this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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I never understand why people love Mr Beast content. I never enjoyed it.

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[–] lechatron 137 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] s08nlql9@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago

I think he plays a lot of Minecraft which kids love

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 129 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s reality TV for kids.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Everyone can blab about this for ages but you've put it so poetically and succinctly.

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[–] viking@infosec.pub 56 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Kid got rich by streaming and shitposting. Ultimate hero for 14 year olds.

[–] Mascara@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Wasn't he up class already?

[–] viking@infosec.pub 11 points 4 months ago

No idea, never cared to check his background.

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 5 points 4 months ago

I peg him at upper middle, but that would be family wealth, not his. My kids watched him when he was really taking off, and he was just figuring out the content math. He started fairly small, spending a few hundred to buy people groceries, to in a few years was loading up a car lot and selling the vehicles for under $10. As his income got more ridiculous his stunts got more ridiculous.

There seems to be a wave of posts going after him lately, and I feel he’s flawed, but I don’t think his original intent was to do harm. He always gave the impression of someone who wanted to do good in the world while chasing fame, and I feel he succeeded more than many who go in with good intentions. I won’t be accepting the complimentary torch and pitchfork with all these posts, but they do raise some points where he should admit fault and clean up his act. The guy tried to get people to plant a billion trees and put a lot of time and money into it - I’ll grade him on a curve.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 54 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

A) flashy, loud, snippy content that works on people with no attention span or who are easily amused like kids (and annoys everyone else)

And B) clickbait-type, over-the-top content and games that no one else does - the sorts of things that, even if not high-brow, are still interesting. For example, blowing up a Lambrogini appealing to the action-movie lizard-brain, or a giant game of hide and seek appealing to the sort of person who daydreams about how to survive a zombie apocalypse.

Basically, its the peak of broad-appeal, low-brow, high effort/production value media.

[–] ShortFuse@lemmy.world 44 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

The way his content is structured and edited is like junk food for your brain. There's a formula that appeals to the ~~least~~ lowest common denominator and he (his team) excels at it.

The topics he picks usually hit some nerve of vicariousness (game shows contestants) or suspense from wanting to know what happens next (challenges and clickbait).

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[–] Fades@lemmy.world 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Fuck Mr. Beast, he literally preys on children by falsely framing his videos all as possibilities for them if they subscribe to the channel. He shills things like chocolate bars that are healthy to defeat obesity yet those same bars have twice the sugar than others like hershey bars. He gets kids to buy his shit on the guise of 'oh maybe we'll slip something in your order box! Maybe an iphone!!!' and now you have kids stumbling over themselves to beg their parents to buy Mr. Beast merch / mr. beast burger / mr. beast feastables / etc.

He's not a terrible person but this shit is gross, a lot of it is gambling-adjacent and the kids EAT IT THE FUCK UP. Yeah Mr. Beast is a businessman, but his business is manipulating children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5xf40KrK3I

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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I don't watch him either, but the was some drama about him recently. I was sort of half wondering what it was about. Anyone got a quick explanation?

[–] mke@lemmy.world 68 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Supposedly, a lot of lying, staging, faking, possible fraud, generally shady and consciously exploitive behavior towards viewers, many of which are kids.

This is stuff I remember off the top of my head, according to 1 (one) half-watched video on the topic. In other words, I'm not exactly in the know.

[–] throbbing_banjo@lemmy.world 38 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not just any streamer though, this guy has chocolate bars at Walmart and shit.

He is THE streamer. Ive even seen ads on Roku for his show.

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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Ah nothing surprising then. Thanks.

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[–] gigachad@sh.itjust.works 24 points 4 months ago (2 children)

And also: Who is Mr. Beast?

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'll do you one better: Why is Mr. Beast?

[–] Dumbkid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] Nemo@midwest.social 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

WHERE is Mr. Beast?

Is... is it in the room with us now?

[–] Edge004@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)
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[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago

Basically a for profit philanthropist. He does dumb content that brings in the dough and then uses that for big bombastic charity projects.

A lot of people like to hate on him because "rich kids shouldn't be the ones helping others out of poverty!" but like, as long as that's the way the world is I don't see any issues with it since he does actually go pretty above and beyond with his acts of good will, legit building homes for the poor, wells for communities with low safe water access, paying for sight restoration surgeries for the poor, I think one of his vids was traveling about and providing community solar networks to impoverished communities, which as someone who works in that field, he's doing a double service there since even if they end up having to pay for it themselves, it'll be a net savings vs traditional utility costs.

[–] ExtraordinaryJoe@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago (8 children)

My 8 year old loves his videos. I don't get it, but I'm an old man (57). I don't understand a lot of what he likes.

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[–] Zoldyck@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Teens are idiots. That's why.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If only teens were idiots... We all have our idiot moment, though for some that moment lasts all their lives..

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[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Hey, that's a derogatory generalisation. There are many teenagers who don't watch drivel like Mr Beast, or do many of the other things you might consider 'stupid'. Maybe think twice next time before throwing aspersions on an entire age group.

[–] Zoldyck@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You're right. Let me correct myself: most teens are idiots.

[–] FrostyCaveman@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago

And that’s ok. What’s not ok is when they’re still idiots when they grow up lol

[–] sag@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago

Source: OP is Teenager(me)

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[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

Most of his content is gameshows. Some people catch a serotonin high watching other people win money.

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'll never forget the time someone showed me a shitty YouTube video of pregnant spiderman.

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[–] s08nlql9@lemm.ee 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not a fan, but his philanthropy work is also popular. I only started to know him because of his project trees and not about his streaming

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 29 points 4 months ago (3 children)

But supposedly the philanthropy is staged and the prizes are given to his friends.

[–] Jackthelad@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'm always suspicious of people who make a show of their philanthropy. It just makes it seem like they're either exploiting people for their own gain, or they have something to hide and are trying to do so with philanthropic work.

[–] JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I mean yes but isn’t that being extremely pedantic?

Take Mr Beast or an hypothetical example. Give 1M to strangers in need, record it, upload it to YouTube make 4M on ads and other sponsors (content is still free). Pocket 2M, make second video where he gives 2M to other strangers in need. Record it, upload it to YouTube etc etc

Now I agree with you, philosophically it’s best to give without expecting or earning anything in return. But is that really the best outcome? Isn’t it actually arguably better to publicize it and with it reach and help way more people?

For me the answer is clear. I’d rather have someone record and even make money of this type of content (as long as there’s no exploitation or slimy shit) than have that same someone not do that and instead only help a fraction of the people. I’ll argue that the people being helped don’t give a crap about it, so it feels a bit patronizing to say that they shouldn’t be helped because of X or Y

This isn’t specific to Mr Beast, I don’t even know the details of the recent scandal. I just see this argument everywhere and I feel it’s very naive

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[–] pop@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 months ago

Guy brought crypto-bros' fake twitter/telegram giveaways scheme to youtube. Anybody with some knowledge of social media scams should have been suspicious. But his viewers were mostly kids and kids like flashy over the top content.

Anyone remember these on Xitter?

Like, subscribe, follow me and 10 other accounts and post proof in comments for a chance to win 0.0000000000000001 buttcoin.

5 comments after this post get a NFT worth $NOTHING

With a bot farm driving engagement, there'd be 1000s of comments in few hours. Probably mostly fake but still a lot of suckers reeled in everyday.

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[–] dog_@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I liked his content when he did a series called "Worst Intros". Ever since those were set private, I haven't enjoyed that content.

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[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago

Gambling sells.

[–] JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago (6 children)

His audience is mostly kids yes but not all of them.

His content can and is too annoying for a lot of people and that’s fine but it’s also entertaining to a lot of other people. I’m sure that you’ve had the situation where the most famous band, sport, food etc isn’t something you like. And that’s totally ok. It turns out we kind like different things. I’d argue it’s a good thing.

Also people severely underestimate him just because they don’t like his content or for some other reason. Pretty much every big YouTuber will agree that he is extremely good and optimizing the algorithm and that’s not an easy thing. If it were everyone would be doing it and the truth is that not a lot of people get close to his success.

Some of his videos are just for shits and giggles but a lot of them in does give a ton of money to people in need. Some people dislike that he does this for his channel and don’t like him for it. However the truth is that in the end he gave more money to people in need than everyone in this comment section combined.

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[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago

These are dependent clauses, not questions

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