Influencers. Some influencers ended the year 2024 in the spotlight, and not necessarily in a good way. During the month of November, influencer Matilda Djerf was singled out for her poor treatment of her employees, then in December, it was the Hawk Tuah Girl who disappeared after extracting nearly $50 million from her community thanks to cryptocurrencies.
This time, a controversy affects a well-known YouTuber in France. This is Michou, who recently passed the milestone of 10 million subscribers on the platform. On October 19, he revealed the last project of his year 2024. It is his own board game, “Who will be the liar”. Although his community received this project very well, it quickly became disillusioned. On December 25, several children received the game under their tree and a controversy broke out.
Michou and his board game “Who will be the liar”
Michou's board game “Who will be the liar”, is developed by the publisher Topi Games and is aimed at families and children aged 7 and over, as indicated on the packaging. The principle is simple: among the players, we find honest people, but we also find liars. Each in turn, they will draw cards and will have to tell anecdotes linked to the indications on the cards. Honest players tell a true story, liars tell a false story.
To promote it, Michou made a YouTube video, along with three other content creators, Flamby, Nicotine and Timoute. There are basic questions, like “have you ever laughed in a situation where you shouldn’t have laughed?”, “tell us about the weirdest thing you created for a project at school”, or even “Have you ever done something naughty at a friend’s house?” And this is where the game has a problem.
On X, a user named Eileen denounced the problematic nature of Michou's board game. On Christmas Day, his 9-year-old niece unwraps her gift and discovers with excitement that it is Michou's game. However, his aunt notices that certain cards are out of place, and very inappropriate for children aged 7 and over. After his tweet, other users spoke up, agreeing that this game has no place in a family board game evening with children. Some even find zoophilic questions, like “ Have you ever had an animal in heat who wanted to do it with you? ”, simply have no place there.
Meanwhile, Michou celebrates Christmas with his family and he is far from suspecting the controversy that awaits him. On December 27, he broke his silence, on The next day, Topi Games published a press release. “Topi Games would like to express its most sincere apologies to its consumers, partners, Michou and the families affected by the manufacturing error,” we can read. The company has made the decision to withdraw the game from sale, and invites consumers to return it to the store for a refund.
For his part, Michou puts his discovery video of the game in private, and deletes his first apology message. In his tweet, we can read: “I would never have allowed myself to put these kinds of questions there and even less for such a young audience. I am truly sorry to everyone who was offended by this, I will make sure that this type of thing never happens again by redoubled efforts and attention on future projects,” he wrote.
https://x.com/Michoucroute_/status/1873091697967808892
But, obviously, his excuses are called into question, because during his video where he plays the game with his friends, questions of a sexual nature are already present. Which means that, even if Michou had not read all the cards before they went on sale, he knew that anecdotes could be inappropriate for a game with family or with children. For the moment, we do not know if his game will be put back on sale, and in what form.
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