Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is no stranger to controversy, but now, the world's most-subscribed YouTuber is being criticized for one wild stunt that his critics have branded as 'insane'.
Coming a long way from his Minecraft Let's Plays, MrBeast has made a name for himself with his viral videos doing everything from building Willy Wonka-inspired chocolate factories, making real-life versions of Squid Game, and giving someone $10,000 for every day they can spend in a grocery store.
As well as being called out for trespassing on Mexican monuments, a disappointing fan event that was reportedly oversold, and a whole host of lawsuits relating to his Beast Games series, Donaldson's latest video continues to raise a few eyebrows
Some of Donaldson's most popular videos are his '100 Days' stunts, where members of the public are tossed into a variety of unusual locations and tasked with making it through 100 days. Having recently drummed up controversy for making a pilot live in a plane for 100 days, MrBeast's latest video is another divisive one as he forces a cop and a felon to live in a maximum-security prison.
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Both have to survive 100 days in this facility with a chance to win $500,000, but if either leaves before the deadline, they walk away with nothing. Having built a near-identical replica of a real maximum security prison, the pair are confined to cells, have to pass through security doors, and are even faced with solitary confinement.
Lenny is a police officer with 17 years of service under his belt, while Ian once served three years in federal prison for fraud and money laundering. Lenny says he'd never seen $500,000, while Ian admitted that was the amount he owed when he was released from prison.
Ian was impressed with the facilities, noting that while it's very similar to a real prison, it's actually better because the beds are thicker and he even gets a pillow.
They were allowed access to an exercise yard, although this cost $50,000 from the prize fund. Even though warden Jimmy's food was also described as 'butt cheeks' and proved hard to stomach, the pair then turned down the offer of a kitchen.
Ian's criminal past resurfaced when he started smuggling books out of the library, and Lenny was branded a snitch for ratting him out, but the real twist came when he was sent to solitary confinement while Lenny got to see his family.
To keep them occupied, Donaldson set them a challenge of trying to hammer a key out of a rock, hoping to open a box with $100,000 inside it. The deal was that they had to pay $50,000 upfront and could've potentially lost it. Thankfully for Ian and Lenny, they got the key out just in time.
The final test put them in solitary confinement for 24 hours, and if either pressed a button, they'd walk away with the entire prize pool. After growing close over the first 99 days, they decided not to screw each other over, meaning they split the $480,000 they had left.
Replying to the video, people shared their reactions to the wild experiment, with one person saying: "Bro these videos are the difference between wild and borderline INSANE!"
Another added: "What if you helped people instead of torturing them?"
A third said: "There are so many documented reasons why this is a HORRIBLE idea."
Someone else compared it to the infamous Stanford prison experiment, concluding: "We’ve turned human collapse into content, cut it with sponsor codes and thumbnails of men screaming the original was a nightmare dressed as research. Now, it’s clickbait with prize money, bread and circuses, but filmed in 4K with ad breaks."