With a double-logoed hoodie and cash in his ears, MrBeast is clearly all about the money. Image courtesy of Rolling Stone.

HARRISON PRYOR | STAFF REPORTER | hrpryor@butler.edu

What happens to the richest and most subscribed-to YouTuber when his money and fame come from challenge videos? When profit is driven by how crazy the videos can get, how blurry can the ethical line become? Thanks to MrBeast, the world may just get the answer. 

MrBeast — whose given name is Jimmy Donaldson — has recently come under fire for burning down a small house with a stuntman named Eric inside for content. Though the self-described “prank channel” YouTuber told his audience that the event was heavily controlled and monitored for safety purposes, the very idea of the video has sparked MrBeast’s latest controversy.

Junior public health major Amanda Darwish expressed concern over MrBeast’s influence on younger audiences. 

“MrBeast [is] one of those creators where it seems like he just ‘does it for the plot’ or just to have fun,” Darwish said. “His fan base is young [enough] to follow him and do whatever he would do. Running into a fire and risking dying for a big amount of money seems really dangerous and causes a lot of controversy. It’s causing a lot of trouble for content.” 

The burning house was only the first of many dangerous challenges. MrBeast’s video consisted of seven pyrotechnical stunts of increasing intensity and payout, in keeping with the general formula of his content. Every challenge was called a death trap, and MrBeast could not resist the opportunity to plug his products in his own video. 

The fifth challenge returned to the burned-down building — more akin to a shed than a house — for Eric to escape with his money once more. The twist in this portion of the video was that Eric could get out without participating, provided he endorsed Jack Link’s MrBeast beef stick on camera. 

The fifth challenge was built around MrBeast’s food products getting a good review. A lot of MrBeast’s money comes from brand deals, so the over-the-top and sudden plug is, oddly enough, a regular tactic of his. 

Moreover, Eric was not the only one in danger in this video. In the third challenge, in which Eric was shot out of a cannon into a lake with a flaming ring, he was allowed to adjust the cannon’s trajectory and test it using three other stuntmen. The final two stuntmen came dangerously close to the flames, all for the sake of the video. 

This stunt is the latest in a long line of extreme challenge videos. Most of MrBeast’s videography consists of challenges of attrition — MrBeast, his friends and oftentimes outside contestants do a certain activity or stay in a certain place for a set amount of time to win large sums of money.

Max Haley, a sophomore strategic communication and sports media double major, theorized that MrBeast’s sudden propulsion into fame and money has taken a toll on him.

“He started out as just a college kid who wanted to make it big,” Haley said. “He [would say] the same word thousands and thousands of times, and it looked ridiculous. He has heart. I know a few people who have met him, and I actually know somebody who was in one of his videos. They say that he is a great guy, but when he’s dealing with so many contestants, he may seem a little scatterbrained. He’s definitely got a lot going on, but he does put that on himself.”

As one might expect from an immensely wealthy influencer, MrBeast is not new to controversy. One of his most recent scandals came from his Amazon Prime show “Beast Games”, an incredibly ironic game show inspired by Netflix’s “Squid Game”.

“Squid Game” told the story of people down on their luck being forced to play deadly games for a chance at riches. While “Beast Games” was not lethal by any means, it mirrored “Squid Game” in a dystopian way. Clearly, there was a massive disconnect between MrBeast’s desire for attention and the very blatant themes of “Squid Game”. 

“Squid Game” acts as a three-season social commentary on the rich using the poor for entertainment by pitting contestants against each other in a series of lethal games with the promise of a huge cash payout. “Beast Games” ignored the message and focused almost exclusively on having contestants argue and fight with their own teammates.

Darwish found MrBeast’s lack of awareness almost amusing.

“I think it’s ironic, because [‘Squid Game’] shows you everything you’re not supposed to do, but that’s for entertainment purposes,” Darwish said. “[MrBeast] is trying to do the same thing with real people who have real lives, and it shows what money can do to a person. I wonder how he gets all this money. [In] every video, he offers some sort of money. [How do] you have all this money to spend and give to a bunch of people and still seem like you’re not learning the lesson?”

A rich influencer publicly pitting the downtrodden against each other for money is the subject of more shows and movies than just “Squid Game”. The death game genre has been steadily gaining popularity over time, which only makes MrBeast’s dystopian reality show more disturbing.

MrBeast’s profits mostly get reinvested into his content or given away for charity, but the way he goes about it can feel sinister. There is no telling how far he will go or how ludicrous his challenges will become, admittedly for the sake of philanthropy. At the end of the day, who wins out: the generous Jimmy Donaldson or the opportunistic MrBeast?