Pogo aka Nick Bertke, an Australian DJ, has admitted to being a homophobe in a YouTube video where he also talked about celebrating the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting. The video does not appear on Pogo’s official YouTube channel, Fagottron, but another channel named Pogo Archives. Pogo later deleted the video but you can still watch his most hateful comments in the clip above.
The clip is titled, “Why I Called My Channel Fagottron.” Pogo says, “I’ve never liked a grown man acting like a 12-year-old girl. I’ve always found that to be quite disgusting. And so I thought to myself, how best can I express to the world that gays are just an abomination?”
He adds, “I think nothing encapsulates the sissiness of a guy quite like the world, “F*****.” I have a fairly robust resentment of the gay community. I don’t want to really get into this, but when there was the Orlando shooting and that guy was shouting, “Allahu Akbar,” or something, I was like, “Great.” Pogo then pumps his fist in the clip.
Pogo continues, “But yeah, I’ve got to be a bit careful with that because, well, you know… I don’t like gays, but I don’t want to see people getting killed in nightclubs either. But still, I mean, it’s just fantastic. It amazes me to see the West welcoming a culture through the floodgates that wants gays dead. I think that’s fantastic.”
Later, Pogo uploaded a video saying that the video were he condemned homosexuals was a joke and intended to “grind the gears.” Pogo added, “The things I said in this video I think have deserved the reception that the video has had…I love confusing people…Then I took it too far [and created the ‘fagottron’ video].”
Here’s what you need to know about Pogo:
1. Pogo Has Admitted Being a Fan of Far-Right Provocateurs Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder & Milo Yiannopoulos
Pogo has shown some of his politics in the past with his October 2016 song, Trumpular, which fused together various clips of Donald Trump speaking over a beat. His music is also played on the right-wing talk show Louder With Crowder. On the FAQ section of Crowder’s website, someone asked who created the music on the show, Crowder replied, “Our friend Nick Bertke aka “Pogo“. Go buy his work on iTunes. Then follow him on Twitter.”
Pogo also said in the same video where he addressed his condemning of homosexuals, Pogo also said that things he has said in the past about the evils of feminism were also jokes. Pogo did say that he’s a fan of Milo Yiannopoulos in terms of the things Yiannopoulos says but Pogo says he “doesn’t like the way [Yiannopoulos] says them.” Pogo then lists some of the personalities he does like, such as Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan and, of course, Steven Crowder.
2. Pogo Was Banned From the U.S. in 2013
In 2013, it was widely reported that Pogo was banned from the United States for violating the terms of his visa waiver. The visa waiver program allows tourists from certain countries to come and go from the U.S. without a visa. However, those people are strictly forbidden from working. The ban occurred in 2011.
Speaking on a now-deleted YouTube video, Pogo said, “America is really the last place on earth I want to be banned from.” He laid the blame on his promoters who did not inform him of the work restrictions and also said that he had been incarcerated for two weeks before being deported. The Huffington Post also reported that Pogo attempted to have his ban rescinded through a White House petition.
3. Pogo Has Created Music for the Gap, Disney Pixar & Nickelodeon
Instagram/Pogo
On his official Instagram page, Pogo writes that he is a music and video producer who is based in Perth, Australia. While on his Facebook page, Pogo says that he was born in Cape Town, South Africa, spent time in New Zealand, but now lives in the Australian capital. In descrbing his style of music on SoundCloud page, Pogo writes that he “chucks weird sounds into a blender and blasts them into a funky frappé for your earholes.”
Pogo says on that same page that he has worked the U.S. a great deal, beginning in 2009 when he worked for Disney Pixar is producing the viral videos, Upular, Toyz Noize, Ariel and Swashbuckle. Between January 2012 and April 2012, Pogo worked for Warner Home Video producing a YouTube video, Scoobystep. A year later, Pogo worked for Nickelodeon in producing a video, Squarebob Spongemix. A few months later, Pogo worked for Pokemon’s YouTube channel. Most recently, in May 2016, Pogo produced “music and video” for an online campaign for Gap clothing. On his official website, Pogo says that he was commissioned by Showtime to create a soundmix to in support of the hit series Dexter.
4. Pogo Caused a Stir in 2014 When He Deleted His Social Media
In August 2014, Pogo caused a stir when he deleted all of his social media accounts. When asked about this by Svana Paper in an interview he replied, “I just felt that I needed a break from social media. I felt like it was a negative part of my life and I found it to be very difficult to deal with everybody’s expectations every day. And I didn’t have the right mind for it at that time, so I decided to take that out of my life.” Pogo later said that he “felt that [he] was focusing too much on people and not enough on my music and what I wanted my music to be.”
During the same interview, Pogo was asked about the origin of his name to which he replied, “Well, I think Pogo is a student. Because when I was in school, I drew comic strips more often then I actually did any school work. And one the comic strips I came up was called Pogo. Which was kind of Pokemon concept. So when I started making music and I was releasing it on the internet, I thought why not just call myself Pogo? It’s short, it feels personal to me because of what I had drawn in school. And it just stuck ever since then.”
5. Pogo’s Video Is Being Roundly Criticized on Social Media
Pogo, who has not made an official statement since the video went viral, wrote in his latest tweet at the time of writing, “Simplicity Is Divinity. These are the three most important words you’ll ever contemplate as an artist. Instead of throwing everything at the wall, think “What do I like about this?” and strip away everything else. Less detail!”
Here are some of the most vitriolic tweets about Pogo’s homophobia:
“Hi! My name is @NickBertke! I remix Disney movies into music and even though 90% of my audience is queer, I’ve decided to go on record that ‘I hate faggots’ cuz, you know. I don’t actually want a career.”
@NickBertke Your simplicity is stupidity. It leads to divisiveness, not divinity.
You’re entitled to your willfully ignorant thoughts, but I’d love to know why, without any real provocation, you decided to alienate your majorative fan base with hate speech. @NickBertke, good luck selling your music without the queer community. It’s 2018. Wake up asshole.
