Who the hell is MrBeast?

I enjoyed a few when I first came across the channel because it reminded me of those shows from decades ago. The ones where someone comes up to you in a toy / electronics store and you have a minute to grab whatever you can for free. That was a fun concept.

billionaire playing with the little people for his amusement

However a lot more of the videos feel like this, especially with how well known he is now. I don't think I'm the target age group regardless.

My understanding is that he got his start doing extreme challenges himself, so now that he's got the money, he challenges fans and gives prize payouts. He also still does his own challenges once in a while.

Offtopic, but what does the "map" in your profile means?

He’s a master at knowing what will make someone click

He effectively dedicated a couple years to “study” this, which is exactly what you can do with your life when you live in Greenville, NC.

a master at knowing what will make someone click on his videos

Coincidentally also a master at knowing what will make me never click on them (yes it's the horrifying face he makes)

On that note, there is this browser extension

https://dearrow.ajay.app/

DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. The goal is to make titles accurate and reduce sensationalism. No more arrows, ridiculous faces, and no more clickbait.

It's nice because it will affect all the videos equally. I didn't want to use it initially because it was messing with my ability to remember which videos I had already seen. I might give it a try again since people keep changing video thumbnails now

He's a master at knowing what will make someone click on his videos

Spoiler alert: it's this face 😲

I will say that he's a master at knowing what will make someone click on his videos.

Well, his methods haven't caught OP and me.

To combine a bunch of explanations I've seen in the comments here:

A bourgeois philanthropist game show producer who dabbles in poverty porn.

That said, I do occasionally burn time watching some of his videos, however some of the content (especially the more recent game show ones which feel a bit like toying with people) rub me the wrong way.

I have no idea if his philanthropy efforts are genuine or not - he's barely visible in those videos (he has another individual hosting those videos) although I do appreciate the efforts they appear to go to when assisting communities desperately in need, and careful implementation of solutions that are sustainable, and can actually be maintained and fixed with local knowledge.

I've seen way too many "gimmicky" charity contributions by other organizations that become worthless as soon as they break because nobody fixes them, as well as other solutions that seemingly make sense from a western cultural lens but aren't really understood by the local people... worst one being a "merry-go-round" water pump mechanism where senior locals are forced to "play" just to pump water for survival. It was originally intended as a kids toy, but they of course don't have any attachment to such a foreign device, thus don't use it.

Ehhh apologies for the mini rant there 😅

My understanding is that there is also a Democratic element to his business model which also works as a form of engagement from his fans who give him their money.

I tried watching a video of his once because I was genuinely interested in the subject. There were so many jump cuts it was unwatchable. Now I know all YouTube videos for kids are like that

From what I hear he's really not so objectionable and people enjoy his videos. I am yet to ever watch one though and that's purely out of spite. Somehow YouTube seemed to try so hard to push this dude in particular that I decided to specifically not watch anything he was in, this meant avoiding his stuff and also anything from anyone else I actually like if I could tell from the thumbnail or description he was going to be in it. I just about managed it because I've never seen anything with him directly, but I have ended up seeing parodies of his videos so I now in spite of myself know what must usually be in them, and I've seen the famous video critiquing all the spin off food businesses he's started up off the back of his famous name.

He's probably really not that bad, even if his obscene wealth is objectionable, but my contrarian nature just can't abide all the hype and cheerleading. Hopefully when he finally stops being popular, I'll have managed to miss everything he's in and maintain my pointless personal record of dodging the beastly bullets.

I also haven't seen anything from him, but I've seen things that talk about him. My understanding is he's a guy who makes outlandish videos, and some of that is "charity" (is it charity if you profit more off the video about it?) that got really popular. Other than that, I don't really know what he does.

I think his companies are making around 800 mil/yr in revenue, so it's just billionares rubbing elbows. Class warfare as usual.

I'm curious as to why you say that as he literally used his first sponsorship to pay off his mom's mortgage and seems to come from an average standard of living.

They won’t be well if they watch him. One of his main money makers is dishonest and probably illegal lotteries where he suggests almost everyone who buys something from him will get some kind of big prize. In reality, the odds are like 1 in 60000, and the requirement of a purchase for a chance to get the prize is probably illegal.

He also sells chocolate and cookies as “healthy” using similar underhanded promises of rewards. He also runs contests and game shows that are staged and rigged which, again, is illegal on broadcast TV.

MISSSTEEERRRRR BEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST

The fact that these aren't random people and are employees or actors, and that the outcomes are fixed, makes the audience feel deceived.

Oh I had no idea. I know some people seemed like friends/ other content creators, didn't know others were faked too

Yeah he looks incredibly fake in every photo I've seen. I've seen a few video clips and he's not quite as bad in those.

Yeah, I always thought he had resting punchable face in his thumbnails. When I heard people say he had a heart of gold, especially the casy neistat interview I felt bad about thinking he had a punchable face.... but whenever I clear my cookies youtube recommends his videos, and I'm staring at his face yet again, and it's so punchable.

I've never watched one of his videos, simply because anything youtube recommends when you clear cookies is really not my kind of content.

Fun fact he actually started out by making minecraft videos in middle school. "Mr Beast" is literally a name thought up by a 12 year old trying to look cool on the internet.

Altruistic implies he was doing it out of the kindness of his heart and got nothing out of it, when in reality he was making poverty porn for profit and to further his own career.

Mr beast is popping up in various internet news circles lately because one of his friends/"co-star"s in his youtube videos was just caught grooming a 12 year old. To make things even worse, Mr beast was aware that this friend of his was pedo for years and continued to make videos with him(her). She recently transitioned last year and that was a minor controversy of its own for Mr beast cause most of his audience is cringey transphobic teens and tweens.

from someone who actually knows him

Oh sweet summer child, how innocent. When someone is a multi-millionare/billionaire and they say they own nothing, just a quaint little bunker, they're lying to you.

Please pick a simplified version of any book or article with Marx's philosophies and beliefs. Read on what is his opinion on philanthropy. You don't really have to be a leftist for that. In an egalitarian society, people are self-reliant. What philanthropist do is make people dependent on them.