The Forgotten Friends of Mr Beast

An in-depth look at Mr. Beast's early friendships and the blurred lines between friends and employees behind the scenes.

Key Takeaways

Mr. Beast's channel success is built on strategic experimentation rather than traditional emotional connection.
The line between friends and employees on the channel is often blurred, leading to complex interpersonal dynamics.
Former collaborators have publicly exposed behind-the-scenes difficulties and alleged unethical practices.
Challenges on the channel can be physically and emotionally demanding, sometimes causing distress.
Despite controversies, Mr. Beast remains a dominant figure on YouTube with a large, loyal audience.

What the video covers

Mr. Beast's success on YouTube is attributed to his experimental approach rather than emotional storytelling or on-camera personality.
Early videos featured a cast of personalities assembled to simulate friendship and create human chemistry on camera.
Jake Wedle, a former close collaborator, exposed the challenges and realities of working as a 'friend' on Mr. Beast's channel.
Jake's departure in 2020 was initially described as amicable but later revealed to be more complicated.
The video discusses the harsh conditions of certain challenges, such as the $10,000 every day you survive prison challenge.
There is tension between genuine friendship and professional obligations within Mr. Beast's team.
Exposés from former employees accused Mr. Beast of unethical practices including rigging challenges and illegal lotteries.
The culture around Mr. Beast's productions is described as unspoken but divided between those favored by Jimmy and those not.
Despite controversies, some former collaborators still appear occasionally in videos, showing complex ongoing relationships.
The video explores the emotional and physical toll on those involved in the channel's production and the blurred line between friendship and employment.

Chapters

Who is Jake Wedle and what was his role with Mr. Beast?

Jake Wedle was a writer and on-screen talent for Mr. Beast's channel who later exposed the difficulties of working as a 'friend' on the channel. He eventually left to pursue a career in comedy.

What are some of the challenges faced by people working with Mr. Beast?

Challenges can be physically and emotionally demanding, such as the $10,000 every day you survive prison challenge, which involved harsh conditions and caused physical and mental strain.

What controversies have been raised about Mr. Beast's channel?

Former collaborators have accused Mr. Beast of staging and rigging challenges, creating illegal lotteries, and selling fake merchandise, leading to public exposés and criticism.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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You can't deny that Mr. Beast has figured out YouTube better than anyone else on the platform. Hundreds of millions of subscribers, billions of views. He could be one of the most famous people on Earth. But Mr. Beast lacked an on-camera personality. It's

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actually been one of the core reasons why his channel is so successful. His early viral videos weren't built on emotion or storytelling or the audience deeply connecting with him on a human level. They were experiments, pure attempts to get views just for the sake

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actually been one of the core reasons why his channel is so successful. His early viral videos weren't built on emotion or storytelling or the audience deeply connecting with him on a human level. They were experiments, pure attempts to get views just for the sake

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was work for me grinding YouTube for those 10 years or whatever where no one was really watching it. It's just like kind of who I am. And because he studied YouTube so closely, he realized that the most popular creators at the time didn't

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of getting views. >> If I were to say, "What's my superpower?" It's that I can just obsess endlessly about something and I can just have the same thoughts over and over and over and over again. It wasn't like it

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these people were his real friends, we think. Others were there as a job to simulate being his friend for the camera. He actually got mad at people when they treated his productions like a job. Jimmy gets uncomfortable and gets

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was work for me grinding YouTube for those 10 years or whatever where no one was really watching it. It's just like kind of who I am. And because he studied YouTube so closely, he realized that the most popular creators at the time didn't

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However, sometimes mixing friends and employees can end in disaster. Today, we're talking about the forgotten friends of Mr. Beast, starting with Jake Wedle, who was a major part in exposing the behind-the-scenes reality of being friends with Mr. Beast as a job. Before

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just make good videos. They felt like your friend. Regular people with ordinary lives, inside jokes, and real chemistry on camera. But Jimmy didn't have that. So, he assembled a cast of personalities who could make his videos feel more human. [music] Now, some of

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move up in the entertainment industry. Down the line, he also started working as on-screen talent, making his first appearance in a Mr. Beast video back in February of 2019. From there, he became a relatively consistent cast member of

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these people were his real friends, we think. Others were there as a job to simulate being his friend for the camera. He actually got mad at people when they treated his productions like a job. Jimmy gets uncomfortable and gets

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>> $8. >> And how many dumpsters has Wed done? Two. >> And how many have I done?

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angry when people use language like production assistant [music] because it's too industry. Instead, they're called FOFS, friends of friends.

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>> That sucks. >> And even though it seemed like on camera, Jake was just having a fun time with his buddies, this was just his job.

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However, sometimes mixing friends and employees can end in disaster. Today, we're talking about the forgotten friends of Mr. Beast, starting with Jake Wedle, who was a major part in exposing the behind-the-scenes reality of being friends with Mr. Beast as a job. Before

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2020. Although Jake made it very clear that his departure was dramaree and amicable, specifically stating that he and Mr. Beast were still on good terms, even though he would later say this was a lie.

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meeting Mr. Beast, Jake spent nearly a decade trying to make a name for himself as a stand-up comic. So, when he eventually got an offer to work as a writer for the Mr. Beast channel, he saw it as a great way to gain experience and

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>> And despite his departure, Jake would still make occasional appearances in future uploads, like hit the target, win $300,000, and I spent 50 hours in prison. There was no reason to suspect that there was any bad blood between

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move up in the entertainment industry. Down the line, he also started working as on-screen talent, making his first appearance in a Mr. Beast video back in February of 2019. From there, he became a relatively consistent cast member of

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titled, "I worked for Mr. Beast, He's a Fraud," which included allegations of Mr. Beast creating illegal lotteryies, staging and rigging challenge videos, selling fake Mr. beast signatures on merch and so much more. But the second video of this expose was titled, "I

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the Mr. Beast crew. >> That brings your total to $29. I'll take it. >> Chris, you are currently losing now. How much am I win losing by?

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>> The culture around there was very unspoken, but there was a vibe. There was half the people who if you made Jimmy happy, you were on the good half.

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>> $8. >> And how many dumpsters has Wed done? Two. >> And how many have I done?

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half. And uh I consistently was in the half that Jimmy doesn't like me. That's fine. I don't like him either. It's okay.

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>> Hey, let me check the math with my calculator. >> Hey, the '9s called.

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last video he ever filmed with Mr. Beast changed everything. It was a challenge that could be easily confused with torture. The video, $10,000 every day you survive prison. The premise was simple. A contestant lives in a small room for as long as they can and gets

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>> That sucks. >> And even though it seemed like on camera, Jake was just having a fun time with his buddies, this was just his job.

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And Jake witnessed it firsthand because he was the original contestant. >> People don't know that was the second attempt. The the first attempt was on me and it didn't go well.

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And the longer he stayed, the passion he once had for the work on the channel began to slip away, as his true ambition was to become a full-time comedian, which is why he ultimately decided to step away from the channel in October of

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unavoidable. To make matters worse, the room also had an ice cream machine and hot tub, both of which also emitted their own foul odors as the days passed.

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2020. Although Jake made it very clear that his departure was drama-free and amicable, specifically stating that he and Mr. Beast were still on good terms, even though he would later say this was a lie.

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These conditions caused Jake to be physically drained, and his symptoms only got worse as the days went on. Jake was given a bonus challenge where he could win extra cash for running an entire marathon on a treadmill. And

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>> 'Cause me and Jimmy actually left on very good terms. I met with Jimmy before I left. He understood where I was coming from. I understood where he was coming from. There's no bad vibes either way.

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treadmill and then the people came in to like ice my feet, you know, make sure I was good. Then that's when I was like, I'm done. I can't. I'm done. I'm done.

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>> And despite his departure, Jake would still make occasional appearances in future uploads, like hit the target, win $300,000, and I spent 50 hours in prison. There was no reason to suspect that there was any bad blood between

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Nobody forced them to do this challenge." And all of that is true. Then again, the entire design of a Mr.

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Jake and Jimmy, which is why everyone was confused when Jake participated in one of the largest expose takedowns in YouTube history against Mr. Beast. A former Mr. Beast employee who goes online as Dog Pack 404 made a video

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contestant is sleepdeprived and starts to unravel emotionally, cries, panics, or pushes themselves physically far past what's reasonable. It's their suffering that creates the tension the story.

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titled, "I worked for Mr. Beast, He's a Fraud," which included allegations of Mr. Beast creating illegal lotteries, staging and rigging challenge videos, selling fake Mr. Beast signatures on merch and so much more. But the second video of this expose was titled, "I

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considering the prize money could change your life. Actually, many people look at him as generous for creating these torture simulators for cash. But the real problem with Jake's story is that some thought he was rewriting history when everyone was dogpiling on Mr.

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worked for Mr. Beast. He's a sociopath." Which focuses on the alleged workplace misconduct that was taking place. And Dog Pack's star witness is none other than Jake Wed.

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why I left. They always cut me out of the videos. They always be and I was you know editors have told me that uh it's because you have too much of a personality. And so with this video I

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>> The culture around there was very unspoken, but there was a vibe. There was half the people who if you made Jimmy happy, you were on the good half.

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And so I thought well if I have to do this if I have to do solitary confinement in order to do the things I want to do then I will do that. He even claimed that he was let go from the

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And these people got random bonuses and uh uh were usually moved up, had more screen time. Uh, and then there was people who if you had a disagreement or butt heads with Jimmy or just he didn't like you, you know, you were the other

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>> Now, maybe everything was all good between Jake and Mr. Beast until this prison challenge, and that soured the relationship. But still, many people thought he was just trying to capitalize on the trendy hate for Mr. Beast. Jake

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half. And uh I consistently was in the half that Jimmy doesn't like me. That's fine. I don't like him either. It's okay.

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his channel and even helped his YouTube channel get monetized. >> I don't want an apology and I don't want your money. Every penny I make moving forward is going to be because I earned it. $100,000 should have been more money

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>> Jake was telling a much different story than before. He originally claimed that the two were still on good terms, but now he says that both he and Mr. Beast have a mutual dislike of each other. So, what changed? Wed revealed that the

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>> However, Jake constantly felt the need to clarify that he wasn't doing this for fame or money.

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last video he ever filmed with Mr. Beast changed everything. It was a challenge that could be easily confused with torture. The video, $10,000 every day you survive prison. The premise was simple. A contestant lives in a small room for as long as they can and gets

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the calculation that that was the right thing to do based on the information I had. And once I found out some new information, that changed the equation.

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$10,000 every day they spend inside. But the initial attempt at filming this video was actually a massive failure.

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generated. Jake knows what he wants. Jake knows what he thinks he needs. >> Jake used this to clickbait viewers into watching another video where he continued to provide updates on the drama between him and Jimmy. But he doesn't actually start talking about

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And Jake witnessed it firsthand because he was the original contestant. >> People don't know that was the second attempt. The first attempt was on me and it didn't go well.

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sending you this money publicly, or taking down any videos. This is me just wanting to help out and make sure you're good." But Jake said he could not take the money.

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>> Jake goes on to explain the harsh conditions of the challenge as it amounted to much more than just sitting in a room all day. The walls of the cell were freshly painted, causing a nauseating chemical smell that was

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consistent point I was making was when you have no money, it's not a choice, is it? I need that money, but I don't want you guys to think that that's going to change how I feel. I don't want you guys

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unavoidable. To make matters worse, the room also had an ice cream machine and hot tub, both of which also emitted their own foul odors as the days passed.

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money, while others felt frustrated at the hypocrisy. It doesn't matter how much money you turn down. If you take any amount, you're going to be painted as a person who had money as their motivation. When he started the video

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Jake also claimed that he became sleep deprived due to Mr. Beast team refusing to turn the lights off at night in hopes of not ruining their time-lapse shots.

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not in it for the money, but I guarantee he is cashing in on the hate Mr. Beast wagon with views. Whether Jake was ever truly Jimmy's friend is up for debate, but there is no debate when it comes to

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These conditions caused Jake to be physically drained, and his symptoms only got worse as the days went on. Jake was given a bonus challenge where he could win extra cash for running an entire marathon on a treadmill. And

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of CP, Mr. Beast had to re-evaluate his friendship with someone who helped build his empire from the very beginning. The overwhelming online dissection of Mr.

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despite wanting to refuse, he felt pressured to go along with it. This resulted in him getting severe blisters all over his feet and it was his breaking point. So Jake decided to give up on the challenge. I got off the

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first subscriber to the Mr. Beast channel, which now sits at over 300 million subscribers and was also regularly appearing in videos since the beginning. For the first three minutes, Sunny highlights Chris's sudden physical transformation, going from the image of

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treadmill and then the people came in to like ice my feet, you know, make sure I was good. Then that's when I was like, I'm done. I can't. I'm done. I'm done.

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therapy, which for Chris would be taking feminizing estrogen to transition his body and appearance to a female. And this was all before Chris had announced that he intended on identifying as female. This was a news story because transgender people will receive hate

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I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. >> Now, many people defend Mr. Beast in these situations by saying, "Oh, they volunteered. They could have left.

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They believe no matter what hormones, surgeries, or societal support they receive, they will never be the opposite gender they were born as. Whereas protrans people simply say you are whatever gender you choose to identify with because it's a spectrum and gender

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Nobody forced them to do this challenge." And all of that is true. Then again, the entire design of a Mr.

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started the narrative that Chris was a horrible father who was essentially abandoning his wife and child so he could be a woman. and Chris responded, "This is just more dog whistling that somehow trans and GNC folks aren't safe

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Beast challenge is structured to push people right up to their psychological and physical breaking point because that breaking point is the juicy entertainment you are waiting for. The best-case scenario for Mr. Beast from an entertainment perspective is that the

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internally for years. So, revealing that information to his wife and child would have been a shock to 99% of relationships, which was said best by Dante.

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contestant is sleep deprived and starts to unravel emotionally, cries, panics, or pushes themselves physically far past what's reasonable. It's their suffering that creates the tension in the story.

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person before you had that child with her? Because now you have involved two other people into this. Imagine literally any other secret your significant other hides from you for years. That would cause problems. So considering changing your gender would

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Imagine if someone went in there, meditated, stayed still, and didn't give into any of the chaos that was thrown at them. That would be a boring video. But most Mr. Beast viewers believe that the suffering is totally worth enduring

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heterosexual people who discover or are told that their partner is LGBT and need help in coping with this discovery and support in their decision about what to do next. At the time, many people labeled Sunnyv's video as nothing more

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considering the prize money.

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could have predicted. A video released one year after Sunnyv2's called This Video Will Make You Hate Chris Tyson, which documented Ava, formerly Chris Tyson, and her history of suspect behavior on the internet. Most notably with her ties to Shadman, an infamous

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Lollcon artist who made NSFW artwork of real life children, such as Keemstar's daughter and the actress Daphne Keane.

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Some people try to defend Lcon, but it is quite literally animated CP. It was revealed that Chris purchased a piece of art featuring a young girl from Shadman.

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She showed off the poster on Twitter and even admitted to hanging it up in her living room. And to be clear, this wasn't a one-time occurrence. Chris frequently engaged with Shadman's artwork on Twitter and even accidentally opened his website while live streaming.

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>> Maybe their bank is No. No. Oh, that was almost really bad. And if it couldn't get any worse, Ava also had a track record of posting vulgar tweets about being turned on by child characters in explicit situations. Now, Shadman's art

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specifically was considered to be a part of 2010's meme culture that countless YouTubers praised ironically. Edgy humor was also much more common in 2017, and you could argue that AA's tweets, while crude, could just be edgy jokes. But

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these tweets were only the tip of the iceberg. Adrox's video drew more attention to other videos calling out Ava, particularly one made by the YouTuber Prism42. In this video titled Chris Tyson talked inappropriately to a 13-year-old, Prism attempts to shed

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light on Ava's previous interactions with a minor with the username Lava GS. Lava GS's age is proven to have been around 13 years old when the two began speaking. We get examples of Ava interacting with Lava on Twitter, and we

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certainly see conversations that are inappropriate considering the age gap. Chris, does she know about your hintai addiction? And that's the thing is this guy at this point, he would have been 14 years old. This guy is asking you these

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questions and you were talking to him when he was super young. How does he know this?

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I don't know. Prism then provides a handful of examples of inappropriate conduct, such as an old tweet from Ava that reads, "Guys, we are so close to our goal. Oh my god, one more Patreon and I'm releasing my nudes." Lava

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responded to this tweet announcing that he was subscribed to the Patreon. To which Ava says, but not $5. Pathetic. JK kissy face. Check again, Lava says.

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Chris says, "I posted some fire nudes for you. Please no share." It's not hard to see how an adult talking to a child in this manner, even if it was a joke, is inappropriate. The two even privately communicated on Snapchat and spoke

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one-on-one in Discord calls. And the two even met up in person when Lava was 16 years old. Chris Tyson, who is interested in both men and women since he was 13 years old and Chris Tyson was in college. Why did he take a camper van

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out to see him and take it out in the middle of the woods in this secluded area? Prism was able to learn all of this from a personal conversation he had with Lava, who directly denied any kind of grooming took place. Lava also

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clarified that the meetup was with other Mr. Beast crew members and his parents were present. Prism's video undeniably heavily implies that Ava is a child predator and groomed lava. And that's the message that almost everyone who watched the video walked away with. Dude

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straight up flirting with this junior high schooler. Try not to talk to children inappropriately challenge.

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Quite literally impossible for some people. However, Lava, the alleged victim, had a different perspective on the situation, publicly stating that Ava had never exploited or taken advantage of him. Lava has since changed his story, agreeing that what Ava did was

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wrong, but still rejected the idea that he was groomed. Ava spent some time silent away from social media, but ultimately was forced to respond.

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Although her statement on the issue was considered to just make everything worse. I would like to apologize for any of my past behavior or comments if it hurt or offended anyone. It was not my intent. Seeing recent events, we've

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mutually decided it's best I permanently step away from all things Mr. beast and social media to focus on my family and mental health. I want to add, I never groomed anyone. The person who gets brought up in these accusations, Lava,

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has vocally supported that they are false. Having said that, I humbly apologize to anyone I have hurt with my unacceptable social media posts, past actions, and to those who may feel betrayed by how I used to act online. To

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lump these two factors together to create a narrative that my behavior extended beyond bad, edgy jokes is disgusting and did not happen. In past years, I have learned that my old humor is not acceptable. I cannot change who I

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was, but I can continue to work on myself. I don't want these accusations to impact the hundreds of people who work at Mr. Beast, which is why I have stepped away. However, many still had the belief that Ava was a predator, saw

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this statement as insufficient, and was met with overwhelming backlash. Yikes. Lol. Your apology is not accepted. You belong in jail. This is what Mr. Beast had to say about his day one best friend. Over the last few days, I've

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become aware of the serious allegations of Ava Tyson's behavior online, and I am disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable acts. During that time, I have been focused on hiring an independent third party to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure I have

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all the facts. That said, I've seen enough online and taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel, and any association with Mr.

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Beast. I do not condone or support any of the inappropriate actions. I will allow the independent investigators the necessary time to conduct a comprehensive investigation and will take any further actions based on their findings. From a PR perspective, this

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statement checks all the boxes necessary. However, Mr. Beast and Ava's relationship was more than just a business partnership. They were supposed to be friends, but even good friends recognize when one of them is wrong, and holding them accountable for their

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actions is normal. However, there was some leaked information from Ava's friend Erit that suggested Jimmy might have tried saving Ava's career. Mr.

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Beast recently signed a massive Amazon deal. They began working together to create an Amazon Prime original game show called Beast Games with a cash prize of $5 million. Now, Mr. Beast before this was pretty much known as having a perfect reputation. So, Amazon

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could have never predicted this absolute PR nightmare they were facing. So, it wasn't unrealistic when we heard a rumor that Amazon may have had a hand in the removal of Ava from Mr. Beast's channel.

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An anonymous account claimed that Mr. Beast and Amazon are trying to cover up the Ava drama, and they had the receipts to prove it in the form of a handful of screenshots from Ava's partner, Erit, addressing the situation in their

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Discord server. Eric claims that Ava wanted to write a much longer, more detailed, and nuanced response towards all of the allegations she was facing.

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Eritt also claims that they were the one who actually typed the tweet as they took over Ava's Twitter account to help her quit social media. Eritt said, "I had protested at how terrible the tweet was and asked if it would be possible to

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change some words like if I offended and the word permanently, but in a room with Jimmy Beast, the Mr. B CEO, Mr. B COO, and Ava, I was told no, we cannot change it and we have to run it by the

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investors. We need to say that. But I couldn't help but notice this little detail Erit left in there about Mr.

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Beast. They wrote, "I posted the tweet. Jimmy and the CEO had tears in their eyes." If this was true, this showed that in spite of everything that happened, Mr. Beast still cared deeply about his friend and was willing to find

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a way to make it work with Ava, regardless of the world treating her as guilty. Erid also claimed that Mr. Beast later had a change of heart and realized that they hadn't done enough to stand up for Ava. He comes over with the COO and

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we develop the follow-up tweets together with Ava. During this drafting process, Jimmy tells me, "We're so lucky we have you to help us with this. We've never had to go through anything like this before." I respond, "Yeah, I really wish

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you had let me help you with the first tweet." Jimmy then replied, "Yeah, we kind of did mess up the first one." Additionally, Mr. Beast revealed the findings of the 3-month investigation into his company. The investigation found no evidence to support allegations

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of sexual misconduct, grooming, or the company knowingly employing individuals with dangerous or illegal histories.

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However, investigators did identify isolated incidents of workplace harassment and misconduct, which led to disciplinary actions and new corporate policies aimed at improving professionalism and company culture. The public responded to this with, "We've investigated ourselves and found ourselves innocent." No way. The guys

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you paid found you innocent. Regardless of how you might feel about Ava and her alleged behavior, it's easy to see how it was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for Mr. Beast. Turning his back on his closest friend would

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paint him as a bad friend. But defending her would tie his reputation to accusations no public figure can afford to stand next [music] to and maybe even make himself complicit in her behavior.

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Even after leaving the Mr. Beast channel, Ava has continued to be the subject of scrutiny. Other individuals have since come out claiming to have interacted in a similar manner with Ava, and entire logs of her old Discord server have been leaked. The logs show

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exactly what you'd expect, inappropriate conversations with kids who are too young for her to be talking to. And since all of this came to light, Ava has entirely disappeared from the internet, and it's easy to see why she may never

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come back. But during the fallout with Ava, another former Mr. Beast friend featured on the channel, Jake the Viking, went as far to say that Mr.

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Beast knew about who Ava was the whole time. Then again, Jake attacking Ava unleashed some skeletons in his own closet. Before he ever met Mr. Beast, Jake the Viking was just a small YouTuber trying to make it on the

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platform. He uploaded vlog style content that focused on himself having fun with his friends. And it's clear when watching his earliest videos, Jake was a natural entertainer, but he never could have predicted that a massive YouTuber would take notice of his potential. that

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um certain someone had just subscribed to me on YouTube and uh wanted to share that. It's actually really cool. So, I look up to this guy um cuz he's awesome.

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Uh so, if you look [gasps] right up there at the top, Mr. Freaking Beast subscribed to me on YouTube. Shout out to you, man.

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>> Mr. Beast didn't just want to keep up with Jake's videos. He wanted him to be a part of his own content. That's why Jimmy ended up hiring Jake full-time as on-screen talent. From 2018 all the way through 2019, Jake the Viking became a

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regular member of the Mr. Beast crew. >> Jake isn't subscribed to PewDiePie. >> You know what? Jake, stop. Stop. Jake, let me see it. Let me see it. Jake.

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>> Jake. >> Jake. >> He stood out thanks to his intense and overly enthusiastic personality and became a fan favorite amongst viewers of the channel. He was always cracking jokes, smiling, and seemed to be more than just a new face in the videos, but

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a genuine friend of the other members. This is why so many were confused when Jake eventually disappeared from the channel. Last featured in a video uploaded in January of 2020, Jake was absent for months, and there was no

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acknowledgement from anyone in the videos about where he had gone. But eventually, Jake the Viking had posted a video on his own channel revealing why he left the Mr. Beast crew. supposedly after the hideand-seek video, Jake was never asked to feature as on-screen

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talent again. >> And so all that went on till about till super recently when finally I was able to meet down with a couple people and kind of put everything out on the table and it came down to my my piece no

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longer fit the puzzle. >> This wording is particularly interesting. Mr. Beast videos are so successful partly due to the friendly dynamic shared between him and the people that were supposedly his friends.

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But to say that his piece no longer fit the puzzle is one of the coldest, most corporate ways to describe what was happening behind the scenes. And this is the moment almost every Mr. Beast friend eventually reaches the slow realization

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that they were never truly part of a friend group. They were part of a production. Jake even talked about how he was disappointed whenever he was cut out of the videos, which might seem trivial or just standard business

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practice, but it hits deeper when you believe you're contributing to a friend's channel. Being erased from a video doesn't just mean losing screen time. It makes you question whether you were ever valued as a friend in the first place. It's a dynamic we see over

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and over. people who joined the channel and were convinced that they were friends or maybe even family only to discover later that they were just employees filling a role. Whether Jake was genuinely close with Jimmy or simply part of a business operation is unclear.

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But when Jake announced his exit, he wasn't overly dramatic. He wasn't angry. He kind of just chocked it up to a mutual decision.

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>> And so it it was pretty much like a kind of a mutual parting. You know, me and Mr. Beast or me and Jimmy did not have any type of falling out. Um, there was no argument, there was no bashing, there

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was none of that. Um, it was it was very mutual because it was something I was already contemplating, you know, not if, but when. Leaving a channel like Mr.

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Beast meant that his future as a creator was uncertain. But Jake the Viking was able to build an extremely successful platform of his own. At the time of uploading his video announcing his departure from Mr. beast. He was sitting

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around 30,000 subscribers, but by October of that same year, Jake hit the 1 million subscriber milestone. This really proves that Jake was such a massive fan favorite in the first place.

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His personality and natural talent allowed him to be successful without Mr. Beast's help. Publicly, Jake the Viking remained cordial with Mr. Beast and the crew for some time. However, this would change when negative sentiments began growing against Ava Chris Tyson. While

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live streaming, Jake was asked about his old friend and what he thinks about their new lifestyle. let him do his thing. I don't care. My personal opinion thing. It's weird, but whatever. I never expected it to happen, but whatever,

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man. Everyone my my biggest belief, and this is something y'all should always believe that. Y'all should follow.

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Everyone deserves to be happy. Everyone deserve life life is so full of up and downs at the end of the day. Everyone deserves to be happy. If Chris doing this transitioning to become a woman is making him happy, cool.

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>> Others were a lot more aggressive about their feelings towards Ava. Nick Merks tweeted, "You should be ashamed of yourself leaving behind your wife and child to play pretend. One day you'll wake up and realize what you've done."

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Surprisingly, Jake the Viking quote tweeted this and agreed with the sentiment that Ava had abandoned her son. Then Jake the Viking revealed more information about what actually happened that led to the departure from the Mr.

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Beast channel. He tweeted, "Fired from Mr. Beast for doing a brand deal with a CBD company. Is told he can make a video explaining why he's no longer there, but it has to get approved. video blows up and then disappeared because instant

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suppression by YouTube's Golden Boy continues to make content even though videos aren't getting shown, i.e. no one gets notified of uploads. Notice how this is almost the exact same situation as Jake Wedle. They initially announced that they left the channel and

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everything was all good. Then all of a sudden, Mr. Beast is in controversy and now they come out of the woodwork and [music] say, "Here's more context that I never revealed." Jake's growing negative sentiment against Mr. Beast would reach

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a boiling point when all of the allegations against Ava Chris Tyson came to light. Jake started going even harder on both Ava and Mr. Beast, tweeting, "The silence is deafening. No accountability. None. Jimmy knew." Jake the Viking had become one of the leading

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figureheads of the anti-Mr Beast and Chris Tyson [music] sentiments that were growing at the time. And his position as a former employee gave him more credibility for his position. But this is where Jake Wedle comes back into the

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picture. Jake Wedle revealed that there was a Mr. beast employee named Delaware who was a registered offender. [music] Something that was known internally but never addressed publicly. To make things worse, he was Jake the Vikings brother-in-law and former manager.

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>> Well, there was a known sex offender, registered sex offender, convicted [music] sex offender on the registry at everything who worked there.

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>> But when I was there, they called him Delaware. Like, why why do you call him Delaware? I didn't I didn't know.

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Apparently, they called him Delaware cuz he's not allowed to go back to Delaware. >> Longtime Mr. Beast viewers were familiar with Delaware and Jake even directly acknowledged that he was his brother-in-law in a tweet from 2018.

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This was an optical nightmare for Jake the Viking. For the past few weeks, he had become one of the largest voices calling out Ava Chris Tyson for what many considered to be predatory behavior. But in reality, Jake had

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closely associated with and even hired a registered sex offender who took advantage of an 11-year-old. Statements like Jimmy knew had aged extremely poorly. And in the face of unrelenting backlash, the Viking was forced to respond. Here's the truth. Yes, Delaware

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is my brother-in-law. Yes, he is an RSO. When he was 21, a 16-year-old girl accused him and others of SA when she was 11. Delaware took a plea deal.

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That's why there was no jail time, but he still had to register. Delaware's charges are set to be dropped this fall.

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Delaware has been nothing but a good person, an amazing husband to my sister, and the best father to my two nieces that I could ever ask for. They want no part in this and want to just live their

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lives away from the limelight. I understand why anyone would be frustrated over these allegations and I do not blame them. Hurting kids in any way is completely unacceptable, but in the case of Delaware, I firmly believe he did nothing wrong and look forward to

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the day these charges are dropped. Now, taking a plea deal is much different than just like a settlement because you are admitting guilt, but you're just hoping for a lesser sentence or punishment. Someone would only take a plea deal if the odds were stacked

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against them legally. essay crimes are particularly difficult to prove due to their reliance on both physical evidence as well as establishing a lack of consent. Obviously, consent is impossible in a situation like this, meaning that the case would rely solely

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on physical evidence, which begs the question, was there physical evidence? And if there wasn't, why would you take a plea deal? It's hard to imagine that Delaware, in the face of a baseless allegation, would prefer to accept a

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plea deal rather than facing trial and exonerating himself. This led many to believe that there was enough evidence to provide a conviction. People simply weren't buying Jake the Viking story.

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Not to mention that he was happy to call out predatory behavior when it benefited him, but now he was seemingly making excuses for it and brushing it aside.

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Jake the Viking constantly tweeting about how Mr. Beast knew about Chris Tyson being a creep only for it to come out that his own brother-in-law who worked for Mr. Beast is a literal offender, which Jake knew is so funny.

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Just like that, everyone was turning on Jake the Viking. The good grace he'd been receiving in the recent weeks was already completely gone. He once left the Mr. Beast crew on good terms and was fondly remembered for his contributions

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to the group. But now he's remembered for his hypocrisy, messy falling out, and association with an RSO. Today, he still uploads content to his YouTube channel regularly, but barely cracks 1,000 views per video. He has seemed to develop a large enough following to

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sustain his life and career as an influencer. He's kind of just a general content creator these days, live streaming, making Instagram videos and Tik Toks, all while generating income through affiliate links and brand deals.

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But his identity online will always be tethered to once working for and being friends with Mr. Beast. The same cannot be said for Sneo. Mr. Beast was actually a fan of Sneo at one point and offered him a job years after he surpassed Sneo

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in subscribers. However, their falling out was much different than everyone else on this list. Before Mr. Beast was known as the biggest YouTuber on the planet. He was just a kid obsessed with the platform, posting literally anything to develop a subscriber base. More often

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than not, he was providing commentary over video game footage, which was extremely popular in the early 2010s.

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What's up, guys? I just bought a new microphone, um, the Blue Snowball, for around $60 off of Amazon. And if you've seen any of my older videos, this mic sounds like 30 times better than my old mic. Another aspiring YouTuber following

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a similar path as Jimmy was Nico Balenthazi, better known today as Sneo. During this time, it was common for smaller channels to interact with each other in the comments and build connections. And that's exactly how Sneo met Mr. Beast.

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>> So, you guys actually met on Call of Duty or the like YouTube Call of Duty?

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>> We met through like comment sections. >> The two began collaborating with each other and featuring on each other's channels. In fact, Mr. Beast directly shouted out Sneo in a video titled Five YouTubers I think will be famous. At

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number two, I have Sneo. And if you've ever seen Sneo's videos, you realize that they're kind of addicting. Once you start watching him, it's kind of hard to stop. Um, but I don't know what it is about him. I It's just he's so

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straightforward with things and he's not biased on anything. He'll let you know uh anything that's on his mind. And uh I never miss an upload from Sneo. I don't really know how to explain it, but he pretty much uploads videos similar to

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Eddie the Chump. Just they're they're really well put together and really well thought out. I don't really know how else to explain it besides just telling you to go watch his videos.

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>> While Mr. Beast was still discovering exactly what he wanted to create, Sneo was going for something with more meaning, a deeper purpose, which since the very beginning was centered around social commentary mixed with personal reflection. Some viewers felt Sneo was

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wise beyond his years. Others felt he had a I'm 14 and this is deep kind of vibe. I don't wake up and think how could I not be a douchebag today. I wake up and think who can I piss off the

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most. Most of you have extremely up thoughts that you don't say out loud because they affect your persona. I'm guessing at least more than half of you are closet racist and even some of you kind of wanted me to go home at some

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point. I I was born here, by the way. Please don't deport me, Mr. Trump.

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Probably more than half of you have some more gay thoughts than you care to admit. And at least onethird of you have spent some time on the really sketchy parts of the internet.

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Weirdos. The reality is most of us are going to spend our lives wondering how everyone else is going to see us instead of improving ourselves for ourselves.

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His channel was growing extremely quickly and he was on pace to become a large creator. But then he quit. Not 100% necessarily, but he went from uploading multiple times a week to just a couple times per year. And in that

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time, Mr. Beast went from being Sneo's fan to having over 5 million subscribers. >> We're so close. We're We're almost Wow.

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Oh. Oh. Oh. We're almost 5 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS. WOW. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. 5 MILLION. [screaming] The two reconnected and Mr. Beast flew Sneo out to his headquarters in North Carolina, gave him a job and showed Sneo the empire that could be built on

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YouTube. And I went and worked for him in North Carolina. And then I really saw how it was possible to be a content creator. He changed my mind. He was the first person to really, if you talk to

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him off camera, he'll like talk about all this Matrix stuff just in different terms. He I remember going to restaurants and stuff like that and he was just so rich at 19. He had all he had an entire company. He had a

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warehouse, people working for him, and it it wasn't even I didn't even think it was possible to do that with YouTube. I just saw YouTube as a way to turn on a mic and camera and speak once in a

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while. He had systems in place. He had uh employees. It was he was running it like a bit. And I'm just like, this is the potential of YouTube. And he's like, "Yeah, I don't know. You drop out of

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school." >> Yeah. >> He told me just that blatantly, "Yeah, drop out." Like, why why would you go to school and get student loan debt to go and be an intern? I was a TV and film major. Like, why would you go and do

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this when you can just YouTube is the future? Sneo was even featured in a video titled I Built a Cars Only Legos, where Jimmy, Sneo, and the guys drove around in go-karts that had Legos taped to the exterior. However, Sneo realized

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within a couple of weeks that he didn't fit in with the Mr. Beast crew. He realized he couldn't fully be himself, nor did he like Mr. Beast's mentality of making videos just for the sake of going viral.

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>> It's that's just not what I wanted to do. I've always wanted to be somebody who could use their voice to shake the room. I'd like to to have that impact and uh talk about politics, social issues, and talk about what's really

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going on. And that just wasn't the direction of Mr. Beast's content. I think back to it. I remember wanting to make specific jokes like jokes about Trump and Hillary cuz I was working like around the the first election or the

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first Trump election. And afterwards, he regretted doing he regretted like even adding those jokes. I think he edited them out because he just wanted to be clean. He wanted to be friendly for everybody.

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>> That's why I've always disagreed with that mentality ever since I worked with Mr. Beast. He's like, "I want to be number one YouTuber." Like I just want to use YouTube. YouTube was a means to an end.

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>> You got fired. >> Yeah. The video was structured around what's gonna go viral, what's gonna make me number one.

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>> You understand? Like my philosophy is like I want to express myself. Social media is a way is an extension and a way to express herself.

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>> Now, this is a pretty normal realization. Sneo's vision for his own content and online persona just simply did not align with Mr. Beasts. And Jimmy likely noticed that, too. So, he decided to fire Sneo. And even though Sneo knew

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he didn't fit in, he still felt bitter about being fired. And immediately after he got home, he made an exposed video where he talked about how horrible it was working for Mr. Beast, hoping it would damage Jimmy's reputation.

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However, he quickly regretted the decision and removed the video from his channel. What pissed me off after working with Mr. Beast is I always thought I was better at making videos, yet he's the one on track to be a top 10

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YouTuber of all time. I got all jealous when he fired me and I made this hate video exposing him and then I had to delete it when I realized that he blew up because he put in work. He actually

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went through the effort of doing it over and over again and I never did.

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>> To this day, Sneo realizes it was his own ego that soured his relationship with Mr. Beast and would have done things differently if he could go back.

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>> Nobody saw it. It had literally 40 views and I took it down in like 20 minutes.

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Um, but I talked about it a lot because I I realized about uh doing anything for for attention. Like I was really upset about getting fired and I had this like sense of pride and I always had a lot of

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belief like I know that I'm the best. Like I know I'm the like I'm the best YouTuber blah blah and then seeing him s it it just it my head and so I'd like to talk about that because I think it's a

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good example of how your ego can be your downfall. But no one saw the video and the video I don't think it was that bad.

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But just to go behind it his back and like do something resentful because I got fired uh was just not the right way to act.

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>> Is there any bridges that you burnt that you regret and you think you know what actually I want to still be cool with this guy or you you good?

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>> Mr. Beast. >> Yeah, >> that was one that I I didn't need to I didn't need to do that. But >> Well, you put a video up and then you just deleted it straight away.

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>> Yeah. No one saw it but he saw it. >> He saw it. Yeah, it had like 20 I think barely. No, no one saw it but him. Yeah.

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And so you can't you can't go back from that. >> You don't think he'd ever forgive you?

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>> I wouldn't. >> What's interesting is that Sneo is the only former Mr. Beast friend who put the blame on himself. He wholeheartedly admitted to being jealous, bitter, and even attempting to expose Mr. Beast for his own gain. Now, this doesn't mean

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that everyone else who ever spoke out against Jimmy is lying. It's just that the pure transparency is super rare.

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Sneo being able to recognize his own flaws, then learn from them and keep pushing forward is what allowed him to build his own fan base and not live in the shadow of Mr. Beast. The same cannot be said for Mr. Bro, which is the blood

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brother of Mr. Beast, who failed miserably at becoming a YouTuber. CJ Donaldson would make the occasional appearance in his brother's videos, such as, "I bought an expensive car using only $1 bills." And in this video specifically, we can see Mr. Beast

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directly calling for viewers to demand CJ to make a channel of his own. >> All right, guys. Today we're going to do a brother reveal. This is my brother.

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Come here. Don't be camera shy. >> Okay. See him? Hey, tell him to make a YouTube channel. He's at college and he's going to have like a horrible job with it.

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>> Considering at this point Mr. Beast had dedicated half of his life to YouTube and had undeniably built an extremely successful business from it, it's no surprise that he wanted his brother to have the same success that he did. and

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he was in the perfect position to help him get there. He had the experience, he had the knowledge, and he had the money to get a separate channel off the ground. And eventually, CJ agreed to give YouTube a shot.

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>> Hey everyone, my name is CJ. I'm Mr. Beast's unknown brother, and we're going to see what happens. [laughter] So, I used to work at Walmart, but now I've decided to take a leap of faith just like my brother did and start my YouTube

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career. >> With Jimmy's mindset with giving money away, being a philanthropist, doing all the great things that he does every single day to make a difference in people's lives, I have that same mindset. and I also want to do the same

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thing just like my brother. >> Initially, his channel was doing extremely well with his first four videos racking up nearly 20 million views combined. But there was a problem with the Mr. Bro channel that couldn't be ignored. And CJ said it best himself.

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>> Unfortunately, I'm poor, so I decided to do a dumbed down version of my brother's videos.

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>> The Mr. Bro channel was essentially nothing more than a cheap knockoff of the Mr. Beast channel. Last to leave tree wins $10,000. I spent 24 hours in a pool of ramen noodles. I ubered to the North Pole. Not only were these videos

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essentially direct ripoffs of videos that Mr. Beast had already made, but they were objectively less interesting concepts, and their execution was far worse. Not only were the video concepts the same, but many of the people featured in the videos were just Mr.

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Beast crew members. In fact, one of the most frequent special guests of the channel is Chandler's brother, Zach. The thumbnails were the same, the profile picture was the same. Even the name itself, Mr. bro makes it sound like a

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spin-off of the Mr. Beast brand rather than its own unique channel. And maybe I'm looking too deep into all of this, but as time progressed, it seems like he even physically started looking more like his brother with his hairstyle and

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clothes. I guess Mr. Bro is just straight up copying his brother now. Yeah, I'm not a fan of Mr. Bro. Same.

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He's literally just a budget Mr. Beast. He's not even trying to be different. Everything about his channel is a copy.

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The banner, the icon, and what he does. He just got a free ticket to fame because of his brother. Mr. Bro's first video was uploaded in August of 2019, but not even 2 years later, CJ already abandoned the channel entirely. He did

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end up creating a new YouTube account where he uploaded Minecraft challenge content, but he also stopped posting videos after less than a year of uploads. It's hard to say that CJ quit YouTube due to a lack of success. In

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reality, I just don't think CJ shared the same love for YouTube that his brother has. Everyone who stood beside Mr. Beast childhood friends, collaborators, employees, even his own brother eventually reached the same realization. Being friends with Jimmy is

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not the same as being friends with a normal guy. Some left quietly, some left bitter, some left confused, but they were all replaceable, and they were replaced. Because in Mr. Beast's world, friendship doesn't actually have to be real. It just has to look real for the

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video. The same exact thing can be said about David Dori, who literally built his entire channel around his friends.

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[music] Only later we would discover many of those friendships weren't exactly what we thought they were. But if you want to hear more about that, check out this video.

Topics:Mr BeastJake WedleYouTubebehind the scenesfriendshipemploymentexposechallengescontent creationYouTube culture

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