bigjoel patreon

Beast Games: An Autopsy

🕑 Added 2025-03-14 11:49:15 +0000 UTC

Comments

Big Joel

Yes :-( I’m sorry. But the public video isn’t blocked!!

Terminus

WGM

second worst job i ever had was working on that city in the middle of nowhere (Toronto) all ill add is im pretty sure there weren't real toilets in the city.

Starkey Johnston

Thank you 😭🥹

Gabriella Ekens

Great post. It's the money that's the main character of the show. It's a show about money selecting it's owner through a series of gambles. No thought to how an emotionally normal contestant or viewer will feel from watching this. Just the ecstasy of watching people selected by money. Obviously random selection by money has been Beast's shtick for a long time but it also reflects his rise by basically winning the YouTube lottery. He's not that special, just there at the right place at the right time in the right algorithm. Not too different from some tech leaders in that regard, which I think contributes to their tendency towards massive insecurity as a class of person. "Emotional attuned with money" is a great descriptor of the subset of people who raise to the top of our particular society.

M.T.

It's quite literally throwing more money at the format in hopes it draws more viewers. The problem is, enhancing a shitty premise doesn't make it good, it just magnifies how meaningless and stupid it was to begin with.

M.T.

I'm convinced Mr. Beast is a 1 percenter psy op to convince children that life is worth it if you beg/debase yourself enough. He's a sentient paid advertisement.

The Fuzzy Legend

what a snarky, mean reply to a clearly well-written, deliberate interpretation of the video.

Starkey Johnston

Was this written by chat gpt?

Sam Jenkins

That's tough, but at least you arrive with your principles intact.

Max McLain

As a Survivor fan it's puzzling to watch Mr Beast throw away more money at people for winning coin tosses than someobody gets for surviving on an island and playing a highly strategic social game. Capitalism is extremely silly where does this money come from

Julian Pollock

"I don't think Akira's like that" lmfao

Amelia Laboda

loved this video! your exploration at the end was really strong for me, and resonated with the thoughts i was having as you reviewed the individual games—when the games are so boring, arbitrary and luck-based, the show becomes about the mental toll of striving for money, of competing against others and making choices for money, or sacrificing one’s access to money. but the interior dilemmas faced by individuals here are not explored, they’re only implied. beast expects us to understand these dilemmas instinctually, as we watch mostly boring and pointless games of chance that reveal nothing about who the players actually are within the story. most of them are not even games, they’re like human processing machines. the intense editing suggests that it expects us to feel this conflict as intensely and viscerally as the contestants. and obviously he’s replicating squid game again in this structure, and revealing how he missed the point of squid game—because the arbitrary nature of the squid games reads to a lot of people as a frustrating reflection on the dehumanizing and illogical experience of navigating capitalism (rather than a fun game show). but i also think in a funny way it also maybe reveals that jimmy is just more emotionally attuned to the flow of dollars than the average person. obviously money has emotional resonance to us for what it does for our lives, but it seems to be something else for him entirely. in beast’s mind there’s nothing more emotionally climactic than the abstract movement of money. the parties the money is moving between don’t really matter to him at all. it’s almost beautiful, it’s like he can feel the emotion of the money itself. the whole structure of the games feels like a movement towards making the most metaphysically distilled transaction of dollars he possibly can. a game to figure out who the money wants to flow towards

Jake Andrews

I'm from NYC, it's very hard for me to be a good Christian and ride the subway. It literally takes me hours to get to work.

Jake Andrews

I'm waiting for Beast Games 4 when there are 5000 contestants, and a $40 million grand prize. We can watch them play electric football in the final.

Starkey Johnston

I need more Joel now goddamit! I need more Joel!

littledarkage

I swear I’ve seen part of this video before, did this get posted previously?

Lauren Smith

Did not notice

Lauren Smith

Thank you Big Joel for watching this show and summarizing this trash so I didn't have to suffer I'd keep you on my hypothetical trolley problem

dan graham

Mr Beast made a show with unlimited games, but no games.

Mäxx

Your mic is lovely!

Ash Sweet

Shocked by the amount of Get The Ball in the Right Spot games

Megan Sullivan

When I first read this, I thought you meant Beast Games camera work and I was like "maybe they phoned it in" so I had no clue you meant you haha

A Parent Lee (long lost brother of Stan Lee, RIP)

Yeah totally. But the funny thing is that I'm pretty sure Beast games was supposed to capture a much wider audience than his videos, at least in principle. But... Not like this lmao

Lera B

Is this video going up on nebula?

Noah Luntzlara

Tbh you're in my pocket for 95% of the runtime of these long video essays

Broccoliboy

It’s interesting that so many of the physical challenges are ripped straight from “Physical 100”, the Korean game show that’s also inspired by squid game

Sluggnya

Genuinely did not notice that at all, it totally blended into the rest of the video for me, it did not stick out as something negative

Noah Luntzlara

58:17 you said it backwards. "Does he want to eliminate these three women, or get a Lamborghini" he can have both. He gets to eliminate them and have the Lamborghini

Sam Jenkins

Yes! These are also the two locations to which you might be taken blindfolded and made to kneel down with your hands behind your head. Make of that what you will.

Sam Jenkins

I guess most of his audience is too young to be very discerning and he only tries has hard as he needs to satisfy them. It seems so cold and calculating - I don't usually like the word "content" but in his case it's a perfect fit. There's nothing artful about it. There is no joy to be found in it.

Sam Jenkins

I am so disappointed in Jeremy. What kind of Christian disrespects his wife by sharing a vehicle with another woman? I'm pretty sure that breaks at least six of the ten commandments.

Matthew Orf

Zero bothered. I’m here for your witty commentary and your blurry face is just a bonus. I guess

A Parent Lee (long lost brother of Stan Lee, RIP)

So holy shit, how bad is this show? I didn't watch it and obviously I didn't think it'd be a masterpiece, but the amount of repetition and the absence of any sort of suspence are baffling. Like you said, it's definitely the transition from YouTube video to game show, but man... This guy has tens of millions of dollars to throw at this shit. Couldn't they have done a better job?

A Parent Lee (long lost brother of Stan Lee, RIP)

Bruh I didn't notice at all, I say don't worry abt it

EddieOrNot

This whole show is an exercise in beast boy borrowing mechanics that he likes from other reality shows with zero insight into *why* he likes them or what makes them compelling

meg

Modern reality shows always seem to take place in one of two locations: open field in undisclosed location, and black void.

Karl

Didn't even notice

Big Joel

Sometimes in the video I’m not in totally sharp focus

John DellaContrada

Could you be more specific?

nico

Is it my birthday??? Might as well be 💕 thank you for feeding us

LW

Not at all

Sebastian Horey

Immediately read the last bit first then read the first bit and I was like, whoops

Big Joel

for those of you who watch it, I have a question but I only want you to tell me your answer after having seen the video............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................how much does the wonky selective focus during certain bits bother you?