What Was the 'Inappropriate Content' That Got Cody Reeder Kicked Off YouTube?

Popular yet controversial science vlogger Cody Don Reeder, of the Cody'sLab channel on YouTube, has been suspended from the platform for posting inappropriate content. We're just not quite sure what it was.

On Monday, Cody'sLab was flagged for violating YouTube's community guidelines and suspended for the next two weeks. The 24-year-old Utah resident has more than 1 million subscribers to his channel, on which he does things in the name of science, like drink cyanide.

"Inappropriate content" may refer to a September video in which Reeder demonstrated how to microwave fruit flies. That might make sense if any fruit flies were actually harmed in the making of the video, but they weren't, at least on camera. Additionally, animal cruelty laws don't extend to insects, so fans remained perplexed as to why Reeder was booted from the site. Many believed it was a mistake.

"Just Great," Reeder wrote in a Facebook update one day before the suspension. "This video was to show that small insects can survive being microwaved while larger ones can not. I never made it public and re-did it with a grape instead of the large bug but it seems someone found the link and now I can't upload for 2 weeks, assuming I don't get another one and my channel gets shut down."

Reeder had previously posted a video explaining that since he'd been getting flagged more frequently and was worried his channel would be taken down if it happened again, he wouldn't be posting for a few weeks. If he does drop off the grid during his suspension, fans might be left hanging as to what exactly YouTube deemed the final straw. Reeder has suggested the messiness of the whole platform might push him to leave it altogether, but don't count him out just yet—he might keep going on a backup channel.