YouTuber MrBeast’s viral Squid Game re-creation highlights a fundamental problem of YouTube

VICE

Jimmy Doladson, the popular YouTuber known as MrBeast, racked up more than 100 million views on YouTube in four days with his “$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life” video that cost $3.5 million to make. Critics say the video took away from the emotional resonance of Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Netflix hit, as The Observer's Isabella Simonetti put it, adding: "Critiques of MrBeast’s viral video touch on some of the key frustrations expressed about influencers: That they don’t possess original talent, rip off 'real' artists, and produce meaningless content." As Vice's Gita Jackson points out, MrBeast's video is the kind of content that YouTube celebrates. Former YouTube executive Jon Youshaei even boasted that MrBeast's video received nearly as many views in four days as Squid Game had in 30 days. "As a feat of production, it’s not just admirable, but enviable in how perfectly Mr. Beast re-created the sets of the show," says Vice's Jackson. "As a piece of media, it’s perverse. This doesn’t just badly misunderstand the anti-capitalist message of Squid Game, it’s a literal re-creation of the villain's ultimate desire to watch desperate people compete for money purely for his amusement. In Mr. Beast’s version of Squid Game’s marble game the YouTuber’s research team even paired up best friends in an effort to emulate the tragic stakes of the original show. When the top six are asked what they’d do with the prize money, two of them say they would give it to their families. More than just bizarre, Mr. Beast’s Squid Game highlights a fundamental problem of YouTube. There is no shortage of people who make original art and put it online, but the internet is dominated instead by people who can take advantage of existing properties and fan bases. This is a particular problem on YouTube, where the people film themselves literally reacting to things or laughing at other people’s memes and making a lot of money off of it. This video is no different from those. It owes a debt to Hwang’s show in every respect. Despite being original content from a popular content creator, it’s nothing more than a sad retread of someone else’s work. There’s also an ad spot for mobile game Brawl Stars in the middle of the video, meaning that Mr. Beast will also profit from the fruits of Hwang’s creative labor."