The 52-year-old YouTuber Scooby1961’s seven-year health and fitness career on the site came to an end last weekend, after 4chan users posted his personal information and began harassing his workplace and family with phone calls, homophobic slurs, and death threats. One person allegedly showed up at his house and took pictures, too. The cumulative badgering forced Scooby to relocate his family, and shut down his YouTube channel.
In a video posted on Sunday, the OG YouTube fitness guru wiped back a tear as he said his goodbyes, and asked the community to carry on his legacy. “Find some young, awkward kid who doesn’t have self-confidence and is horrible at sports, and take them under your wing,” he said. “Show them the joys of lifting, teach them about nutrition, and most of all, show them the journey is just as important as the destination.”
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The fitness community on Reddit, YouTube, Tumblr, and 4chan’s /fit/ board—which Scooby used to frequent and where he was affectionately called “king of /fit/,” “gooby,” “goobs,” “natty lord,” and “puzzlemaster”—are stunned by his departure.
PhysiquesofGreatness, in a video response, expressed astonishment that “out of everybody on YouTube, I can’t believe they’re fucking with Scooby.” He added, Scooby is probably “too old for this shit.” IceCreamFitness, in a vlog, called it a “sad day,” as Scooby’s channel was “the oldest” fitness channel on YouTube. On top of the vlogs, fitness gurus and fans have taken to uploading tributes to Scooby, with violin playing and mash-ups. YouTube personality and gamer TotalBiscuit mourned his departure in a Reddit thread.
4chan’s /fit/ board seems to be taking it the worst, with many threatening to leave the community following the doxxing that happened two weeks ago. On Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, more than 12 threads on /fit/ were dedicated to Scooby, mentioned the incident, or had a comic or drawing of Scooby.
“Poor Scooby. All dude ever wanted was to help people and show them the ropes,” wrote one /fit/ poster. “All those tips, videos, the website, the forums. Al[l] those resources for free…Gooby deserved better.”
On Wednesday, one /fit/ poster started an Indiegogo fundraiser for Scooby in order to “to show him that 4chan truly isn’t a collective, and there are still people here who are genuinely grateful for his guidance and will miss his infrequent appearances.” It only took a few hours for the Indiegogo campaign to reach its goal of $1,000.
Scooby was unreachable for comment, but his new site dedicated to teaching fitness to 40 year olds and up is already online.
