--- title: How demonetized YouTuber pranksters still rake in dough - The Hustle description: The Nelk Boys are YouTube pranksters. Despite making $0 from YouTube ads, the group pulled in $50m last year on merch! image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1313070545-News-Brief_2021-06-30T232353.355Z.webp --- # How demonetized YouTuber pranksters still rake in dough ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: July 01, 2021 Updated: October 11, 2023 The Nelk Boys are one of YouTube’s most popular prank groups. ![How demonetized YouTuber pranksters still rake in dough](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1313070545-News-Brief_2021-06-30T232353.355Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1313070545-News-Brief_2021-06-30T232353.355Z.webp) Led by 26-year-old Kyle Forgeard, the group’s outrageous videos are known for going “full send” (a slogan that essentially means “all in”). But despite [racking up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelk) nearly 1B views and [6.63m](https://twitter.com/thegallowboob/status/1409999865065529349?s=20) subscribers, the group makes $0 from the platform. #### **YouTube demonetized the Nelk Boys…** … last fall after they [posted](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tanyachen/illinois-state-university-investigating-nelk-boys-parties) in defiance of COVID-19 protocols. Forgeard [told](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/style/nelk-youtube.html?referringSource=articleShare) *The New York Times*’ Taylor Lorenz that their revenue was already low due to the channel’s crude content, which they don’t plan to change. They make money in other ways: - Their** Full Send brand** made [$50m](https://fullsend.com/) in merch last year and may make $70m this year. - They just launched a **hard seltzer** called [Happy Dad](https://happydad.com/). Available online and in California, it’s often sold out. #### **How much do monetized YouTubers make? It varies.** A creator with 1.9k subscribers told [*Business Insider*](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-youtube-creators-influencers-earn-real-examples-2021-6) she could make ~$2.3k/year, while a finance YouTuber with 1m subscribers cited $444k in annual ad revenue. [*Business Insider*](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-youtube-pays-for-1-million-views-worth-2020-5?r=youtube-creator-lp) also talked to 6 creators who’d made between $3.4k and $40k on a video with 1m views. That’d be at least 1,250 videos to make the $50m the Nelk Boys made on merch. Compare that to what creators can make via sponsorships and other ventures — especially those with a fan base like the Nelk Boys — and YouTube can still be profitable, even if it won’t pay you. 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