I Pissed Off Mr. Beast

Two months ago I went to Greenville, NC (not SC) and tried to deliver a cardboard cutout of Ryan Trahan to Mr. Beast.

Here was the result of that:

I then preceded to receive an onslaught of online hate and trolling.

There were pretty much two reactions and it was summed up well in these two comments left on my video about the incident:

I’m not trying to flaunt or whine about any of this. I mainly wanted to share how I feel about this publicly.

Because for the last two months I’ve had a lot of people approach me and say “Dude I saw the Mr. Beast thing! How are you?” Most of the time I try to act tough.

“I’m good! Just a bunch of haters. I find my worth in greater things.”

But can I be honest?

It sucks. It truly sucks. And that’s okay.

There’s a lot of irony to this too. I was talking with a friend of mine who was asking me about my dreams with YouTube back in May. He asked me:

“What do you actually want? Is it subscribers? Is it to be in the ‘cool kids’ club?” I was glad he asked the question. I’ve been reflecting on this for a while now, and I immediately knew what to say to him.

“I want to create a moment on the internet. I want to create something that gets the attention of the internet and can be looked back on in the future. Not just a one off viral video. Not just a million subscribers. I want to create a moment.”

Lol well I guess I did and it’s not at all how I thought it would be.

So What ACTUALLY Happened?

I told a good amount of people I was doing this, but if I have one regret, it’s that I didn’t yell about this idea from the rooftops for weeks leading up to it.

It all started when I saw this video where these YouTubers were talking about how EVERYONE and their mother attempts to deliver something to Mr. Beast in order to blow up on YouTube. Here’s three examples.

I remember seeing these and always thinking it was a bit strange. There seems to be a trend on YouTube that encourages up-and-comers to do whatever it takes to get popular YouTuber’s attention… and sometimes stalking them.

Of course they just chalk it up to “pranks” and “being a troll” but I always found it a little strange.

One moment that TRULY defined this for me was back in February of this year. I had just seen some success from my own videos where I find people’s emails, and one day I got a text from someone saying they saw my videos and they found my cell and email. They then preceded to try and guess my home address (it was all old locations and nothing current).

I remember feeling exposed and uncomfortable. Realizing that anyone could find me with the amount of info I put out on the internet. It was disturbing.

This was the catalyst to me develop a conclusion: I want to try and deliver something to Mr. Beast and document the whole process.

There’s a phrase within storytelling that helps drive stories forward and highlight impactful messages: “Show don’t tell.”

So of course I decided I would Show rather than Tell. I wanted to get the point across and I knew this would be the way to do it. Did I ever think I would get a response from Mr. Beast? Nah. I’ve tweeted at him dozens of times and never got a reaction. My main goal was simply to showcase the crazy things the current YouTube meta encourages in order to grow a channel… I truthfully never thought I would run into him.

But you know what ended up happening? He freaking responded… it was wild.

Your Idols Don’t Care About You

Before I share the more “resolution” pieces of my recap on this whole experience, I need to share a few things that really hurt me in the process…

A lot of content creators and leaders in the space took the time to make content on the incident. I’ve had a few YouTubers make videos roasting me, and others used me as an example, but did some research and actually realized I wasn’t a crazy psycho.

The most disheartening thing was people who I looked up to made a lot of jokes at my expense.

It sucked.

They either made jokes or they shamed me in front of their audience calling me a “stalker” and a “small youtuber” (that one hurt the worst LOL). And I can’t even tell you how much that hurt me.

Obviously, they have NO idea who I actually am, nor do they care. I’m just a random fan to them. I’m a nobody. They aren’t even giving an iota of thought to who I am and how I feel. There’s PLENTY of people I don’t even think about EVER (99.9% of the human race). But yet, it still hurt. And it reminded me that the people you look up to typically look down on you. So pick your idols carefully.

What’s Next?

I’ve been wrestling with this a lot still, honestly.

I have a TON of video ideas in the future. I’m currently working on three LOL

However I would be lying if this whole process made me seriously think if I wanted to keep doing this. Did I actually want to be a YouTuber? Do I truly understand the level of awareness I’m exposing myself to?

Someone literally DM’d me and told me to unalive myself. And that was just because of ONE viral tweet. I can’t imagine the level most YouTubers operate at when they are receiving tons of these daily.

(obviously that’s not the usual, but it often is a reality of putting yourself out there)

And after a lot of reflection, the answer is: I do.

I still love this medium. I love videos.

I am FIGHTING to create videos that I light me up. This very video idea was one of those. I KNEW deep down I had to do it. And you know what? It paid off (kinda). I am not going to be creating because I feel like I need to hit a quota by the end of the year… I will be making videos because I NEED to make them… I NEED to get them out of my head and into the world.

Thanks for Reading

HAGS

Dino Favara, Jr.

2:19AM
August 18, 2023