Logan Paul: Bad Influence? Review — A Surreal and Damning Documentary

Logan Paul: Bad Influence? is a crazy documentary to watch, and meticulously lays out a flurry of damning allegations related to a number of crypto projects.

It appeared on BBC Three in the U.K — a youth-focused TV channel that aims to reach 16 to 34-year-olds. That aligns very closely with this YouTuber’s audience.

Crypto documentaries on the telly are hard to pull off well. You’ve got to break down complicated concepts, like how blockchains work, so viewers understand what’s going on.

And usually, they’re really difficult to illustrate, with producers relying on stock footage of golden coins adorned with Bitcoin’s logo… and hooded men hunched over laptops in dark rooms.

Whiteboards appear a lot. Image: BBC

But this show, hosted by investigative journalist Matt Shea, gets around this challenge well — primarily because Logan Paul’s reputation as a Very Online Person means there’s no shortage of clips where he’s talking about his crypto ventures.

The documentary begins in Puerto Rico, where Shea and his camera crew have been invited to put their allegations directly to Paul.

When they arrive at a gym he owns along with his brother Jake, they quickly realize that the person they’re interviewing is an extremely bad lookalike.

‘Logan Paul’ sits down for an interview. Image: BBC

Young men armed with megaphones then invade the hall — shouting “BBC is vile, they hire paedophiles!”

As you would expect, the stunt was used as fodder for a rival video where Logan Paul delved into scandals that the broadcaster has faced in recent years. “Whataboutism” at its finest. And while the BBC has its fair share of controversies, it has little to do with what he’s accused of.

For that, Matt Shea introduces us to a whiteboard that intricately maps out the run-up to CryptoZoo’s launch — with the program then cutting to a TikTok clip of an excited fan, and an excerpt from Paul’s own podcast.

One thing this show does well is go beyond the tweets and X posts in order to talk to some of those who made an investment after the influencer’s endorsement.

Shea heads to Paris to speak to a 21-year-old called Rueben, who describes admiring Logan Paul’s larger-than-life persona and extravagant lifestyle.

Rueben. Image: BBC

“My understanding of what CryptoZoo was to become is a game where essentially it was something similar to Pokemon,” Rueben says.

The documentary then cuts to a graphic where even Shea himself admits he isn’t all too sure about how CryptoZoo was meant to work — despite investigating it closely.

His best attempt argues that CryptoZoo involved buying ZOO tokens which could then be used to purchase eggs. They would hatch into NFT animals and form hybrids that yield rewards.

Rueben says excitement about being part of the project soon gave way to concern after certain game features failed to launch on time.

“The thing that isn’t acceptable is actually not fulfilling what you promised to people … personally I lost about £33,000 and that was my savings, my nest egg,” Rueben adds.

We then see a clip of Logan Paul apologizing for the project’s failures — cleverly surrounded by damning reactions on X, including one where he’s accused of only speaking out because he was outed by the YouTube investigator Coffeezilla.

Logan Paul’s apology didn’t go down well. Image: BBC

But there’s a wider point that Matt Shea is trying to make here — that despite Logan Paul declaring he isn’t a “f****** scammer,” there appears to be a pattern when it comes to a number of other altcoins that have pumped and dumped in the past.

The documentary walks viewers through the phenomenon of GameStop, how other celebrities like Kim Kardashian faced penalties after promoting cryptocurrencies, and Elon Musk’s huge role in Dogecoin’s dramatic bull run back in 2021.

It then alleges that anonymous crypto wallets with close ties to Logan Paul appeared to purchase large amounts of coins shortly before he posted about them on social media — only to sell these holdings hours later with substantial profits.

Those digital assets had names including Elongate and Dink Doink.

Other highlights include an interview with “crypto villain” Gary Gensler, who’s asked why the SEC hasn’t done more to investigate the allegations.

Gary Gensler criticized pump and dumps. Image: BBC

His reaction is something akin to “sorry, I’ve had a lot of things going on” — claiming the agency has had to use finite resources wisely. Law-abiding crypto firms that have faced a barrage of enforcement notices might argue this hasn’t been the case.

Perhaps the most worrying thing about this documentary is the blind devotion that superfans have toward Logan Paul — and the heartbreak of parents who are trying to shield their children from being disappointed.

Lawyers are now suiting up and taking action over CryptoZoo, but this TV show makes two things clear: questions remain unresolved, and Logan Paul hasn’t shown much regard for fans when taken to task by the likes of the BBC and Coffeezilla.

Logan Paul: Bad Influence? was damning television — but unlikely to bring down the 29-year-old’s multimillion-dollar empire.

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