Some may remember Cody Ko as the guy behind the “eww dude wtf” meme on YouTube series That’s Cringe, where he reacted to, well, supposedly cringe content. However, some people may now know his name for other, more serious reasons. Per Time magazine, the Canadian star has recently found himself in hot water for allegedly having sex with fellow YouTuber Tana Mongeau when she was underage.
At the time of the supposed encounter, Mongeau was 17 and Ko was 25. As Ko grapples with the controversy, here’s everything you need to know about the online personality. Cody Ko is an online personality on many social media platforms .
.. but was on Vine first {"@context":"https://schema.
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com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/16/3d5e8d7f-4289-465a-b44f-cc5be2826a60_9fbf4122.jpg"} Cody Ko in a still from one of his short videos on Vine. Photo: @codyko/Vine If you remember Vine, the app on which people shared short videos long before TikTok came into being, you might remember that Ko used to be a creator on that platform.
This is where he first found fame with his humorous videos, some of which racked up over a million views. Fans frequently still make compilations of his Vines on YouTube. {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Cody Ko and his Tiny Meat Gang co-host Noel Miller. Photo: @codyko/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/16/d858a7ce-8d84-43ff-9b7f-f63ed7b1b6b5_14dd7d51.jpg"} Cody Ko and his Tiny Meat Gang co-host Noel Miller. Photo: @codyko/Instagram While Ko is best known these days for being a YouTuber and dropping videos of comedic commentary and reactions, as well as his own music, he also has a podcast called Tiny Meat Gang, where he and fellow YouTuber Noel Miller chat about interesting experiences they’ve had in life.
What is Cody Ko’s controversy with Tana Mongeau? According to Time, on May 30, during a live filming for her podcast Cancelled, Mongeau said that she’d slept with Ko while still underage. Mongeau, who has herself faced backlash for her own racist posts on X (formerly Twitter), said that she was 17 at the time while Ko would have been 25. In July, another YouTuber, D’Angelo Wallace, begged the public to take the issue seriously in a video titled “An Uncomfortable Conversation about Cody Ko”.
In the video, Wallace took jabs at Ko and his silence over Mongeau’s comments, and asked him to address similar claims made by another online personality, former Vine star Gabbie Hanna. Wallace’s video calling out Ko’s refusal to speak out about the nearly decade-long drama has garnered a lot of attention, gaining about two million views in the span of three days. What did Cody Ko’s long-time best friend, Noel Miller, say about the controversy? Rolling Stone reported at the end of July that, following the Mongeau controversy, Ko stepped away from Tiny Meat Gang, the podcast and YouTube channel he hosts with his long-time best friend, Miller.
The move was officially announced by TMG Studios, the pair’s production house. Following the announcement, Miller released a statement on Instagram Stories saying, “Hey everyone, I wanted to say thank you for the messages and support. It means a lot to me.
” He followed up the comments in a YouTube video, saying, “I’m not in a position to speak about the situation and, at this point, the thing that I am focusing on is how to move forward.” He also briefly introduced a new direction for the show. Is Cody Ko married? What about kids? {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Cody Ko at his wedding to Kelsey Kreppel in 2023. Photo: @kelseykreppel/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/16/3dfaa19c-356f-43fd-bce9-ec70083d0ff1_11dc6c7e.jpg"} Cody Ko at his wedding to Kelsey Kreppel in 2023. Photo: @kelseykreppel/Instagram According to People, Ko is currently married to Kelsey Kreppel, a former preschool teacher turned fellow YouTuber and podcaster.
They met in 2017 at a gathering thrown by her then-roommate, and now share a dog, Chili, and two cats, Brisket and Hamilton. In January, Kreppel gave birth to the couple’s first child, a son named Otis. Ko became famous for his short comedy videos on Vine and later for his That’s Cringe series – but now, Mongeau has alleged that he had sex with her when she was 17, and he was 25 Fellow YouTuber D’Angelo Wallace supported Mongeau with her own video about the issue, but Ko has remained silent; he’s married to Kelsey Kreppel and has a son named Otis.
