take stuff too seriously, and had fun inside joke phrases.”
Over the next decade, E became a devoted H3 fan, tuning in alongside 5.7 million subscribers to watch Ethan and the rest of the cast talk about everything from the news of the day to memes. E describes H3 as a “cozy, unserious, fun listen” that helped him get through the pandemic and a life emergency that forced him to quit his full-time job.
But over time Klein’s political conversations, ideological differences around the Israel/Palestine conflict, and comments on the Oct. 7 2023 attack led E to see the YouTuber as “uncharitable, aggressive, boorish, obtuse, and accusatory.”
“I still believed he [Klein] just didn’t realize the things he was saying and doing were harmful and wrong,” E said. “I was an active member in his community still, as I was very much still a fan of the crew.”
That’s when E went from posting positive memes about the show on Reddit, to becoming an active contributor to the H3 Snark Subreddit community.
Reddit’s self-moderation feature has fostered niche communities, allowing fans of hobbies, video games, or creators to connect. Snark subreddits exemplify this freedom taken to an extreme, providing a platform for fans and critics to discuss, analyze, or criticize creators.
On multiple Snark subreddits, E regularly shared what he believed to be examples of Klein’s hypocrisy, “tonedeaf jokes,” and calls to action.
The parasocial relationship that the Kleins cultivated with fans helped them grow a YouTube empire and create a successful clothing brand. But now part of the fandom is turning against them.
“(Snark) is literally fostering the most psychopathic, it encourages harassment, doxing, and stalking,” Klein said on an October episode of the H3 podcast.
Currently, there are five active Snark subreddits dedicated to talking about H3. The largest r/h3Snark, which started in April 2023, is currently on indefinite hiatus after Klein issued multiple copyright claims and threatened to sue the site’s moderators. The second largest r/h3h3_productions is currently private, meaning only members can see what’s posted.
Recently, this online tension has spilled over into the real world, with serious consequences for the Kleins.
On March 10, the Kleins claimed in a YouTube video that Child Protective Services was called on them and that Snarkers were to blame. On a podcast, Ethan speculated that their infant had contracted Giardia, a parasite that causes intestinal issues, potentially from the feces of a new dog. Though Ethan said on a later show that nobody had the parasite, the story had already spread like wildfire with multiple Twitch streamers and Redditors calling for government interference. Though there’s no evidence that the call to CPS came from a Snarker, Ethan believes that’s where the call originated, and all Snark subreddits “should be banned.”
“Despite Ethan trying to blame Snark for the CPS situation (which I do not condone anyone calling CPS, nor do most there) there is no coordinated attack on Ethan and he uses it to poison the well against the valid criticism that he refuses to address.” H3 Snarker Angel told Passionfruit.
In December, Klein, through his lawyer, started issuing multiple copyright claims against the h3snark subreddit. Snark subreddits responded quickly, with a mod describing Ethan’s takedowns as an “abuse of the copyright system.” Just a couple of months later on Feb 17, H3 Snark mods announced that the subreddit would be “on break” for the foreseeable future.
On his Instagram Story, Klein gloated, writing “It won’t save you scumbags from what’s coming. I can’t wait for your family, friends, work, and school to know what you’ve been up to.”
Ethan has moved most of his social media interaction over to Instagram Stories, where he often attacks other creators who speak positively of Snark, his former co-host Hasan Piker, or his critics. Since his critics are unable to respond to him directly, they’ve created their own communities that his content fuels.
“Honestly, the more petty content is a reflection of the hate that Ethan espouses on any of his detractors. And Ethan feeds off of this, using this feud for content. He knows that talking about it just perpetuates everything, but can’t help himself.”
It’s worth mentioning that the Kleins still have a strong and devoted fan base on their own subreddit r/h3h3productions, which is moderated by Klein’s employees and has nearly 600,000 subscribers. Some of whom have become just as involved as the Snarkers they detest.
Stepho has been watching H3 since they started their channel in 2015 and considers himself a “consistent watcher ever since.” He checks the Snark subreddits “a couple of times per day” posting some of the wilder Snark takes on the main subreddit. He believes they “are sycophantic hive minds of hate and lack of humanity” and that “there is no room for discussion in these subreddits.”
As for why these Snarkers continue to post on these subreddits, subjecting themselves to a creator that they don’t even like, all three shared some form of need to defend their sardonic space. “It’s like looking at a car crash,” Redditor Kn told Passionfruit. “Most of us used to watch like 10 plus hours of this show a week as fans so it doesn’t feel like a big deal to put it in the background and type a few Reddit comments.”
