Award-winning comic Dru Cripps has been removed from YouTube just days after winning $2000 in a Make Me Laugh challenge by YouTuber KSI.

 

The musical improviser created a rock song about orphans – following suggestions from Olajide Olayinka Williams, known as KSI and his brother Deji.

 

Deji cracked first, then KSI could not hold back the guffaws after Cripps, using a vocal loop as backing, roared his opening line: “I miss my parents.”

 

KSI agreed to double the usual $1000 prize money – awarding Cripps $2000 for successfully making both himself and his brother laugh.

 

The original clip now has 4.5 million views on YouTube – but since posting it himself his own channel has disappeared from the streaming platform.

 

Cripps was told he had posted a ‘scam’ or ‘misleading content’ – but has no idea what rules he might have broken. He wonders if it might be because he left comments under the original KSI video – or if it was because he shared a link to Instagram.

 

After appealing to YouTube he was told the ban was final and fears he may have permanently lost access to years of comedy content which had been uploaded to the site and which was not backed up elsewhere. “I feel like this is a surprise kick in the nads. It’s like the rug has been pulled from under me.”

 

Cripps, like a lot of comics, uses YouTube to share clips of his work – and also to show his act to comedy clubs and promoters around the country.

 

He says: “What I do is very hard to describe – so I had about five clips on YouTube that I use all the time to share with promoters.  I’ve even got clips of the first time I ever did stand up.  I don’t have spare copies of any of them.  YouTube was my back up.”

 

After lodging an appeal with YouTube, Cripps was told: “We reviewed your channel carefully and have confirmed that it violates our spam, deceptive practices and scams policy.  We know this is probably disappointing news but it’s our job to make sure YouTube is a safe place for all.”

 

The comic has been unable to contact anyone at YouTube for further clarification.

 

Cripps won the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award for Cunning Stunt in this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.  To entice punters to his show Dru Cripps: Juicy Bits, the comic literally fished for an audience by dangling flyers from the bridge at Potterrow - pictured here (picture by Ed Moore).

 

YouTube, which has been owned by Google since 2006, has been contacted for a comment.