'Lapse in judgement': Singaporean YouTuber Sneaky Sushii apologises after plagiarism backlash

Singaporean YouTuber Sneaky Sushii has apologised in the wake of accusations that he had copied a smaller creator's content.

The YouTuber, who has more than 700,000 subscribers, uploaded a video on Aug 30, 2025 titled "This horror film was so real, people reported it to the police".

It was Sneaky Sushii's take about a controversial Japanese horror film alleged to be a snuff film that showed scenes of actual homicide.

But last Friday (March 13), Denmark-based YouTuber Toni Vesdream said Sneaky Sushii's video - which had 250,000 views - bore striking similarities to one he had earlier published in March 2025.

Vesdream, who has 45,000 subscribers, said that when he first came across Sneaky Sushii's video, it rang a bell as he had also covered the same film before.

"I remember I spent about three weeks researching it. I had to read part of a book for it, and I even went on Japanese search engines to try to track down articles about it", said Vesdream in his video last Friday. 

Vesdream pointed out that in his own video, there was a comedic and "dramatic reenactment" of him pretending to stab a gingerbread man-shaped cake.

In Sneaky Sushii's version, a similar scene appeared as a drawing of a dismembered woman.

Instead of feeling angry, Vesdream said the similarities felt validating and also defended Sneaky Sushii's work. 

"First of all, I don't own the copyright of an idea," he said, adding that he is speaking out to encourage better crediting practices among creators. 

"We both reported on the same story, so naturally, we're going to hit a lot of the same points. But usually, if one particular source is the main inspiration, journalistic etiquette, or just YouTube etiquette, would be to give some sort of credit." 

Responding to the backlash, Sneaky Sushii said that credit will be given to any source that he uses in his videos "moving forward". 

"This was a lapse in judgment on my part, and I sincerely apologise to Toni," he added. 

Checks by AsiaOne showed that the video has been removed from his channel. 

Vesdream said in his own video that Sneaky Sushii has apologised to him and "committed to properly credit his sources in the future". 

"As I said in my video, there are no hard feelings. I appreciate and accept his apology. We all make mistakes, what's important is to learn from them," he added. 

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chingshijie@asiaone.com