Let’s talk about 2024. For me, one of the biggest themes in terms of YouTube was the veil behind a lot of generally liked content creators being pierced beyond repair, with MrBeast easily being the biggest name on the receiving end of this. Jimmy Robbins has an efficient recap of how and why it happened, so I’d ideally recommend watching that video if you want to know the ins and outs (at least up to his date of publication). But in summary, MrBeast’s entire brand ethos and the ethics behind the videos he creates, the way he creates them, his philanthropy hustles and even his side ventures outside of YouTube were seriously called into question, even if the initial wave of accusations were presented by the first “whistleblower”, DogPack404, in a very clumsy fashion and had the grace of Matt Watson in terms of its delivery and how he dealt with the inevitable fallout. If you don’t understand that reference, click here.
Even so, it reminded me of Ellen’s dramatic collapse when the workplace behind her show and the personality which heavily relied on her Be Kind mantra fell apart for reasons The Right Opinion outlined here. Many commentators have also pointed out that a lot of people who felt the entire MrBeast brand was off, just as it was going from strength to strength, now feel vindicated for sticking to that belief, even if they didn’t have tangible evidence to back up why. I, however, have never really had interest in MrBeast simply because the content he was producing was totally unappealing to me for reasons I have already articulated on the previous page. And even then, whenever I read some of his video titles, alarm bells and scepticism were ringing loud and clear. The earliest example was his deliberately not eating for 30 Days challenge, which The Food Theorists analysed with the help of science over here. The reason? Just the why of it all. Why is he voluntarily engaging in this for a start? Why is he trying to accomplish this crazy goal? Why is this a rational video idea besides it being a guarantee for clicks from those curious enough to see if he can actually do it (which he didn’t)?
And that scepticism seemed justified when his Philanthropy Channel released the now highly controversial video curing 1,000 Blind People in one session. It caused an awful lot of debate online at the time, with those defending the video saying it was par for the course in terms of the channel itself. However, those critical questioned the ethics of the endeavour, argued that the video itself was a near-perfect fit for the term Charity Porn, and wondered why appearing in a MrBeast video should necessitate something like curing blindness in the first place. I didn’t initially consider myself the latter, because unlike most of Jimmy’s Copycats (more on some of them on the next page), at least it appeared on the surface that Beast Philanthropy had a legitimate track record, even if I found the actual videos to be unnecessary and / or totally inappropriate in tone and design. That is, until I saw this video from TheAsherShow which exposed, using #TeamSeas as the main example, how shallow and surface-level it all is. The actual ethics and motivations of being charitable or a philanthropist within the online sphere is something that’s been on my mind a lot since watching that video, and it’s a post idea for the future for sure.
And then there’s the Beast Games… Which you could NEVER pay me enough to even be part of phase one! From the articles and testimonies that I’ve seen reported on, I can safely say that it looked like an incredibly chaotic and disorganised production, which is never a good sign on first impressions. And the reviews that I’ve seen from mainstream publications also reveal two things to me. The first is that Jimmy is yet another YouTuber at the tippy top of Subscriber Mountain completely misunderstanding that Social Media and Mainstream Media are two completely different monsters, which means what made him successful in the former does not automatically make him successful in the latter. Think Lily Singh’s attempt at Late Night Talk Show that was… the way The Right Opinion analysed it. And the second is confirmation, for me at least, that this whole spectacle-driven, shallow emptiness is all that Jimmy knows how to do. There isn’t anything else to it apart from dopamine hits that come at you like boxing jabs. Think Shane Dawson’s movie Not Cool and the way he directed that (which Jimmy Robbins described in detail here).
IGN wrote a scathing review of the first two episodes, which ended in them awarding a 2 out of 10 to the show. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the article. It opens with:
“Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson didn’t become the biggest YouTuber in the world because of charisma, cleverness, or creativity. The new Prime Video series Beast Games makes it abundantly clear he has none of these qualities. The creator is trying to translate the style, stunts, and back-patting generosity of his YouTube channel to a longer-form project, but the results … prove his near-ubiquity online is merely a triumph of spectacle.”
This more or less echoes the sentiments of YouTuber Donna that I cited earlier. After that, it’s pointed out that he’s already recreated Squid Game before but, according to IGN, ended up “missing the entire point of the dystopian series … instead positioning the prospect of desperate people pitted against each other as something aspirational”, which I would argue shouldn’t be at this moment in time if you think about certain X Factor moments, for example, in retrospect. After some heavy criticism of a Beast Games sponsor and the way it’s advertised on the show, the editing and pace are also scalded for feeling like “a bunch of TikTok videos crammed together out of fear that you’ll get bored unless something new is thrown in your face right this second,” which reinforces my belief that the Sidemen strike the balance between action and entertainment pretty much spot-on.
But the concluding paragraph points the biggest finger of blame at the man himself:
“MrBeast, when it all comes down to it, is a hype man for himself, his brand, and his content. He just wants us to keep watching, and Beast Games is another part of that. The show, much like the man behind it, isn’t inventive, thoughtful, or even entertaining. But it’s there, and there’s a lot of it…”
And while I was doing a bit more reading of reviews and watching YouTubers give their two cents on the thing, I came across a fantastic video from small-town YouTube channel The Serfs which went even further when talking about the man himself. Using Squid Game as the lens, they delivered the following verdict about Jimmy in the context of how he viewed the show:
“MrBeast is an entertainer and not an artist. Jimmy saw a bunch of horrifying action sequences and multicoloured walls sprayed with the blood of poor people for the entertainment of the rich and knew he had to recreate it. Because to him, that’s all it was: a spectacle. He never experienced anything beyond the addictive Korean children’s nursery rhymes or the smashing glass. He just saw another idea he could rip off and turn into a contest.”
They also made a damning observation about the people who often end up receiving large suitcases of cold, hard cash they’d most likely never be able to earn the normal way, and the wider context of why they do:
“The thing is, [Jimmy] needs people to have disabilities, or be poor, or be desperate to have his show. If he actually tried to use his endless wealth and resources to change the system, he wouldn’t have anyone to exploit. He depends on no one realising what’s really going on, that they just stay pacified and entertained, because then billions of us stay complicit and scared and desperate – so he can play another game.”
Well, I’m not going to be one of those billions. Because the more I learn about the reality of TV Shows I grew up watching, the more I wonder why Jimmy thinks that’s what needs to be recreated and elevated on YouTube. Why he thinks playing with people’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing is entertainment, when VICE has shown through their recent series on the worst Reality TV shows ever conceived, that such an idea is not foolproof. And why he feels the need to engage in philanthropy for the cameras without actually doing anything of substance. Because the whole genre that he arguably created is so full of flaws, so full of dangerous morals, and so lacking in human emotion that I honestly… Don’t really know what else to say as a conclusion to this two-page spread other than… Thank goodness I value the quality content produced by YouTubers I do like over one-off dopamine hits that leave me with nothing. Other than the question of is anyone who thinks this is the way to do YouTube really okay upstairs. Speaking of which…
The ADog Blog 