How MrBeast Became the Willy Wonka of YouTube

from The New York Times I'm Katrin. benholt and this is the daily. [Music]. Donaldson better known as Mr Beast has. become a sensation on YouTube with. ostentatious and sometimes absurd acts. of altruism that go viral. today journalist Max Reed on the rise of. YouTube's most popular star and what it. tells us about the platform and its.

users. it's Wednesday July 5th. [Music]. Max hello hi. so I had a strange experience earlier. this year I have three kids and they're. very into watching videos on YouTube in. full disclosure my husband works at. YouTube so I'm probably the only one in. my family who doesn't obsessively watch. YouTube videos.

but one day a few months ago my teenage. daughter showed me this video in this. video we're hearing a thousand people's. blindness. blind people see for the first time oh. my God I'll see you everybody and in. this video this goofy looking young guy. with a scraggly beard explains how he. pays for eye surgery for 1 000 people. and we're just getting started we still. have 980 lives left to change.

and I was like what's going on here. who's this guy. my daughter said you haven't heard about. Mr Beast. yeah that's kind of the perfect video to. get an introduction to Mr Beast isn't it. it gets all of the Hallmarks of a Mr. Beast production there's a lot of money. being thrown around there's very high. production values there's this goofy. enthusiastic sort of adolescent tone and. there's this altruism at the core of it.

that the focus of the video is giving. the money away in this extremely. extravagant and colorful way and a. combination of those qualities has. turned this guy into the most popular. single YouTuber on the platform he has. the most subscribed Channel on YouTube. besides the Bollywood music label. T-Series he recently passed Coco melon. which if you have a toddler you know. very well because it's like a toddler. narcotic basically and the fact that.

he's passed Coco melon to somebody like. me who has a two and a half year old is. maybe the most impressive thing any. Entertainer has ever done I mean it's. fascinating because on the face of it it. seems kind of surprising that the most. popular guy on YouTube is essentially. doing like good stuff and that's just. not what I've thought was popular on the. internet these days I feel like in. recent years we've been talking so much. about far right rabbit holes and. darkness so this is different. yeah and he's done it as you say by sort. of being very different from what I.

think people imagine YouTubers to be. like if we imagine a kind of Jake or. Logan Paul these sort of extremely. good-looking drama queens who live in MC. mansions in Los Angeles and start fights. with each other or PewDiePie The Swedish. gamer who is probably most famous for. making what he claimed were ironic. anti-semitic pranks Mr Beast he hasn't. done any of that stuff he's mostly spent. his time putting on these enormous.

stunts and giving away a lot of money. and prizes and sometimes just to random. people on the street. so max for those of us who are you know. older than 14 what's this deal. well Mr beats real name is Jimmy. Donaldson and he's a 25 year old from. Greenville North Carolina you know I've. been covering YouTube for 10 years I'm a. tech journalist by trade and I've been. watching him rise over the last four or. five years into being this Behemoth. figure on the platform but he started in.

a much more humble place. how's it going guys it's been a while. since I've done a commentary or you know. even made a video for that matter but. you began making videos in about 2012. and at the beginning he was just making. what are called Let's Play videos this. is going to be a video about the top 10. worst guns in Call of Duty history and. real quick the gameplay you're watching. is nothing special uh it actually sucks. but you know where he would play a video.

game usually Call of Duty and commentate. on his own performance and upload videos. like that so my number 10 worst gun in. Call of Duty history is the PM9 from. Modern Warfare 3 and I think a lot of. people can agree with that the clip this. is a really common YouTube genre and at. the same time he was studying the. Masters so to speak he talks about. having spent all of his time in high. school just watching popular YouTube. videos and looking at how they titled. their videos looking at what kinds of.

thumbnail images they used and trying to. kind of reverse engineer a science of. YouTube success wow he decided not to go. to college over his mom's wishes in. order to really devote himself to this. and he put in the hours he garnered a. small subscriber base early on but he. didn't really take off for four or five. years and in all that time he was waking. up obsessing watching tweaking his own. videos thinking about what his next. videos were and trying to outdo himself.

I'm about to count to a hundred thousand. the first video that went truly viral. was one where he counted to one hundred. thousand you don't believe me just watch. this video and recorded it edited it and. upload it to YouTube hang on he counted. to a hundred thousand yeah just sitting. in front of his computer in his room he. counted from one to a hundred thousand. five four nine thousand ninety six forty. nine thousand nine seven forty nine. thousand nine ninety eight and people. watched it people loved it it went viral. so 99 99.

yeah. one hundred thousand uh. what am I doing with my life. foreign. and I think for him it was an object. lesson in the value of putting in an. effort and letting viewers see how much. effort you put in and it's really. interesting to me you know as somebody. who's been a journalist online for a.

long time the conventional wisdom is. that volume is the most important thing. if you're producing content if you're. making YouTube videos just make as many. YouTube videos as you can and surely one. of them will go viral and you'll gain a. lot of subscribers but what Mr Beast. seems to have learned is that if you. spend a lot of time and focus a lot of. energy on doing one video that makes it. very clear how much time you've spent. how much effort you've put into it. sometimes how much physical pain and. exhaustion you had to endure that that's.

something that YouTube viewers connect. with. foreign. so what are some examples of the videos. he makes After figuring this out what's. up guys I'm going to be attempting to. set the world record for the longest. Uber ride ever so he rides in an Uber. from North Carolina to California which. is 2 256 miles so you just agreed to do. it. they gave me a viral video keeping in. the theme of cars why did I purchase.

every fan of my city to try to push a. car he buys a thousand fans and tries to. push a car using all those fans what. it's everyday bro it's every day bro. it's everyday bro. he watches a YouTube video it's everyday. bro which is a legendarily atrocious rap. video by his fellow YouTube Star Jake. Paul for 10 hours straight which is. frankly a daring stunt for anybody who.

wants to save their brain cells. I have a headache. I'm tired of hearing it. oh gosh that was miserable. I've got a piece so I mean he more or. less invents and certainly perfects a. style of video that has come to be known. as the junk Lord videos. um so-called because they involve a lot. of really extravagant waste that creates. a lot of junk like say a hundred fans. that did not successfully push a Car. anywhere.

and the idea behind the junk Lord video. is exactly what we've been talking about. that if you spend a lot of money on a. huge stunt the more ridiculous the. better the sillier the funnier the more. extravagant the better you can bring in. a lot of viewers and this becomes a. really dominant style of YouTube up. there with the Let's Play videos that we. were talking about before this is a pit. of slime you guys will. one of you it is last one of you guys to. leave this slime gets 20 grand Chris. start us off.

and a lot of his junk Lord videos. involve giving money away. whether that means a really extravagant. contest where there's a prize winner at. the end who gets 10 or 50 or 100 000 or. sometimes it means just arbitrarily. handing money to people on the street so. you don't really have much yeah well I'm. a YouTuber I mean you can see the camera. and so I'm just it's a series where I. just you know be nice and just give. people some help so uh if you want to.

take it it's about ten thousand dollars. for example he wraps ten thousand. dollars in cash in a bundle and he hands. it to a homeless man who's panhandling. in a median. all right anything you want to say okay. these guys are the best man these guys. are unbelievable unbelievable this is. crazy and he does a short awkward little. interview with this guy and they give. him a ride somewhere and he finds that. this is a really Successful video you. know if you have ten thousand dollars.

what he's realizing is you don't need to. necessarily spend the ten thousand. dollars on slime to put in a barrel that. you then have to bathe in in order to. make the views you can just take the. literal ten thousand dollars and give it. to somebody who needs it and viewers. will respond very similarly so he starts. doing more videos where he's just giving. away money like that do you accept tips. in cash. um yes here you go man thanks for. driving us are you serious yeah yes sir. he tips ten thousand dollars to Uber.

drivers he gives away ten thousand. dollars in tips to waitresses he hands. the deed of a house to a Domino's. delivery guy who's delivering a pizza to. that house is the key it is yours. seriously no no strings no catch no. nothing that is awesome yeah of course. like these amounts you're talking about. these are not insignificant amount of. money where does that money come from. yeah so at the beginning he's mostly. getting direct sponsorships you know.

software companies who have some money. to burn and want to get their products. in front of people who watch YouTube. will just give him say ten thousand. dollars and he can use it to fund a. video of some kind but the other. important thing to understand about. YouTube is that it's a platform where. it's really easy to monetize your. followers by which I mean if you have a. certain number of subscribers you can. flip a button in your settings that. allows you to earn about 50 of all the. advertising Revenue that YouTube is.

getting from the videos you make so if. your videos are routinely getting. hundreds of millions of views you are. earning a lot of money with every video. you put up and something that Mr Beast. is very explicit about and something. that I think is very attractive about. him to his fans is that he puts the. money that he earns with every video. into the next video he sort of makes an. implicit promise that the money that he. makes when you watch his videos are. going to go to an even bigger more.

extravagant giveaway or contest or a. stunt in the next video. doesn't say 100 million subscribers and. from the bottom of my heart thank you. everyone that subscribed so when he hit. 100 million subscribers which was last. year he bought a private island in the. Bahamas so I brought 100 of my. subscribers to compete in four extreme. challenges last one standing wins this. island and then invited a bunch of. subscribers to do Survivor style.

competition in order to win the island. from him. how is it not loading this isn't easy. guys he's not giving it away the. production values are very high it's. very fun do none of you want an island. then start a fire faster and it's hard. not to think as you watch it that. there's a suggestion that maybe if you. subscribe to Mr Beast you might someday. be a recipient of his generosity. congratulations. or I can totally see how my daughter. would.

one to be called up like that yeah I. call him the Willy Wonka of YouTube. because a huge portion of his appeal is. that he's both entertaining and also. potentially able to transform your life. as a viewer that he could reach down and. throw you ten thousand dollars to you. know offer you a check to quit your job. on the spot and so to some extent the. popularity it's almost like entering a. lottery or something you join in with Mr. Beast and maybe you too will become the.

object of his charity so the money comes. because it's compelling to millions of. viewers to give away money which then. lets him give away more money it's kind. of like this cycle that feeds itself it. seems. yeah I mean it's a flywheel he makes. money from each video that then goes. into another video both the production. but also the value of the cash prize or. gift which then brings in more viewers. so he grows at the same time that the. charity grows and for a lot of viewers.

this is like a beautiful wonderful thing. to watch. so by the end of last year just a few. months after that Island video he's. passing PewDiePie until that point the. biggest YouTuber so now he's riding high. at 163 million subscribers it's. incredible 163 million I mean that's. like twice as many people as live in. Germany which is where I'm from. right and that's the context in which. the video that your daughter showed you. of Mr Beast paying for all these.

cataract surgeries was released in. February and this video vaulted him even. outside the containment of YouTube. this video enters Twitter enters. mainstream media enters Facebook all. these other platforms and all these. people who hadn't really even. encountered Mr Beast uh encounter him. for the first time. and all of a sudden this kind of. flywheel of growth and charity that made. a lot of sense in the context of YouTube.

was being questioned by people for whom. it felt somewhat different. [Music]. we'll be right back. thank you. okay Max so what happens when this Mr. Beast video breaks out of YouTube and. starts to get some more mainstream. attention yeah when the blind people see. for the first time video came out in. February I think there was a huge sense.

of bafflement that this strange. wonka-esque goofy maybe a bit shallow. video had gone so viral you know it's. hard to do this on a podcast but I feel. like I have to describe in just a few. words the thumbnail to this video and. it's this very obviously photoshopped. image of a grinning Mr Beast with his. hand on the shoulder of a presumably. post-surgical child whose eyes are. brimming with tears with a kind of.

shocked expression on his face that to. me reads almost like shocked with horror. there's some unseen Horror in the. distance that he's looking at the whole. thing it reads is cheap it reads as. cheesy it reads as manipulative and the. video is not as bad bad is the thumbnail. but there is something a little bit icky. about it and I I say icky I'm quoting. another YouTuber who acknowledged that. there is something icky about the idea. of putting a Chiron at the bottom of the. video that counts the number of blind.

people who are being saved as though. they're like objectives in a video game. and I think that for a lot of people. that kind of filmmaking feels. antithetical to the generosity or. charity so the criticism in a way is. that this is all a little cynical and. exploitative that basically he's in it. for the views he doesn't really care. about these people he's helping yeah and. I think if you watch the video the. criticism is not exactly baseless it's. notable that in a video where he is.

paying for a relatively cheap but. totally transformative surgery he never. really questions why these thousand. people who he's giving it to weren't. able to access it in the first place. what the structural or political reasons. are that they couldn't get cataract. surgery in the course of my reporting I. talked to one of the subjects in the. video a kid named Jeremiah Howard who's. been blind in one eye since he was about. five or six and Jeremiah told me what I. found to be an incredibly compelling. story about essentially being unable to.

find the help that he needed that. between applying to the Social Security. Administration for help trying to raise. money from his classmates he just. couldn't come up with the money so what. people are objecting to is that even. though Mr Beast might be helping. Jeremiah he isn't really doing anything. to change the system that made it. impossible for Jeremiah to get the. simple surgery in the first place yeah. though I should also say when I put this. to Jeremiah and asked him about the. kinds of criticism that Mr Beast was.

facing Jeremiah essentially said to me. well have any of those people paid for. my eye surgery. um the bottom line is he paid for the. surgery and to the extent that Mr Beast. has a very explicit model in which he. has very successful videos that make a. lot of money and that money then goes to. charity or goes to prizes if you started. making 45 minute videos about the. history of Health Care in the United. States it seems very unlikely that those. are going to get the same kind of. viewers that a Punchy 10 minute Feel.

Good video will and so for his flywheel. to keep moving he really does need to. make it as direct to viewers as possible. um. so max what can we say about his. motivation. well I don't know what's in Mr BEAST's. heart and he didn't agree to an. interview so I haven't spoken with him. but I have to say that I started. reporting this piece with a skeptical. frame of mind you know as somebody who.

did find the blind people video somewhat. alienating and in the end I think I was. mostly won over. um at least to the position that of all. the things that anybody could be. watching on YouTube and of all the. people who could be making YouTube. videos this was really not so bad at the. end and one thing that helped me get. past my hangouts to the extent that I've. gotten past them because I don't want to. give Mr Beast a blank check or anything. was speaking with teenagers and. 20-somethings who had watched Mr Beast.

for years and finding them if not. annoyed at least sort of baffled at the. question isn't he just doing this for. views isn't this just a cynical exercise. a lot of these people uh again people. for whom YouTube was the main source of. entertainment for most of their youth. the kinds of tactics that Mr Beast is. undertaking in videos like 1000 blind. people see for the first time are the. cost of doing business that there was no. point in making videos that weren't. sentimental manipulative eye-catching.

icky so to speak and that if you stop. doing that if he stopped using those. strategies then he might as well just. give up entirely but I think there's. something else going on too where Mr. Beast is really good at speaking sort of. directly to his audience about their own. role in his channel and I think the fact. that Mr Beast says to them from now. until the end of the year every single. time someone subscribes I will give away. 10 cents every time you watch this. channel you are putting 10 cents in the.

pocket of someone else which he says on. some of his specifically philanthropic. videos there's 100 of all the ad Revenue. brand deals and merge sales from this. channel Beast philanthropy will go into. this food pantry allows them to feel. empowered allows them to feel like. they're doing good good and sort of. gives them a sense that by doing this. thing that they already love which is. say watching YouTube they're also. participating in a kind of movement. themselves that they're able to act on. the world every view on this channel is.

literally putting food in people's. mouths like this. which especially if you're you know 12. or 13 and you don't have a ton of money. or a ton of agency is probably a pretty. attractive proposition to you it's kind. of it's kind of funny because it's such. a vague sense of doing good right a lot. of Charities are actually aligned with. some sort of political point of view or. ideology but it doesn't seem like Mr. Beast is and so I'm curious Max has he. aligned himself with any political. faction given this huge platform that he.

clearly has and the amount of money that. he's given away. no and I think this is one of the more. interesting things about him you know I. think we all have heard plenty of. stories about YouTube as a site for. right-wing radicalization but I. certainly wouldn't Place Mr Beast on the. right wing by any means while I was. reporting this story one of his close. friends who appears in a bunch of videos. and that's that they were undergoing. hormone replacement therapy and Mr Beast. has been nothing but quite vocally.

openly supportive and protective of his. friend which is sad to say not something. you would necessarily expect from a. popular YouTuber at the same time he's. not standing up against or presenting. himself as an alternative to more. controversial YouTubers like PewDiePie. you know he still appears on the. channels of YouTubers who if they. themselves are not explicitly right-wing. or let's say right-wing coded in a. culture war that is perhaps too. complicated to go into in detail here do.

you think it's actually a selling point. for Mr Beast that he can't be. categorized politically in the same way. he's kind of all over the place so in a. way he's nowhere and I don't know maybe. that helps his appeal I think so I think. it's important to keep in mind that the. bulk of Mr BEAST's viewers are. adolescents young teenagers people who. are not necessarily extremely. politically sophisticated who are not. particularly interested in joining in a. culture war that aligns with electoral. politics and for whom pretty simple and. straightforward Charities like planting.

trees cleaning up the ocean giving. cataract surgery to people who need it. are much more appealing than more. explicitly political causes so max you. were won over and clearly so are many of. the young people that are you know. subscribed to this channel but do you. think there's any danger in making. people feel like they are actually doing. good by simply watching Mr Beast videos. it kind of reminds me of you know a lot. of kids liking a cause on Facebook. but not actually going to the March yeah.

I think one difference we can say in Mr. B's defense I suppose is that there. actually is money being generated by. them watching videos and that money is. going to charity so it's I suppose on. the on the grand spectrum of do Gooding. slightly better than merely liking the. cause on Facebook but this style of. Charity or altruism is pretty new we. don't really know where it goes from. here and we don't really know what. happens to people for whom Mr Beast is. their first engagement with charitable.

giving or with activism in general what. we do know is that what Mr Beast is. doing is clearly working so in a way it. just I wonder doesn't that seem kind of. counter-cultural that this is what young. people are going crazy over when. everything we thought about the internet. was sort of pointing in the opposite. direction. yeah I mean what I find actually quite. funny about it is that it feels a little. bit retro to me. um that all kinds of stuff on YouTube. that I would see in the 2010s just.

didn't make any sense to me this is like. admitting that I'm. um that you were born before 1990. yeah. but to say I've never really loved. watching other people play video games. but clearly some people really love that. but when I watch Mr V's videos I don't. necessarily find myself confused they. remind me in a really direct way of TV I. watched when I was a kid of American. Gladiator double dare Extreme Home. Makeover you can go even further than. that and say they're like Queen for a.

Day it's like very classic. straightforward Basic Cable local news. feel good programming and I think that. part of what's happening is that as. YouTube gets bigger and bigger as the. platform keeps expanding its audience is. becoming more the only word I can think. to say is normal the audience is. becoming more like the audience for. broadcast television was in 1995 and I. think that means content becomes a. little bit broader it becomes a little. bit more feel good it becomes a little.

bit more sentimental in a way that that. YouTubers just weren't in the earlier. days of the platform when even though it. was very very big it still didn't have a. kind of mass American audience I mean I. feel like he's cracked the formula right. and that it seems like the formula is. universal themes Universal games. Universal humor kind of uh yeah common. denominator people go for. do you think this pretends good things. for the internet broadly like I think so.

many people are worried about the. internet you know so many parents like. myself are worried about the internet. and what it's doing to our children but. is this a harbinger of good things to. come. I suppose I felt the only way I can. gauge this question is telling you how. depressed I feel after I finish any. given story that I write about the. internet and I felt I would say less. depressed at the end of this story than. I have about many different stories that. I've written over the years that there's. a lot to criticize about Mr Beast and a. lot to criticize about the sort of model.

of Charity and viewership that he's. promoting. but I feel like the bottom line is could. be worse. the thing that I do keep in mind though. is that you know Mr BEAST's rise from uh. 12 year old video gaming North. Carolinian kid to the biggest YouTuber. of all time happened over the course of. 10 years and that is a blink in the eye. so to speak right now it seems like. maybe we can be optimistic about the. future of the internet but we also know. how quickly these companies and.

platforms shift how quickly they rise. and they fall so all we can really do is. wait and see I suppose so I guess if my. daughter asked me how to become a. successful YouTuber I should just tell. her go for generosity and decency. morality sells this is what I should. tell her it turns out that being a. successful YouTuber is also the same as. being a pretty good human being I guess. [Music]. thank you very much Max thank you for.

having me. we'll be right back. here's what else you need to know today. on Tuesday eight people were wounded in. a car running attack in Tel Aviv that. Israeli authorities described as an act. of terrorism. it came as Israel mounted one of its. largest military operations in the. occupied West Bank in years. at least 11 Palestinians were killed and.

120 injured in a series of Israeli drone. strikes and ground raids in Janine a. densely populated refugee camp. the events raised fears of tit-for-tat. violence in the region six months after. the most right-wing government in. Israeli history took power vowing to. root out Palestinian militants and. expand Jewish settlements on occupied. territory. and treasury secretary Janet Yellen is. heading to China today for four days of.

difficult talks aimed at easing tensions. between the world's two biggest. economies. her visit comes at a time when relations. between the United States and China have. been strained over a wide range of. Economic and security issues one of the. most contentious issues is expected to. be the Renminbi China's currency which. has been falling considerably against. the dollar and is threatening to hurt. U.S exports. thank you today's episode was produced.

by Nina Feldman and will Reed with help. from Carlos Prieto and Rachelle bonja it. was edited by Mark George with help from. Paige cowet and Lisa Chao contains. original music by Dan Powell and was. engineered by Chris Wood our theme music. is by Jim branberg and Ben Landsberg of. wonderly. foreign. [Music]. that's it for the daily I'm Katrin. benholt see you tomorrow.

[Music].