Beast Games
 |
| Beast Games | |
|---|---|
 Release poster | |
| Genre | Reality television |
| Created By | Jimmy Donaldson |
| Presented By | Jimmy Donaldson |
| Country of Origin | United States Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of Seasons | 1 |
| No. of Episodes | 10 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original Channel | Amazon Prime Video |
| Original Run | 2024–present |
Beast Games is a reality television show made by the YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast. The show is a spiritual successor to Squid Game, except they haven't yet gotten permission from the federal government to kill their contestants,[1] and practically all of the contestants aren't Korean. Most of the enjoyment from the game comes from watching people suffer through agonizing stress over potentially losing any chance of digging themselves out of debt, while MrBeast grins at them like a retard.
Sypnosis[edit | edit source]
In Beast Games, a thousand contestants compete for a grand prize of some sweet, sweet $5 million.[2]
Plot development[edit | edit source]
Production[edit | edit source]
Confessionals[edit | edit source]
Throughout Beast Games, there is a stunning lack of confessionals, a common tactic used throughout reality television to mask the minimal coverage of character motivation. When asked about this by a critic, Donaldson stated:
| “ | When I first watched shows like Survivor to prepare for Beast Games, I was so fucking bored. Like, why spend two or three minutes every episode on confessionals when you could do a hundred camera shots and at least one merch plug. Like, do you want to lose viewer retention? | ” |
Jimmy's obsession with SEO rankings and viewer retention, despite many of the show's employees telling him that Beast Games wasn't just another YouTube video, would sadly persist and cause problems during production.
The actual games[edit | edit source]
Most of the challenges in Beast Games revolve around bribes, or, how much money are you willing to accept to get off this show? Most of the first half of Beast Games was dedicated entirely to bribing people to leave, so they could have a small enough number of contestants to potentially make the challenges interesting, rather than starting with a small number of contestants right off the bat. When asked why the show didn't just have a small number of contestants immediately, Jimmy stated this:
| “ | That doesn't get a Guinness World Record or increase viewer retention. Also, fuck you. | ” |
Apparently, every single game until Episode 10 was supposed to be a bribe. However, when an intern noted that Jimmy could just have the contestants do glorified backyard games and retain retention, the show was revamped to exploit this.
Ethics, or lack thereof[edit | edit source]
Rather unsurprisingly, Jimmy wanted to maximize viewer retention, primarily for the soon-to-be brain-dead Generation Alpha, and the poor saps who will come after them. Hence, he conducted several experiments to maximize this statistic.[3] Firstly, see if a baby would watch an episode of Beast Games over Skibidi Toilet, Lankybox, or any other brainrot. Secondly, see if the baby would watch an episode of Beast Games over eating, drinking, or other bodily functions. This was what companies like Cocomelon had done.[4] Thirdly, see if the baby would watch Beast Games and recommend it to friends or not. If one day passed and the baby chose the former choice all three times, the episode would be statistically perfect to Jimmy. If not, any scene where the baby wasn't glued to the screen was in danger of being scrapped.[5]
Finding the sponsor for the first season of Beast Games was a tough task for Jimmy as he and his team had to sift through the thousands of e-mails, videos, and ads from prospective companies to see which one would negatively impact his audience the most. Although Amazon was initially skeptical of including the ads into the show, once Jimmy told them that they could choose the company that'd be shamelessly promoted throughout the show, Bezos changed his mind.
The sponsor that was eventually chosen for the season was MoneyLion, a fintech company that has been embroiled in legal troubles with "those pesky regulators," also known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, due to being a predatory lender. A rather fitting sponsor, don't you think?
See also[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Multiple bills pending, all likely to pass.
- ↑ The largest stack of prize money, and the largest amounts of souls fighting for that money, according to the Guinness World Records
- ↑ Jimmy wanted the Guinness World Record for the Most Optimized Television Show.
- ↑ Yes, really.
- ↑ Jeff Bezos would be proud...
