Why was I invited to Beast Studios? (Patron early access, finished video for real for real)

The "how many shirts can these video essayists sew in a week" joke is my absolute favourite in this video 😂😂 all the rest are good too tho

10:45 jumpscare

I need to know if you talked to Doug Walker

Please tell me that you have actually applied for the hyper specific records you set at Guiness World Records lmao

It's now really funny that Foldable Human asked on bluesky about ideas for a thumbnail and title, and a whole bunch of replies are essentially, 'idk I will watch the video regardless because I'm a fan of the channel'

Loved this, but we have got to get your ass in a Stokes Twins video

I am absolutely living for the group photo with you off to the side looking unimpressed.

How long was the location shoot with the bouncy castle?

Do you think the avalanche of AI slop (and the overwhelming rejection of it) has played a role in the decline for Mr Beast, one of the OG slop merchants?

Incredible video! But you mention that it couldn't have possibly been a focus group because you don't wine and dine people that you want to give you useful criticism. Yet the rest of the video shows they clearly don't really know how to make reality television (or anything). Did you consider that Beast Industries didn't know what they were doing inviting you, either?

Great video, team. Mr beast has always been on my periphery but I’ve never watched his content other than a few mega ones out of curiosity. Your statement about “adults despise Mr beast content” is so true. I haven’t really sat down and meditated on why I don’t like his content, I don’t really care to think about it that much. I guess at the end of the day, a YouTube empire marketed directly at 12 year olds is…weird to me. Not in an inappropriate way, just an artistically bankrupt way. Making media for younger audiences is totally fine i.e. children/ya novels. But these make a statement and move on. Beast content milks the minds of adolescents for billions of dollars by downloading repeated format loud bombastic insanity into their brains over and over. And…that’s weird I think, and not worthy of respect. So yeah, my hypothesis of why Jimmy invited people like Dan Olsen to this thing. Because Jimmy probably respects Dan and his content, and seeks Dan’s respect or approval in return. Turns out…

The Super 8 footage is soo beautiful 😍

Had to take a break about 2/3 through cuz I can only take so much Mr Beast content, even in criticism in the background. Also, how far has civilization fallen when Survivor is now the gold standard?

Something about the idea of Dan sitting at this focus group table being obnoxiously negative the entire time about the whole enterprise is just delicious to me, it's comedy gold

fun tidbit to accompany the section on his brand's toxicity to real adults and John Beast's waning/lack of dedicated fanbase: he promoted the Amazon Game Studios-published online competitive obstacle course game a la Fall Guys called King of Meat, which released in October 2025. The Beast video regarding that game currently has 7.5m views. The game? Now dead and shutdown, of course, with a lifetime peak concurrent Steam player count of... 246. No juice, no value to anyone else's brands.

I'm so curious about what kind of feedback you got from the Beast Industries person who previewed the video. (Or was it just a lot of "blur X, that's confidential"?)

Ok, I must know if you asked Doug Walker why he made his insane The Wall video

His mention of using more gear than the Olympics is very funny. I work for NBC, specifically in the warehouse that handles all of the gear, and we are expecting at least 60 filled sea containers worth of gear to return from Milan. I cannot imagine Beast Games requiring that much stuff

“The Yorgos Lanthimost joke” 💀

It's kind of baffling they let Mr. Beast put products on store shelves while bypassing all the things that make it so your product doesn't break while in a retail environment or fall all over the place due to poor packaging design. Or he didn't find a guy to cover all the details an ordinary person wouldn't think of while inventing "chocolate bar with my name on it" or "lunchables, but with my name on it"

Not going to lie, when I saw Doug I was hoping for some awkward interaction.

Seeing photos with you together with Doug Walker is absolutely sending me lmfao

I think this is the best video essay you’ve made. It’s at least my favorite. As someone who rewatched the Contrapanouers video yesterday, I love the return of the “worth decider” music

I did hear "i'll self-report" as "I'll sell for port", relistened several times and looked it up, sure it was some expression I'd never heard of

In addition to needling more than 12 year-old boys to be popular, relying on them is inherently a problem- kids can be mean, especially toward their own past interests as they age and cringe (the cringe you feel at 14 for what you liked at 12 is intense) and that SHOULD be factored into the business model, especially if you brand is gauche and repellant to parents I’m sure there are 12 year olds that turned 14 and still like Beast but there’s also gotta be many that not only lost interest, but turned on him HARD, maybe not to please their parents, but toward some other marker of “adult” taste that isn’t gauche to adults I abandoned CreepyPasta for “real” horror films in the age, the Beast brand is not only antithetical to getting a new adult audience but it’s so juvenile and early-adolescent, it’s probably losing that audience when they start high-school… which might explain that graph Dan showed of decline metrics

So it wasn't a big plot to take you all out and replace all the invited YouTubers with doubles. Huh.

My equally uneducated guess for the 12 youtubers is that it's a classic case of corporate miscommunication: someone tried to get a specialized focus group on a visit, and then someone else was put in charge of the itinerary and built it as a wine and dine.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one! Since this is the first main channel video with Jessica on board, I was trying to see if I could spot which segments were edited by Dan and which were edited by her, and honestly she did such a great job grasping Dan's style I couldn't tell the difference at all. The casting for Certification Dude was excellent, my absolute favourite new addition to the pantheon of Foldable Side Characters. And of course the insanity of the bouncy castle and the callback to the Worth Decider music gave me a good chuckle, money absolutely well spent. Some stuff I did make note of: - Some of the footage in front of the bouncy castle seems a bit dark in comparison to your studio footage and the footage from your trip, but considering the narrative at the time, that might be a deliberate choice. - In the credits as the beginning, only Dan and Jessica are listed as editors, but the credits at the end list Dan, Jessica and Nathan.

Truly savored this one. Really enjoyed having a pet theory that didn't last until the end of the video ("Even those who hate us cover us out of curiosity" as a power play), Doug's presence, and every single angle you carved out of an overgrown media monolith. The channel turned that briar (bramble?) patch into a feat of botany. I think that half-second shot of the sunrise bleeding into the block game set is going to stick with me for a while. It was a tiny video essay by itself (chalk up another record for Folding Ideas - shortest nested video essay of all time).

Really interesting dissection of the philosophy behind Mr. Beast's empire (and by extension the broader media incentives of YouTube and the attention economy). I can't quite connect the dots atm but it feels related to the philosophy of that brand of extremely publicly facing tech CEO that's been clogging up the airwaves for the past few hype cycles. Just an incessant, desperate need to be seen as the next biggest thing.

I just want to say I really love the narrative flow of this one. The transition from theory crafting listical to "line go up"-style criticism felt really natural!

I'm so excited, I've been looking forward to this since PAX

The 'any question asked by a focus group belies an anxiety of theirs' into 'how do you build a fandom?' into your incredible graph is just :chefskiss:. I knew next to nothing about Mr Beast prior to this video thanks to the powerful rock I live under, and I am *so* delighted that this is my introduction to him and his declining empire(?).

Certification Dude is the best new character since Hat Dan, the Dan with a Hat. Anyway, loved the video. The breakdown of the various metrics was fascinating and, for me, was very eye opening and helped explain why Mr. Beast feels like parody despite being not being one since the whole business feels like a bad parody of a metric driven business but played entirely straight. Looking forward to watching the review later tonight.

Really enjoyed both videos. After the watch, I am astounded by the lessons they seemingly chose to take away and not to take away from the first season. It is also baffling the things they kept in - it reminds me of a comment from Hank Green about YouTube videos and YouTubers, paraphrased as "If we spent any money on this, it's going up". Which kind of makes sense as a way to stay frugal and scrappy compared to traditional media productions. But that whole idea falls apart when you're spending more money than those traditional productions, and the results are this embarrassing or gross, and they show them anyway. It doesn't come across as authentic, it just makes them look bad. Also, thanks for making me aware that MrBeast expanded into one of those not-actually-a-bank "banks", I now have something else to warn against for my nephew.

This was no joke, one of your best videos. Great job piercing into the nature of a headless media monster.

I've been trying to find out why his philanthropy bothers me and it's because of all the other stuff that was mentioned in the video. The whole operation is about views and metrics. So the philanthropy seems like a crass ploy to get more views and improve metrics. Not a sincere desire to do good. And the obsession with money, the whole Saudi Arabia thing (good thing those lambos had drivers because what about the female contestants?) just makes everything associated with the brand seem shallow, insincere, and self-serving.

I’ve seen TWRP at The Opera House from the same vantage point you saw your favourite band! It was a fun jumpscare to see the venue.

I haven’t even finished my first viewing yet, but I gotta say this is absolutely fascinating as someone who has only ever been aware of Mr. Beast as some vague thing people compare tacky content to—I actually thought it was a fictional channel from a TV show for a while—and I’ve just been sitting here for 50 minutes with a gobsmacked half-frown on my face. Just… wow.

OMG a Doug crossover! I can't.

Hello would you consider cutting up and selling some of the 8mm film neg? It would be a fun piece of memorabilia for the Guinness records breaking video.

Wow. In the same vehicle as Doug Walker. Awwwwwkwwwward

i gotta say doug walker is unbelievably distracting from the first second he appears and it adds a lot to the video

Me early in the video: “is that… Doug Walker?”

Man it must have been super awkward to go on this tour with Doug. Was the group big enough that you were able to avoid directly talking to him?

Any got any idea which band Dan saw @10:01?

yes! there’s my evening sorted

I am so genuinely sorry that this is how you experienced North Carolina.

Two hour long videos in one day? Heck yeah