Tragic Details About CoryxKenshin
Cory Devante Williams, a.k.a. CoryxKenshin, has spent over a decade building a massively popular brand based on entertaining gameplay videos. And while it hasn't always been an easy road, the YouTuber has kept his head held high during the more difficult times in his life.
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00:00Corey DeVante Williams, a.k.a. Corey Kenshin, has spent over a decade building a massively
00:05popular brand based on entertaining gameplay videos, and while it hasn't always been an
00:10easy road, the YouTuber has kept his head held high during the most difficult times
00:13in his life.
00:14You know, that obligatory deep sigh that lets the audience know that it's about to get real.
00:23In 2017, Corey Kenshin revealed to his audience that he has ectodermal dysplasia, a rare genetic
00:29disorder which only afflicts roughly .00001% of the world's population.
00:35Because of this, he cannot grow hair on his legs or arms, and he only has 24 teeth rather
00:39than 32, which grew in with gaps between them.
00:42Corey's ectodermal dysplasia made him feel very insecure about his appearance during
00:46his school days, and he even found himself on the receiving end of bullying.
00:50He explained that it got so bad that he came home crying at one point in the sixth grade.
00:55I got teased about it a lot in the sixth grade.
00:58That was the hardest year of my life."
01:01However, thanks to the growth of his YouTube channel, Corey Kenshin was able to pay for
01:05a retainer to cover the gaps in his smile, which made him feel so much happier and more
01:09confident.
01:10Because of this, he wanted to share his journey with his audience.
01:13The response to the video was overwhelmingly positive, with many fans thanking him for
01:17having such a kind heart and making them feel less alone in their own personal struggles.
01:23Corey Kenshin demonstrated how much his brand image and his fanbase mean to him when he
01:27threatened to sue a T-shirt company selling bootleg Corey Kenshin merch.
01:30In July 2020, the YouTuber called out Tchip for allowing a seller to create a so-called
01:35Corey Kenshin Store, advertising several designs that were previously exclusive to Corey's
01:40official shop.
01:41He urged Tchip to ban the seller and refund anyone who would purchase merch from the shop.
01:46The next day, he posted a heated video in which he demonstrated that Google searches
01:49for his merchandise brought up the scammer's page first.
01:52Corey Kenshin also pulled up several reviews from angry customers, who reported being overcharged
01:57and stiffed on the merchandise they'd ordered.
01:59Furious that his and others' hard work was being used to exploit younger fans who may
02:03not know any better, he again insisted that Tchip remove the page from its site.
02:08Tchip apologized via Twitter, and the dupe Corey Kenshin Shop no longer has any items
02:12listed for sale.
02:13However, it remains unclear if anyone ever got the refunds Corey had hoped for.
02:18"-Friends!
02:19How are you today?
02:20Doing fine?
02:21I hope so.
02:22It's been a while since I've seen you!"
02:26Corey has discussed matters of mental health on more than one occasion with his viewers,
02:30uploading vlogs to not only get his feelings out there, but to also let people know that
02:34it's natural to feel certain things.
02:36In a few instances, he's also used his videos to announce a planned break from producing
02:40content.
02:41That way, his followers don't have to worry about where he might have gone.
02:44And really, it's the perfect descriptor for 2020.
02:47Chaos.
02:48In one such video, Corey Kenshin recapped the traumatic events of 2020, beginning with
02:53the devastating Australian wildfires and continuing through the death of George Floyd and the
02:58outbreak of COVID-19.
03:00Through it all, Corey explains, it was extremely difficult for him to maintain his usual sense
03:04of positivity.
03:05He found the daily grind of maintaining his YouTube channel wasn't as much fun as it had
03:09been in the past, and he began to feel stressed out by the whole endeavor as a result.
03:14Instead of giving up, however, he encouraged fans to find something that brings them joy
03:17and keep their heads up.
03:19Corey Kenshin stepped away from YouTube for a few weeks after uploading this video, but
03:23his fans were ready and waiting when he came back.
03:27In the past, Corey Kenshin has called YouTube out for striking his videos without much in
03:30the way of communication.
03:32This has been an ongoing issue shared by other content creators on the platform.
03:36YouTube rarely explains the exact reason for strikes against particular channels.
03:40However, it wasn't until one of Corey's videos was slapped with an age restriction that he
03:44finally had enough.
03:45As he explained in a lengthy video, he felt YouTube was treating him unfairly, and might
03:50even be punishing him as a sign of favoritism towards other established channels.
03:54His reasoning for this is that his gameplay video of The Mortuary Assistant was restricted
03:58to mature audiences only, but Markiplier's video of the same game was not, and neither
04:04were videos of the game on other channels.
04:06When this was brought to YouTube's attention, the platform lifted the age restriction, only
04:10to restrict it again shortly thereafter, along with Markiplier's video.
04:14"...why is my channel so much more heavily scrutinized than my peers?"
04:20He expressed a concern that the strikes against his channel were racially motivated, but said
04:25he didn't want that feeling to define his channel.
04:27Ultimately, he did argue that other channels were regularly propped up by YouTube, or as
04:31he seemed to get knocked down a peg every time he started to gain momentum.
04:34Not long after posting this video, he pinned a comment to the page, saying,
04:38"...this video was immediately flagged for ad suitability.
04:41I wonder why.
04:42Surely it isn't because it's YouTube being shown in a poor light.
04:45Surely not."
04:47After taking a break from uploading to manage his own mental health, Corey became the target
04:51of several fake news stories, many of which appear to have originated on TikTok.
04:56In early 2023, a few videos began circulating on the popular social media site, claiming
05:01that Corey was deceased.
05:03The hoax posts attributed his supposed death to a variety of causes, including brain aneurysm
05:08and even murder.
05:09One obviously parodic example takes the form of a local news broadcast, complete with stock
05:14footage of urban streets and an ominous voiceover.
05:17The satirical nature of the video didn't stop followers from buying it, however, as evidenced
05:21by the comments.
05:22The hoax itself never really took root in the popular imagination at the time, though
05:26one major website does appear to have bitten.
05:29Search giant Google.
05:31Due to some quirk of the algorithm, Google started returning a death date of July 16th,
05:352023 for Corey Kenshin on or around that same date.
05:39As of July 25th, the false result was still showing up at the top of results pages for
05:44searches Corey Kenshin and Corey Kenshin Death.
05:47As of this video, Corey Kenshin is alive and well, and it seems as though Google has fixed
05:51this error.