As April Fools’ Day pranks by celebrities continue to gain attention online, posts by some VTubers from Hololive Production They only served to generate a curious controversy. The VTubers in question were “Kazama Iroha” and “Laplus Darkness“, two super popular members of the agency with more than 800 thousand followers on YouTube.
During the early hours of April 1, the two issued a press release saying: “I have registered the documents for my marriage with Kazama Iroha/Laplus Darkness, who is also a member of the sixth generation of Hololive Production. We both have little experience, but we hope to continue counting on her support in the future.», and they accompanied the publication with an illustration.
Being both from the same generation of VTubers talents, the two usually hang out during each other’s broadcasts, which is why their shipping is known as “Irohasu (てぇてぇ)” among fans. In fact, Laplus Darkness had already given some clues about this publication in a video published on March 26, reporting that he was planning to get married in the near future. The publications of both achieved an impressive reception, with millions of interactions accumulated and many congratulatory comments.
But negative comments also began to arrive, such as:
- «I like Irohasu, but I have the feeling that making jokes like this for April Fool’s Day is completely insensitive. Or rather, I think someone in management should have realized this before approving this».
- «In Japan there are many same-sex couples who cannot get married even if they really want to, and there are many people who continue to strive and fight to legalize these unions before the Government. Let’s stop using this topic as a joke, please.».
- «It’s been said many times not to use marriage equality as an April Fool’s joke, why do you do it anyway? It’s terrifying to think that they only do it to generate controversy and go viral at the expense of it.».
- «The people involved probably think it’s a funny April Fool’s Day prank, but real-world people who really want to marry someone of the same sex even go to court to get their marriage approved. So these kinds of jokes are rude and insensitive, so I hope they don’t make these kinds of mistakes in the future.».
- «April Fools’ Day is something that can be enjoyed as a laughable and forgivable lie as an anecdote or joke because you are joking about “something absolutely impossible,” so to joke about marriage equality is to ignore the fact that there are people who are at a disadvantage because They cannot marry or form a same-sex couple in real life. It’s disgusting and repulsive that you do this».
Several celebrities have been criticized for declaring their “marriage” on April Fool’s Day in the past. The practice of people acting gay or bisexual to attract attention is known as “queerbaiting” and is considered offensive to LGBT people. Although it is known that making this type of joke on April Fool’s Day attracts criticism from the LGBT community, perhaps this is why some celebrities decide to take the risk to go viral.
Fountain: Yaraon!
