OPINION: Mr. Beast’s ‘Squid Game’ video concept is tone-deaf, ignorant

Mr. Beast has always been known for his extravagant productions, where he spends thousands just to make a Youtube video. His biggest production yet had him spending just over $1 million. While these videos started with a competition between his friends, doing something like seeing who can stay inside the pool for the longest, they have now become a much larger scale. Two videos he has done recently are a $500,000 game of tag, and competition to see who will take their hand off the lamborghini last (whoever wins, keeps it). And this model seems to work for him, with a net worth of $16 million (MPNRC) and around 74.5 million subscribers.

One of his most recent endeavors, however, is a real-life Squid Game, modeled after the extremely popular Netflix show that came out in mid-September. He revealed on Twitter that they are building the sets, along with some pictures and videos. He also revealed that the set-building is costing “more than [he] thought it would.” Meanwhile, I just can’t get over how ironic all of this is.

The show itself is a complete stab at capitalism. It presents a group of people who are so desperate to claw themselves out of their debt caused by a capitalistic society that they must surrender their humanity. They’re at such a dark place where they’d rather die and have a one-in-456 chance to earn money than keep struggling in their own lives. 

The irony comes from Mr. Beast literally capitalizing off of Squid Game with his mass amounts of money. He is also turning the premise of the game into something that is just that: a game. Something about it seems extremely tone deaf when these people are doing it for fun, versus the people in the actual show literally dying. 

Sure, maybe I’m taking it too seriously, but I think an extremely wealthy man turning a (while hypothetical) life-or-death situation into a game and then capitalizing on it seems extremely insensitive and out of tune to anyone who isn’t extremely wealthy. Many people, including Mr. Beast, enjoy the show for its fantastic plot and production. You are doing yourself an injustice, however, if you watch it without taking away the message it gives about capitalistic societies. So while I’m not going to blame Mr. Beast for his poor interpretation of the show, I am going to blame him for his pro-capitalism version of Squid Game when the show presents the exact opposite. It just shows how yet again, the wealthy individuals in society are tone-deaf and insensitive to real world issues.