MrBeast Is Apologizing, But Not For What You Think

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Mr. Beast has been in hot water for a number of reasons in recent weeks, but the latest controversy is more like a reopening of an old wound.
Transcript
00:00The internet appears to be rediscovering the shady side of Mr. Beast. The 26-year-old content
00:06creator born Jimmy Donaldson has been in hot water for a number of reasons in recent weeks,
00:10but the latest controversy is more like a reopening of an old wound. In light of recent
00:15controversies, people have been digging back through Mr. Beast's old videos, and what they're
00:19finding isn't pretty.
00:21"...selling n-word for $400 money? Uh, the most I would pay is like $300. Sorry,
00:27$400 is just out of my price range."
00:29Old clips of Mr. Beast making racist comments and homophobic jokes have started recirculating
00:34online, quickly going viral on social media. The clips are largely from Mr. Beast's earliest days
00:40on YouTube, which his team addressed directly in a statement given to the Associated Press.
00:45A representative for Mr. Beast said,
00:47When Mr. Beast was a teenager, he acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while
00:51trying to be funny. Over the years, he has repeatedly apologized and has learned that
00:56increasing influence comes with increased responsibility to be more aware and more
01:00sensitive to the power of language. From there, the spokesperson tried to bring attention away
01:05from Mr. Beast's past and refocus on the work he does today, adding,
01:09After making some bad jokes and other mistakes when he was younger, as an adult,
01:13he has focused on engaging with the Mr. Beast community to work together on making a positive
01:17impact around the world."
01:19It's true that Mr. Beast's philanthropy is changing lives all over the world,
01:22but his work is coming under closer scrutiny than ever. And this isn't the first time that
01:26he's been a bit dismissive over things he's said in the past. In 2018, The Atlantic published an
01:32article examining Mr. Beast's habit of using slurs and making edgy jokes in some of his YouTube
01:37videos. At the time, Mr. Beast wasn't very apologetic, saying,
01:40I'm not offensive in the slightest bit in anything I do. I'm just going to ignore it.
01:44I don't think anyone cares about this stuff."
01:46Since then, however, Mr. Beast has deleted some of his offensive posts,
01:50and hardcore fans have noticed that he's made an effort to change his on-camera persona.
01:54This latest wave of controversy was seemingly kicked off on July 23rd.
01:58YouTuber and Baketopia host Rosanna Pansino made a post on X to call out an old Mr. Beast video
02:04that was unlisted on his channel, but still monetized. In the video, Mr. Beast makes jokes
02:09about buying Black people and can be seen joking with members of his chat who were using homophobic
02:13slurs. At the same time she was bringing attention to these old videos, Pansino was also sharing
02:18serious allegations about Mr. Beast's TV show, Beast Games, alleging that contestants were being
02:23treated poorly during filming.
02:25Amazon gave Jimmy $100 million to make this game show. That is plenty of money to make a safe show."
02:34Other content creators have been slow to comment on Mr. Beast's past language and
02:38more recent apology, but to be fair, maybe there are just too many Mr. Beast controversies to keep
02:43up with right now. While Pansino has been busy looking into Mr. Beast's past and shining a light
02:48on Beast Games, even more people are paying attention to a former Mr. Beast employee
02:52claiming that the YouTuber's videos are largely rigged, if not outright faked.
02:57I know that producers are sort of able to pull strings behind the scenes to
03:01give some contestants better chances."
03:03Dogpack's claims are still being disputed by others close to the Mr. Beast camp,
03:07but some people have been convinced. Asmongold live reacted to the video on his stream and said
03:12that while he doesn't care about rigged game shows, he is concerned by the accusations
03:16surrounding faked sweepstakes and giveaways.
03:19"...because people are spending money on something that they're not getting."
03:24Of course, all this intense scrutiny of Mr. Beast was really kicked off by the
03:27disturbing allegations made against Ava Chris Tyson, Mr. Beast's longtime friend and collaborator.
03:33Mr. Beast has said he's hired an outside investigator to look into the claims that
03:36she exchanged inappropriate messages with underage fans. Regardless of what that investigator
03:42uncovers, people are going to keep picking through Mr. Beast's history with a fine-toothed comb.
03:46It's likely that his most recent statement addressing his old videos
03:49won't be the last apology that we get from him.