What is Mr Beast? Is he like a new form of Pewdiepie who just does shit and gets assloads of money to film himself doing some script stuff with the caption “I DID THIS TOTALLY WEIRD THING AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED”
He started out doing challenge videos like “counting to x” and it was literally like a multi-hour long video where he counted to 10,000 I believe. It’s insanely boring but it showed his “dedication to the bit”. Another is saying " pewdiepie like 10,000 times. I may have exaggerated, I’m not at a computer to look up the numbers. Eventually, after tormenting himself and gaining some followers and he got paid some money from youtube. With his first paycheck he made a video of him taking that check and giving it to a homeless person (IIRC). His philosophy was always to take any money he makes and dump it right into the next video. This has allowed him to slowly make bigger and bigger videos. He still regularly does challenge videos (buried himself alive for multiple days, not eating for several days, etc.) But, him dumping all of the money he makes, into the next video has grown from giving his first, probably couple hundred dollar check, to a homeless man, into giving literally millions away per video.
He also kind of pioneered the thumbnails you are talking about. And yelling at the beginning of the video to grab your attention by showing enthusiasm was also really his thing too. I mean some people had probably used it before. But, he used it regularly and had the type of content that really was that exciting.
Whether you care for challenge content, giving away money, some combination of both, or neither he also has Beast Philanthropy. That’s his channel where he does good “because he can”. He puts a bunch of money and gets sponsors to give money for causes like, building wells, building houses, paying for surgeries, building hospitals, etc. I thought it was a bit gross to make videos out of charity work at first. But, it helps a lot of people in under served countries, and raises awareness to them and the charities that try to help them. Also, all the money they make on that channel goes to the charity of each episode.
That was more than I thought I would type for sure…
He often does the reverse, paying people exorbitant sums to do mundane things like spending 3 days in a circle. He practically started and got famous of that genre.
They’re leaving out that philanthropy is a big part of his videos. Sometimes it’s game show style where the winner(s) get huge rewards and sometimes it’s direct charity like the “I built 100 houses” video. People watch them because they’re often feelgood stories.
It can be a bit controversial as well because people who are more politically engaged often get frustrated by charity when they believe the problem the charity purports to solve is systemic. Whenever he posts philanthropy videos it triggers a huge shitstorm on Twitter of people expressing that frustration and a bunch of people coming to his defense.
I suspect people watch it because it gives them that dopamine hit of helping someone, without actually doing anything. “Oh my gosh, he’s so charitable!”
Commodified charity is a very effective way to get views and followers, so many people copy his format, doing “charity” for personal fame and gain - i’ve heard of some “charity” tubers/tokers that start selling ad space to fucking online casinos once they get enough viewers.
People definitely go overboard with their criticisms, but there are legitimate criticisms to be made. While his philanthropy is objectively good and makes a positive difference in people’s lives, it does nothing to address the systemic causes of the problems he highlights.
His content is also completely apolitical, which rubs people the wrong way when he covers topics a lot of people see as inherently political like extreme poverty, homelessness, and healthcare.
Yes, because it’s not enough. It’s possible to acknowledge good work while also criticizing the ways that it falls short, otherwise we risk cheering for the drop-in-the-bucket charity that doesn’t challenge the status quo and credulously thinking our problems are being solved when more needs to be done.
That got him mainstream because the religious right started publicly denouncing him
He’s constantly being front-paged on YouTube and getting shoved into everyone’s recommended feeds. I have never heard anyone on the religious right mention his name positively or negatively. I doubt the Zoomers and GenAlpha folks who subscribe to him have either.
What is Mr Beast? Is he like a new form of Pewdiepie who just does shit and gets assloads of money to film himself doing some script stuff with the caption “I DID THIS TOTALLY WEIRD THING AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED”
He started out doing challenge videos like “counting to x” and it was literally like a multi-hour long video where he counted to 10,000 I believe. It’s insanely boring but it showed his “dedication to the bit”. Another is saying " pewdiepie like 10,000 times. I may have exaggerated, I’m not at a computer to look up the numbers. Eventually, after tormenting himself and gaining some followers and he got paid some money from youtube. With his first paycheck he made a video of him taking that check and giving it to a homeless person (IIRC). His philosophy was always to take any money he makes and dump it right into the next video. This has allowed him to slowly make bigger and bigger videos. He still regularly does challenge videos (buried himself alive for multiple days, not eating for several days, etc.) But, him dumping all of the money he makes, into the next video has grown from giving his first, probably couple hundred dollar check, to a homeless man, into giving literally millions away per video.
He also kind of pioneered the thumbnails you are talking about. And yelling at the beginning of the video to grab your attention by showing enthusiasm was also really his thing too. I mean some people had probably used it before. But, he used it regularly and had the type of content that really was that exciting.
Whether you care for challenge content, giving away money, some combination of both, or neither he also has Beast Philanthropy. That’s his channel where he does good “because he can”. He puts a bunch of money and gets sponsors to give money for causes like, building wells, building houses, paying for surgeries, building hospitals, etc. I thought it was a bit gross to make videos out of charity work at first. But, it helps a lot of people in under served countries, and raises awareness to them and the charities that try to help them. Also, all the money they make on that channel goes to the charity of each episode.
That was more than I thought I would type for sure…
He often does the reverse, paying people exorbitant sums to do mundane things like spending 3 days in a circle. He practically started and got famous of that genre.
I know this may sound ignorant, but who the heck watches this and gets entertained?
They’re leaving out that philanthropy is a big part of his videos. Sometimes it’s game show style where the winner(s) get huge rewards and sometimes it’s direct charity like the “I built 100 houses” video. People watch them because they’re often feelgood stories.
It can be a bit controversial as well because people who are more politically engaged often get frustrated by charity when they believe the problem the charity purports to solve is systemic. Whenever he posts philanthropy videos it triggers a huge shitstorm on Twitter of people expressing that frustration and a bunch of people coming to his defense.
Basically, yeah. He also has a habit of giving away large sums of money.
And people watch this because…? They want the money too? It’s just money.
I suspect people watch it because it gives them that dopamine hit of helping someone, without actually doing anything. “Oh my gosh, he’s so charitable!”
Commodified charity is a very effective way to get views and followers, so many people copy his format, doing “charity” for personal fame and gain - i’ve heard of some “charity” tubers/tokers that start selling ad space to fucking online casinos once they get enough viewers.
So those “charity” YouTubers let the online casinos have their ad space so those casinos can give them more homeless people…
He donates to a bunch of noble causes, and people like to see that. For example building 100 homes for people under the poverty line
And it makes pathetic contrarians seethe because they have nothing going in their lives.
People definitely go overboard with their criticisms, but there are legitimate criticisms to be made. While his philanthropy is objectively good and makes a positive difference in people’s lives, it does nothing to address the systemic causes of the problems he highlights.
His content is also completely apolitical, which rubs people the wrong way when he covers topics a lot of people see as inherently political like extreme poverty, homelessness, and healthcare.
Were you also critical of Jimmy Carter for building homes for habitat for humanity?
Because Carter helped build homes for decades after retirement without politicizing it or addressing the systemic causes.
Yes, because it’s not enough. It’s possible to acknowledge good work while also criticizing the ways that it falls short, otherwise we risk cheering for the drop-in-the-bucket charity that doesn’t challenge the status quo and credulously thinking our problems are being solved when more needs to be done.
He got his very first start doing weird things for views.
But he got really famous by being a clickbaity charity funded by viewers. For example he paid for eye surgeries for 1000 people.
That got him mainstream because the religious right started publicly denouncing him for helping people without it being about Jesus.
He’s constantly being front-paged on YouTube and getting shoved into everyone’s recommended feeds. I have never heard anyone on the religious right mention his name positively or negatively. I doubt the Zoomers and GenAlpha folks who subscribe to him have either.
If he had done it quietly without a video crew I would have a lot more respect for him… Actually… I would have any respect for him
If he’d have done it quietly and without a video feed, he’d be called “Medicaid” and we’d be arguing over how much we need to defund him.
We? I sure af wouldn’t… Especially since I ain’t american.