Online content producer MrBeast’s company wrongfully terminated a female staffer shortly after she returned from maternity leave, the woman said in a lawsuit alleging a sexist culture that pressured her to join a conference call from the labor and delivery room.
The staffer, Lorrayne Mavromatis, said company leadership subjected her to sexual harassment, demoted her after she complained internally about the harassment, and expected her to continue working during her parental leave in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
The company, MrBeastYouTube LLC, had no policy for maternity leave and failed to inform her of her rights under the FMLA after she notified a manager of her pregnancy and said she would need to take leave, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
It’s functionally Nickelodeon’s “Double Dare” shot with the production value of Blair Witch Project. If you haven’t seen an explicit Mr. Beast video, I’m sure you’ve seen something that inspired Jimmy Donaldson or was inspired by him in turn.
The ahem “innovation” isn’t in the content nearly so much as the hype. He started out constantly A/B testing the algorithm to maximize the number of times his video would show up in feeds. Now that he’s big enough, and YouTube has optimized its “pay to be played” scheme, I suspect he’s just paying out the nose like anyone else who wants their content front-paged.
Hollywood is in absolute free fall right now. Garbage like this is what pays the bills.
You should watch the latest folding ideas video. He’s actually starting to trend down as people age out (and I think move to other platforms)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0dwagg5wYY4
If I’ve got an hour and change to spare. I’ve seen a few “behind the Beast” take downs and know some of the story, at least. Yadda Yadda, he’s a consequence of structural forces, not some Great Man of Internet History. And now that the streaming networks have more-or-less cornered the digital marketplace, Beating The Algorithm means less, because The Algorithm is just how much you can throw at ad-buys.
Adding another pair of trunkless legs to the desert.
But he collected his nut and cemented his reputation. I’m sure he’ll continue to haunt the back alleys of the indie content scene for another generation to come.