EmpLemon
American video essayist and filmmaker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aaron Lemos (born February 8, 1998),[1] also known as EmperorLemon or EmpLemon, is an American video essayist and filmmaker. He produces video essays and documentaries about culture, film, video games and Internet media on his YouTube channel which amassed over 1.4 million subscribers.[2]
Personal life
EmpLemon was born on 8 February 1998. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2020 where he studied telecommunication production.[3] He claimed that his father had never gotten college education.[4]
Internet career
2010–2016: YouTube Poop
EmpLemon started his YouTube career in 2010 making YouTube Poop videos under his alias "EmperorLemon".[5][6][7] His sources were from animated shows and movies such as from Pixar and Viacom. He has quit making YouTube Poops after stated complications with his audience and from members of the online forum YouChew, as well as planning to release commentaries on various issues.[8]
In 2021, a majority of EmpLemon's YouTube Poop videos were privated by the uploader as a result of a YouTube Community Guidelines strike aimed at one of those videos.[9]
2017–2018: Criticism of YouTube
EmpLemon has criticized issues within the YouTube platform and its creators, starting with his 32-minute long video uploaded on May 8, 2017, about YouTuber Behind The Meme, a channel he criticized for "providing viewers with superficial, outdated information about Internet memes." The video has since received mixed feedback.
In August 2017 he uploaded a video criticizing YouTube as a platform under the title "YouTube has been on a Downward Spiral." He later uploaded a response video criticizing the 2017 YouTube Rewind, promoting the hashtag #️TankTheRewind, as an Internet campaign that utilizes the dislike feature on YouTube to express community distaste in YouTube's PR decisions.[10] The 2017 Rewind has since received 2.3 million dislikes, preceding the following Rewind video which is notorious for being the most disliked video on the platform.
EmpLemon alleges that YouTube has committed acts of censorship against his videos that criticize YouTube by the implementation of demonetization and algorithmic suppression,[11] and criticized YouTube's reaction to the Logan Paul Japan Forest incident.
2018–Present: Video essays and documentaries
EmpLemon has documented and explained various elements in Internet culture, with his YouTube series MEME Theory and Minute Memes. In one of his videos titled "MEME Theory: How Donald Trump used Memes to Become President" he attributed the impact of Internet memes on the Donald Trump 2016 election. In his YouTube Geographic series he explains events in YouTube history, such as the #️YouTubeWakeUp controversy, which he calls "Operation Red Herring". In 2023 he shared his story about meeting YouTuber MrBeast after publishing the YouTube Geographic episode on LeafyIsHere.[12]
In his series Never Ever he discusses figures and pieces of media in long-form documentaries. His most popular video on his channel is an episode from the series, made about professional e-sports player Hungrybox.
Since 2020, EmpLemon has made video essays about natural events such as the one mentioned in his video named "The Everest Discrepancy". The Michigan Daily describes the video as "describing not only the obsession to climb but the allure of the unknown."[13]
According to the automotive website and newsletter HotCars, EmpLemon makes a "unique style of video making that opens up people's perspectives to see things from his point of view, even if the subject matter has little to no mainstream appeal."[14]