h3h3Productions
h3h3Productions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ethan Klein in 2017 | ||||
| Born | Ethan Klein June 24, 1985 | |||
| YouTube information | ||||
| Channels | ||||
| Years active | 2011–present | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Subscribers | 6.38 million (h3h3Productions) 3.05 million (H3 Podcast) | |||
| Total views | 1.516 billion (h3h3Productions) 625 million (H3 Podcast) | |||
| ||||
Updated: July 28, 2021 | ||||
Ethan Klein (born June 24, 1985)[1] and Hila Klein (née Hacmon; born December 12, 1987)[2] are an Israeli American husband and wife duo best known for their YouTube channel h3h3Productions. The majority of content on their main channel comprises reaction videos and sketch comedy in which they satirize internet culture.
Since 2017, the pair has also run a separate podcast channel, H3 Podcast, which has been their primary creative focus since 2019, among other ventures. As of early 2021, the podcast has the fourteenth-biggest audience of any podcast, according to media analytics organization Media Monitors.
Personal life[]
Ethan Klein was born on June 24, 1985, in Ventura, California, to Ashkenazi Jewish parents.[1] He attended Buena High School[3] and later University of California, Santa Cruz, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature.[1]
Hila Klein (née Hacmon) was born on December 12, 1987,[2] in Holon, Israel, to a Turkish mother and Libyan father.[4] She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in September 2019.[5][6] She is the younger sister of artist Moses Hacmon.[7]
The two first met in Israel in 2007 during Hila's service in the Israel Defense Forces.[4] After several years together, the couple married in 2012.[8] During the early years of their YouTube career, the couple lived together in Israel.[9] They have a son, born in June 2019.[4][8][10]
YouTube career[]
h3h3Productions[]
The Kleins registered the h3h3Productions YouTube channel in 2011.[11] The primary format of videos uploaded to the channel involves the Kleins providing critique and commentary in reaction videos, consisting of clips of a source video intermixed with commentary and absurd sketches, a style which has been described as a cross between the works of comedy duo Tim & Eric and the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.[9]
The channel has gained a reputation for critiquing internet trends and a range of online personalities,[12] as well as several YouTube policies.[13][14][15] The pair have responded to several online controversies, many of which concern badly received prank videos posted to the site.[13] The Kleins have been noted for criticizing YouTube channels enticing their young viewers to participate in online gambling related to the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, mainly by trading skins for real-world currency.[16]
The H3 Podcast and spin-offs[]
The Kleins host a triweekly podcast called the H3 Podcast. It was further expanded with the introduction of three distinct weekly sub-series: the flagship H3 Podcast featuring conversational interviews with Ethan Klein; H3 After Dark, an unscripted current affairs podcast co-hosted by Ethan and Hila Klein; and Content Court, a narrative podcast examining controversial internet personalities.[17]
In May 2020, Ethan was dropped as a sponsor for Old Spice because of resurfaced footage of Ethan saying derogatory slurs in a 2017 podcast episode.[18]
In September 2020, the popular series Frenemies with YouTube personality Trisha Paytas as co-host was introduced.[19][20] Several episodes focused on David Dobrik and the Vlog Squad sexual assault allegations.[21] Totaling 39 episodes, Frenemies ended in June 2021 after Paytas voiced their disagreements with their co-host and the podcast's production.[7][22] While the podcast received praise for its openness regarding mental illness and was credited for helping break down the social stigma surrounding it,[23] Paytas's comments on Judaism and the Holocaust in particular have been criticized as ignorant and offensive.[24]
Since late 2020, the podcast channel has been one of the United States' highest ranking podcasts. Edison Research ranked it 27th during mid-2019 through mid-2020 and 23rd in 2020 overall based on a number of statistics.[25][26] Media Monitors ranked the podcast 14th for the first quarter of 2021.[27] Radio Online has noted a surge in listenership in early 2021, presumably in large part due to Frenemies.[28]
Fair use lawsuit[]
In April 2016, Matt Hosseinzadeh, an American YouTube personality who goes by "MattHossZone" and "Bold Guy", filed a civil action against the Kleins for copyright infringement.[3][29] Hosseinzadeh claims that he initially contacted the Kleins "to politely ask them to remove my content from their video," but that they refused. Hosseinzadeh's lawyer claimed that the video used more than 70% of his work "while contributing nothing substantive to it."[30][31]
After a video on this was released by h3h3Productions the following month, fellow YouTube personality Philip DeFranco started a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help raise money for their legal fees, citing the need to protect fair use on YouTube.[32] On May 26, 2016, Ethan and Hila announced that the US$130 thousand of funds raised will go into an escrow account called the "Fair Use Protection Account" (FUPA), overseen by Morrison & Lee LLP to be used to help people defend fair use.[33]
The Kleins won the lawsuit; U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that the Kleins' commentary video constituted "fair use as a matter of law", describing it as "quintessential comment and criticism."[34][35] The case is the first of its kind to receive a judgment, and while not binding across the United States, provides a significant and persuasive argument to be cited in future cases relating to fair use on YouTube.[36]
Allegations against The Wall Street Journal[]
H3h3Productions, alongside several other channels, supported YouTube personality PewDiePie amid a 2017 controversy over Nazi jokes in one of his videos from January.[37] On February 14, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about PewDiePie's previous references to Adolf Hitler, which brought nine other videos into the debate and elicited frequent discussions on whether they were taken out of context.[38] When YouTube subsequently released tools to allow advertisers to avoid offensive videos, Ethan Klein claimed that the tools were overly broad and negatively affected unrelated content, including his own channel.[39]
One of the authors of the Wall Street Journal piece, Jack Nicas, wrote another article on March 24, claiming that YouTube did not do a good enough job of keeping major advertisements away from racist content. Klein accused the report of being written selectively to maximize outrage. Specifically, the article showed a Coca-Cola ad playing on a video of the country song "Alabama Nigger" by American white supremacist Johnny Rebel. Upon seeing that the video was not contributing to the uploader's income, Klein alleged that Nicas had used an altered screenshot and asserted this in a video. Hours later, he was informed that the video was indeed monetized, but through a copyright claim rather than an explicit choice of the user. Klein withdrew his accusation in response and The Wall Street Journal released a statement that it stood by the authenticity of the screenshots.[40][41]
Other ventures[]
In 2017, Hila Klein founded her own clothing company named Teddy Fresh.[4][42][43]
Awards and nominations[]
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Work | Result | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Streamy Awards | Comedy | h3h3Productions | Nominated | [44] |
| 2018 | Best Podcast | H3 Podcast | Nominated | [45] | |
| 2019 | Nominated | [46] | |||
| 2020 | Nominated | [47] |
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Raiford, Tiffany (December 21, 2020). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Ethan Klein". TVOvermind. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Kamau, Clare (December 18, 2020). "Hila Klein biography: age, height, brother, nationality, net worth". Legit.ng. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Gerckens, Kelsey (June 2, 2021). "YouTuber Star From Ventura Fighting Copyright Infringement Lawsuit". KEYT-TV. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Raphael, Shannon (December 11, 2020). "Is YouTube Comedian Ethan Klein Married?". Distractify. Archived from the original on May 29, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2021.
- ^ @HilaKleinH3 (September 16, 2019). "I'm a citizen now!!