My internal monologue is more like a commentary track, mystery science theater style, but the characters are this sitcom ass dysfunctional family of 10 that only barely get along. A few of them are just straight up cruel. The one that feels like me/my own voice is usually one of the younger kids, the shy nerdy one. I say he’s me, but “I” (who’s that? unclear.) also get so fucking annoyed with him when every single thing we see has to be some philosophical musing or life lesson. “Ah, the coffee tastes a bit burnt this morning. But! if we perceive situations like this with the binary of bad and good, and reject the bad, we narrow the range of our experiences to just what is comfortable. How shallow a life that would be! Even if this burnt taste isn’t what we wanted, isn’t pleasant even, let us be fully present with it and see what unexpected sensations and feeling mig——“ “hey it’s 5:47am and I feel like death, all I wanted was a nice hit of dopamine and caffeine, can you shut the hell up and just let me be grouchy about it?”
That philosophy guy — I’ll call him Chidi I guess, after the character in The Good Place — He is very often at the helm in these blog posts. And I want you all to know that I know how insufferable he can be. But, he had some thoughts on a video we watched recently that I think are worth sharing with the class.
That preamble was necessary partially because pearl clutching about Mr. Beast has felt pretty stale and redundant for…maybe multiple years now, I can’t remember. This year especially there’s been a real fatigue around it, and I’ve even seen people like Jarvis criticizing the fully cynical takes as lacking nuance. I half agree. I believe we need to humanize Jimmy more if we are attempting to do good faith analysis (as opposed to just memeing about it). However, that doesn’t mean giving him the benefit of the doubt, and assuming he is well intentioned but misguided. When Jarvis or other creators who have interacted with him say that, it feels to me like they just want to believe it. I don’t see any actual evidence in the pattern of Jimmy’s behavior that would suggest morality is his top priority. Everything he does makes perfect sense if you view it through the lense of “it’s easier to apologize than it is to ask for permission” – which is a fundamentally self-serving philosophy.
The way I would humanize him is to view him as a victim of his own success. I’m seeing the vague outline of a South Park episode where Jimmy/Mr. Beast are a Jekyll and Hyde sort of thing — Jimmy created The Beast in a faustian ploy to get the success he craved, but The Beast demands to be fed more and more and more. It’s a metaphor not only for Jimmy’s personal obsession, but the machine of his businesses and brand that grew out of it. Someone must have come up with something similar before, I don’t claim it as a genius take. But that is the way in which I see his actions as not just pure malicious greed.
Here is where we finally get to the thing that I saw, though. It was Memeulous and Jack Manifold “reviewing” one of Mr. Beasts new toys, and it was…fascinating to me. I have a million thoughts all at once. Let’s start here – conceptually, the toy is pure satire, to the point where it’s almost hard for me to believe it wasn’t on some level intentional. I really encourage you to watch the video to see what I mean, because describing it just won’t have the same impact.
At first I thought it was kinda funny and self aware, but then it started to feel a bit more sinister. I always thought it was slimy that Jimmy would make promises in his videos that an adult would understand were sarcastic, or tongue in cheek, but children would not. If you’ve worked/been around kids a lot, you know that before a certain age, they will take everything you say at face value. Jimmy is manipulating that child psychology while trying to maintain plausible deniability, and I’m never going to be ok with a tactic that is deceiving kids for profit. (Is that an unnuanced take, Jarvis? Are we really going to assume someone doing shit like this has “good intentions?” ….sorry Jarvis, Idk why you are catching strays here, I’m feeling extra petty today I guess. 😩)
With that context, though, this toy is … concerning. If this is some kind of self aware satire, who is it for? Surely not the 7 year old it was designed for. If that kid isn’t seeing it ironic, when we take what is being presented at face value, it’s kind of horrific. The reason I say the video tactic is slimy and this is sinister, is that – this toy is not just manipulating kids into engaging with some YouTube videos. It is indoctrinating them with a toxic and cynical philosophy. Someone shoot me for referencing a danny video again, but it’s like the Troom Troom skits about “rich bride vs broke bride”. In the case of Troom Troom, it just seems like appealing to the lowest common denominator without taking responsibility for the message coming across, but with Mr Beast….if you present to kids that money/material wealth is the coolest and most important thing in the world, who is the type of person they will look up to? The value system he is establishing positions himself as a God. And again, yes, to an adult that sounds goofy and over the top and conspiratorial, but you need to look at it from a child’s perspective. Jimmy certainly is.
The only bit of true humor I’ve had with the Mr. Beast thing is seeing him in that charity live stream with XQC and Adin Ross. I couldn’t watch even a clip of it because of the cringe but the concept itself is pure schadenfreude. Turns out you attract the kind of people who share your values. If those values suck, those people are narcissistic man-children. Jimmy signing on to Kick was the next logical step, I guess, although I’m now swinging back to depressed because how many young kids are going to follow him there…..just make Drew’s video on gambling mandatory in the school curriculum at this point, any ammo we’ve got.
>>robyns_ramblings 