Comedian shut down after 'Dear Fat People' goes viral

Lindsay Deutsch | USA TODAY Network

Comedian and YouTube star Nicole Arbour, whose videos regularly get millions of views, is offensive — and she embraces that.

But after her viral video "Dear Fat People" received outcry from commenters and leaders in the body acceptance community, her YouTube and Google+ channels were temporarily disabled Sunday.

"We literally broke the Internet… With comedy. #censorship" Arbour tweeted after her account was taken down. (It has since been reinstated.) The video remained posted at Facebook, where it has more than 18 million views and 175,000 likes.

In the controversial video, Arbour says, "Fat shaming is not a thing. Fat people made that up. That's the race card, with no race." She goes on to justify her point in the spirited, six-minute video.

In the YouTube community, where acceptance has flourished and users are prompted to share their own stories (including the high-profile, celebrity-driven "It Gets Better" campaign), the video's backlash was not unexpected.

Whitney Way Thore, star of TLC's My Big Fat Fabulous Life, took issue with the video and posted a response of her own, which has gained about 50,000 views. The response was first spotted by CNN.

"Fat shaming is a thing. It's a really big thing, no pun intended. It is the really nasty spawn of a larger parent problem called body shaming, which I'm fairly certain everybody on the planet, especially women, have experienced," Thore says.

Tyler Oakley, arguably one of YouTube's most recognizable personalities, expressed his dismay over the video.

@NicoleArbour this is disappointing content — Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) September 4, 2015

Arbour, however, embraces the role as a controversial comedian.

"She's like the Donald Trump of YouTube," one commenter wrote on her Sept. 5 post titled "Most Offensive Video EVER," which was uploaded a day after "Dear Fat People."

The video calls out race, childhood obesity, "stupid people," violence and more controversial issues. However, Arbour stresses on Twitter, it's in the form of satire.

Wow, I'm the first comedian in the history of @YouTube to be #censored There are graphic videos about murder and torture, but satire is 🙊🙅🏼 — Nicole Arbour (@NicoleArbour) September 6, 2015

Arbour continues to tweet about YouTube disabling her account.

So is @YouTube ok with people free booting and uploading my video on OTHER channels which they make money off? pic.twitter.com/7i7YqBoTm3 — Nicole Arbour (@NicoleArbour) September 7, 2015

What do you think?