There is something intoxicating about MrBeast’s videos.
My shame at needing to consume every new video he and his team uploads never stops me from making the time to sit down and watch–with tense anticipation, with lewd curiosity.
There is no way to briefly describe this individual and how I believe he neatly slots in to our cultural Zeitgeist–a defining figure of what it means to be alive and entertained in the 21st century. For this reason, this investigation is not a promise of a complete deconstruction of the man, his history and future–these articles are but a whisper in the wind of cultural commentary.
The first time I ever saw MrBeast (James Stephen “Jimmy" Donaldson) was when a video of him counting to 100,000 went viral in 2017. This video is recognised as the piece of content that marked the beginning of his success: Jimmy didn’t know it yet, but he had finally made it.
A young boy with short brown hair sits in a gaming chair wearing a Harvard t-shirt1. He looks at the camera, takes a deep breath, shakes his head briefly, fingers on temple. After a short plea to share his video, he begins to count.
Behind him are photographs of a sandwich, an old woman using an inhaler, and a young Asian man. Jimmy looks sweet, almost innocent, save for the general air of menace (however faint) many young men carry.
The video is low in quality–likely filmed on a webcam–in heavy contrast to the high cost productions that are arguably one of the key components of his content now. The frame containing this scene takes up only a quarter of the screen.
Through the black on white text that comprises the rest of the screen outside of his quadrant, he tells us more about his endeavour:
Why?
Because I am bored.
Do you have a life?
No
Who is the Asian sticker?
My best friend.
And lower down:
KILL ME
I didn’t watch the entire video, which comes in at just under 24 hours (sped up at various points to accommodate YouTube’s maximum video length). But I remember flicking through, watching for minutes at a time–trying to catch him out and being unable to do so.
At points he seems to be in an almost mystic state–eyes drifting open and shut as he continues to count, the numbers spoken aloud softly merging and jamming into one another. He likely doesn’t know that he is performing a corrupted take on Ganana, the technique of breath counting in Buddhist meditation. ‘This is the most i’ve ever tortured myself,’ he admits at 11 seconds in.
This young man is engaged in a kind of intimate extreme sport made public, a way of stretching humanity to its limits in front of an unknown audience–something horrific and equally somehow endearing: who is this boy and why is he doing this?
Has anyone ever done it before him? Will anyone ever do it again? Sit in one space and count every number until the word one-hundred-thousand leaves their lips in a sigh?
Of course today, it might be entirely possible to produce the same video using AI, trained and adapted to help MrBeast fool us into believing he has achieved his goal. My belief that he would not opt to use this technology for the same video today, is partly why I believe we are drawn to him.
Taken on its own, to say the ultimate goal of this video is for attention or followers might be too simple, although we can in fact find many examples of Jimmy admitting just that. But isn’t there more? This video provides a look into the inner workings of a young mind on the cusp of adulthood, happy for his naked pain to be shared widely, as long as it means he is seen. As long as it means he is one step closer to success, to worthiness, to something…
Seven years after he counted to 100,000 and posted it on the internet, this man is ubiquitous not just with YouTube but with online entertainment as a whole. His fame isn’t limited to English speaking fans–he is loved all over the world, making use of YouTube’s new multi language audio capabilities to make his content accessible to an ever growing, global audience (currently sitting at 234M subscribers).
He now has enough money to comfortably engage in impressive philanthropy and is referenced on inspirational LinkedIn posts ad infinitum–a successful man by most of today’s standards.
It is clear that capital runs through the core of everything Jimmy does–and why wouldn’t it, when it runs through us all, whether we like it or not? Jimmy has kept the full archive of his early content available on his YouTube channel, unlike many successful creators who opt to remove the videos that showcase their humble beginnings. Those humble beginnings that often contain perhaps awkward, hopeful, unpolished thrusts into the ether– incongruous, maybe even embarrassing when compared to a new, smooth and glossy brand identity.
But not Jimmy. He is clearly proud of his journey and the powerful love it too: he is the perfect, burning use case needed to keep the fire of the American Dream alight.
If Ronald Reagan himself were alive today, he would surely employ Jimmy as the poster boy for neoliberalism. If you work hard, you can achieve anything, even if that means spending over 24 hours counting from 1 to 100,000: nothing else matters.
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.2
Now Jimmy builds wells in Africa, helps blind people see for the first time, recreates Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory and awards members of the public $500,000 for surviving 100 Days in a Circle. In his most recent video he compares private islands of varying value: $1 vs $250,000,000 Private Island! A click away and we can see what money can buy… A click away from a constant fever dream of colour, disconcerting altruism and avarice.
But there is something of the boy that counted to 100,000 that clearly remains, a desire to show he is still capable of great feats beyond earning and giving away money: he buries himself alive, stops eating food for a month, lives in a house made of ice…
Hopefully one can now easily agree that MrBeast can tell us so much: about pain, about success, about the internet and about capital.
But perhaps most importantly, he can tell us about what at least 234M people might desire.
Disclaimer: I work for YouTube @ Google. The opinions stated here are my own, not those of my employer.
Reagan, Ronald. "Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union." Reagan Foundation, 6 Feb. 1985, www.reaganfoundation.org/media/128840/union4.pdf. Accessed 3 Feb. 2023.
This was such a good read/listen !