Written by Carmine Medeiros
Edited by Austin Moloney
Mr. Beast, the enormous internet influencer and businessman has had a very rough journey on his climb to fame. And people may be forced to cover up shady things to keep their star shining.
Hopeful Beginnings
Jimmy Donaldson started off as a small time youtuber in Greenville, North Carolina, making reaction videos and doing challenges such as counting to 100,000 or saying a certain word a lot of times. But Jimmy's fame came from him giving copious amounts of money to the homeless. In fact, the money he got from his first sponsor, around $10,000, he generously gave all to homeless people. This made him go viral.
He went on to do the same thing he did best, give away money to people in need of it. He was known to have had his original crew (Ava Kris Tyson, Chandler Hallow, Jake The Viking, etc.) compete in certain challenges for a prize, usually money or a car. But as time went on, his influence went beyond just his crew. He would recruit large groups of people to participate in what are called the Beast games.
The Trails
The Beast games were launched with the making of the “Squid Game” challenge video. This video followed the setting of the immensely popular show Squid Game. In the Squid game, 456 contestants competed against each other in a life or death game for a hefty sum of money. Mr Beast recreated this without the whole life or death factor. The reward for winning this challenge was $456,000, which is quite the jump from the $10,000 he gave to the homeless in his first charitable video.
Regardless, this video did amazing on YouTube, with the net earnings easily covering what he spent on the video tenfold. Mr. Beast continued to make videos themed around this genre, each video with snabby outfits and a large cash reward for the winner/winners, attracting viewers of all ages. He also received a steady flow of cash through his merch and snacks, with snacks such as “Feastibles” becoming immensely popular. Though this was Jimmy's signature by this point, he also took part in many philanthropic events, most of which were hosted by him. This put a shining finish on the image of Mr. Beast for many years to come.
The Accusations
Jimmy's business ventures weren’t always so pure and kind-hearted. Over the years Mr. Beast has had many members join and leave his crew. Some went quietly, and others not so much. When the renowned Mr. Beast crew member known as “Jake the Viking” left the crew, people were heart-struck, as he was one of the more favorable people in his videos before he went big BIG. Nonetheless, he didn’t leave the crew because of Jimmy, he claimed it was for him, and wanted to be his own person.
Then there is another crew member, who was known as Mr. Beast's editor for a little while. Matt Turner was originally pretty tame about leaving the crew explaining how it was relaxing and fun and there were no hold ups. But approximately one year and two months later, Matt made a tweet explaining how he was actually bullied and yelled at everyday and called replaceable by Jimmy several times.
This type of stuff happened frequently after this point. In fact, a few of them were also former Mr. Beast members, but they would also come from his Beast games, from former contestants ranting about their conditions during the videos being unruly and filled with objectification from the Beast staff. With there even being a lawsuit.
Then you get to the serious stuff. Such as the Ava Kris Tyson accusations. Kris Tyson was accused of having inappropriate conversations with minors and being in possession of child pornography, as well as Jimmy being linked to some of it as well. Currently Kris has been discharged from the Mr. Beast crew with Jimmy expressing his disdain for the events. But people don’t think Jimmy is as innocent as we thought.
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