Since I am what is known officially to the kids these days as an “Old,” I will confess I don’t spend a lot of time in the world of “YouTube stars” and internet celebrities, people who are famous for basically living their entire lives out loud, in public, and online. I myself, after all, have both Twitter and National Review’s Slack channel for that. But beyond that, the entire format is just appallingly gauche to Gen X sensibilities, even when it isn’t revealing of the utter intellectual banality of an entire younger generation of media influencers who travel almost entirely under the radar of mainstream media awareness. (“So be sure to smash that like button and subscribe!”)
Therefore, I’m not the one to bring you up to speed on the prior adventures of one “MrBeast” (real name: Jimmy Donaldson), a YouTuber of some repute — 208 million subscribers is a lot of eyeballs — except to note that the last few times his hyperactively shouty voice has crossed my transom, I rapidly hit the “back” button on my browser. All of his videos have the exact same “wide-eyed wacky-faced reaction shot” to sell “MrBeast does a staged prank/way cool thing!!” Perhaps this sort of entertainment is for you . . . it is not for me. (I strongly recommend watching this GIF of the Toronto Raptors mascot attempting to rollerblade on repeat instead.)
Comments