Before I reported on VTubing for VICE, I reported on it for The Mary Sue. One of my very first VTuber shout outs in the press was in an article about The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. Back in 2023, I gushed about my favorite let’s play for the game, performed by a talented VTuber who turned me into a diehard Nemlei fan. In my mind, Ashley Graves is synonymous with this VTuber’s performance of her. If you want TCOAAL voice acted, the best way to enjoy it is through this VTuber’s playthrough.Whose voice acting skills did I fall in love with? A popular rabbit-themed VTuber named Pipkin Pippa. And now that I’ve uttered the words “Pipkin Pippa,” I must state the magic spell that protects me from the internet: The following article, while reflecting facts reported by other news outlets, is based entirely on my own personal opinion as a VTuber and VTuber fan.‘You’re too f***ing stupid to know what’s good for you’I first learned about Pippa and her edgy sense of humor all the way back in 2022, when my Valorant friends began sharing Pippa clips and highlight reels with me. Such as this viral post from 2024. Or clips from her playthrough of Class of ’09, one of our favorite games. Or the “Duality of Pipkin Pippa” YouTube video, which basically captures Pippa in a nutshell. Unironically, during one of the darkest moments in my life, Pippa’s explanation for why you shouldn’t take your own life spoke to me. You’re right, Pippa! I’m actually stupid. I wouldn’t say I’m a Pippa fan, but I respect talent when I see it. And I happen to think Pippa is very talented.Pippa, to be clear, has a very edgy sense of humor. So much so, she even has a “Controversies” section on Know Your Meme. While she’s not a political VTuber, her content is definitely popular with many right-wing VTuber fans. That said, she’s also popular with people who aren’t right-wing. And she’s popular with people who literally don’t care about politics. By nature of her sense of humor, there are 1,000 opinions on Pippa across VTubing.Mine? I don’t agree with everything Pippa does. I absolutely think she’s gone too far with some of her jokes in the past. But Pippa is the VTuber equivalent of a shock jock. Others have tried to claim that title, but it’s Pippa who is the true shock jock of VTubing. That’s what she sets out to do, and that’s who she is. And to that end, there’s a difference between having right-wing fans, and being a far-right VTuber spreading malicious beliefs. I personally believe that distinction matters. Some right-wing VTubers make me afraid. But not Pippa. She just makes me laugh.So. Now that we all know about Pippa, imagine my surprise when I opened up Twitter and Bluesky and saw Phase Connect’s poster child staring back at me because a Pippa fan was arrested. That’s right, someone went to a protest, got arrested, and now Pippa’s face is all over his local news. So before we go any further: If you live in the Nashville area and your parents have ever commented on “that cartoon rabbit girl who screams a lot in your phone,” you might want to have a frank conversation with them before they start asking you to hand over your iPhone.‘Honey, isn’t that the rabbit girl you like from your animes?’Elijah Miller’s Pipkin Pippa post from December 2024. Pippa’s appearance in NewsChannel 5’s coverage went viral on Twitter and Bluesky. Screenshot: NewsChannel 5NewsChannel 5 Nashville covers local news for Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Recently, the station reported on the Nashville “No Kings” protest over the weekend, highlighting a 19-year-old named Elijah Miller arrested for disorderly conduct. In two separate news segments posted to YouTube, the local news studio read from the teen’s arrest warrant. Per the warrant, the arrested teen “brandished a weapon during a planned protest.” When “yelling and arguing ensued,” he stated that he had a gun.“The defendant was holding the gun down in front of himself and letting others in the area know that he had it,” the arrest warrant stated, per NewsChannel 5 Nashville. “The witness and others in the crowd were in fear for their safety and began running before flagging down officers.” Per witness statement, “people started yelling at him, and he pulled it out and stated he had a gun.” No one was “directly pointed at, but [Miller] was spitting at people.”Both videos discuss the teen’s “long fascination with Nazis, mass murder” by highlighting his Twitter account. And in between various screengrabs from the poster’s social media, there she is. Pippa suddenly appears, staring right back at the viewer. In a post captioned “things are about to happen” from Dec. 18, 2024, Miller posed Pippa alongside a revolver and a book labeled Democracy: The God That Failed. According to Mises Institute’s Connor Mortell, the book “lays out the case that private ownership of government — monarchy — is preferable to the democratic government we are familiar with today.”Additionally, according to social media posts lifted from the arrested teen’s social media, the inscription “Pipkin Pippa” was scratched onto a shotgun owned by Miller.‘Don’t do this if you’re a fan of a creator’Yeah, don't do this if you're a fan of a creator. It makes you look really fucking stupid and more importantly it drags down their image. pic.twitter.com/g0WgnIpu97— Fraserboy (@Wake_Up_Deadman) June 17, 2025Pippa’s appearance in news coverage around a political arrest obviously turned some heads in VTubing. Over on Twitter, one user shared a screengrab from the news report with the shotgun inscribed “Pipkin Pippa,” warning “don’t do this if you’re a fan of a creator” as it “drags down their image.” Another suggested this was Pippa’s “PewDiePie” moment, referencing the Christchurch mosque shooter who said the “subscribe to PewDiePie” meme on livestream before carrying out the mass shooting. A third poster shared the news report’s Pippa image and responded the exact same way I did IRL: “THIS IS NOT FUCKING REAL OH MYOGDFSDFGHFD LMAOOOO WTFFFFFF.”THIS IS NOT FUCKING REAL OH MYOGDFSDFGHFD LMAOOOO WTFFFFFF pic.twitter.com/uLRkdw1FS8— zoey !! (@zoeyizume) June 17, 2025While Twitter seemed bewildered, Bluesky was angered. In a viral Bluesky post, one user shared the Pippa revolver and shotgun images, noting it was “what happens when you appeal to the alt-right crowds under the guise of ‘it’s just a joke guys.'” Another found Miller’s status as a Pippa fan “completely unsurprising.” A third simply concluded, “It was only a matter of time.”What happens when you appeal to the alt right crowds under the guise of “it’s just a joke guys”— Ferrah Fang | | Vtuber (@ferrahfang.bsky.social) 2025-06-17T14:36:52.362ZBluesky users following Pippa’s news appearance almost universally believed Miller was reflective of Pippa’s fanbase. But this sentiment wasn’t confined to Bluesky. On Twitter, some came to the same conclusion, suggesting that Pippa’s community deserves scrutiny. Meanwhile, a poster on Reddit’s r/VirtualYouTubers simply called Miller the “least deranged Pippa fan.” A mod on the subreddit described the circumstance as a “cautionary tale on indulging potentially deranged fans.”“Think this will cause a ‘violent video games causes violence’ but VTuber flavored?” one Redditor asked in the post’s comments. Lively discussion followed.Do you, um, really want to explain all this to your Mom and Dad?Screenshot: Pipkin PippaRegardless of how you feel about Pippa, her fanbase, and the bizarre way VTubing just intersected with larger American politics, I’d like to point readers back to my June 3rd article, “More People Are Searching up Stuff About VTubers. That’s Good and Bad.” In that piece, I revealed how “VTuber” topic searches for the past 12 months peaked on Google during the Sinder controversy. I also warned that VTubers can leave a positive impact on the world around us, or that positive influence can be overshadowed by major VTubers getting involved in petty drama and unpopular political beefs. Whether you believe Miller’s Pippa connection is a black swan event or something worth investigation, I think we all can agree: What happened with Miller is very bad for VTubing. It certainly overshadows a lot of the good happening in the space right now.Look. Pippa isn’t responsible for some far-right teenager waving a gun around. She didn’t tell that kid to get aggro at a “No Kings” protest in Nashville, nor did she tell him to arm himself, scratch the name “Pipkin Pippa” in a shotgun, and read a book popular with Curtis Yarvin. Yes, Pippa’s sense of humor is edgy. But she’s no pundit. She’s a shock jock. She’s not preaching political talking points directly to her audience.Pippa is having her pewdiepie moment right now, I wonder how it feels https://t.co/kGRPKb7lTx— Purusagi (@PurusagiVT) June 17, 2025But I want to reiterate: This is the outside world’s first impression of VTubing, and it’s not a great look. Yeah, f**k the normies, they don’t get it, we’re not all like this. I agree. But sponsors, businesses, academics, they’re all going to start asking, “What’s the deal with this VTubing thing anyway? Why is there so much controversy around it and politics?” And that’s not a question you want asked, as it comes with risk. Risk like, “decreasing sponsorship spending.” Risks like, “businesses deeming your industry unstable and prone to politically extreme viewers.” It takes one bad event to damage a budding industry.Now is a good opportunity to look around the VTubing space at large and ask, well, what’s going on here? What’s up? Because I don’t think the problem is Pippa. She’s just a comedian. But the industry around Pippa? Well, that thing allows bad actors to hang out in fanbases and communities and conventions across the industry. And trust me, the weirdos are going to keep popping up. With other oshis’ names scribbled on their own rifles or whatever, I’m sure.And if that doesn’t convince you, well. Do you really want to have that awkward conversation with Mom and Dad about your oshi in the news? Yeah, probably not.The post Your Mom and Dad Now Know What a VTuber Is Thanks to This Arrest. Maybe. Sorta appeared first on VICE.