--- title: 15-Year-Old Justin Bieber Tells Racist Joke in Resurfaced Video description: "Why are black people afraid of chainsaws?" a 15-year-old Bieber asked in a clip from his 'Never Say Never' days canonical: https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-01T15:28:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:08:59.313Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 15-Year-Old Justin Bieber Tells Racist Joke in Resurfaced Video og:description: "Why are black people afraid of chainsaws?" a 15-year-old Bieber asked in a clip from his 'Never Say Never' days og:url: https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e09f9c98112609/698695bee53aba2f184d2f67/time-ace-justin-bieber-140601.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: amfAR Gala - 67th Cannes Film Festival og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 15-Year-Old Justin Bieber Tells Racist Joke in Resurfaced Video twitter:description: "Why are black people afraid of chainsaws?" a 15-year-old Bieber asked in a clip from his 'Never Say Never' days twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e09f9c98112609/698695bee53aba2f184d2f67/time-ace-justin-bieber-140601.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 15-Year-Old Justin Bieber Tells Racist Joke in Resurfaced Video ## Video: Barry Gibb's Advice to Justin Bieber [Watch (HLS stream): Barry Gibb's Advice to Justin Bieber](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0rjMBuki.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2014-05-08. Barry Gibb's Advice to Justin Bieber_  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 1, 2014 3:28 PM UTC  Canadian singer Justin Bieber attends the Cinema Against AIDS amfAR gala 2014 held at the Hotel du Cap, Eden Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France, May 22, 2014, Canadian singer Justin Bieber attends the Cinema Against AIDS amfAR gala 2014 held at the Hotel du Cap, Eden Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France, May 22, 2014,Guillaume Horcajuelo—EPA  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 1, 2014 3:28 PM UTC **Updated 7:22 p.m. E.T.** Justin Bieber probably should have listened to whoever told him, “Don’t even say it.” The 20-year-old singer has issued a statement of public [apology](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/justin-bieber-apologizes-racial-slur-joke) to the Associated Press for a racist joke he told five years ago, seen in a [recently surfaced clip](http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/01/justin-bieber-racist-joke-video-n-word/) published on the website of British tabloid the _Sun._ In the clip, a then 15-year-old Bieber repeats the _N_\-word several times as part of a crude punch line, while laughing, despite protests from his team. Bieber’s camp [knew about the existence](http://pagesix.com/2014/06/01/justin-bieber-caught-using-n-word-in-racist-joke/) of the footage and was willing to pay to keep it from surfacing, the _Sun_ reported. Though “Spoiled Teenager Says Regrettable, Dumb Thing” could be an Onion headline at this point, TMZ — which claims it had the clip years ago but declined to post it because of Bieber’s age and his subsequent admission of stupidity (not included in the clip) — initially reported that Bieber was “frustrated and sad” by the turn of events. In the apology Sunday, “Bieber said when he was a kid he didn’t realize how certain words could hurt. He says he learned from his mistakes and apologized for them, and now is apologizing again because they have become public,” the AP said. The video was reportedly recorded during the making of the performer’s 2011 concert documentary, _Never Say Never_. \[[_TMZ_](http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/01/justin-bieber-racist-joke-video-n-word/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/"},"headline":"15-Year-Old Justin Bieber Tells Racist Joke in Resurfaced Video","datePublished":"2014-06-01T15:28:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:08:59.313Z","description":"A 15-year-old Bieber made a racist joke in a clip from his Never Say Never days","url":"https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/","keywords":["celebrities","Justin Bieber"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e09f9c98112609/698695bee53aba2f184d2f67/time-ace-justin-bieber-140601.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93e09f9c98112609/698695bee53aba2f184d2f67/time-ace-justin-bieber-140601.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"amfAR Gala - 67th Cannes Film Festival","caption":"amfAR Gala - 67th Cannes Film Festival","creditText":"Guillaume Horcajuelo—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/","name":"15-Year-Old Justin Bieber Tells Racist Joke in Resurfaced Video"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Barry Gibb's Advice to Justin Bieber","description":"Barry Gibb's Advice to Justin Bieber","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0rjMBuki/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-08T15:44:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0rjMBuki.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/","duration":"PT1M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2805060/bieber-racist-joke/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```