Jimmy Donaldson, otherwise known as Mr. Beast, posted a video on Jan 29 where he paid for the surgery to repair 1000 people’s vision. The charity act garnered over 100 million views in less than 10 days.

Mr. Beast took the entertainment industry by storm in 2017 when he went viral for random videos like counting to 100,000 or spinning a fidget spinner for 24 hours. He hit one million subscribers in late 2017 due to attention-grabbing stunts such as donating large sums of money to everyday people. 

“I knew him from a friend because he showed me when he was giving a million dollars [away] and I wanted to check him out,’’ senior Javier Iraheta said. 

As his channel grew, his giveaways increased. In some of his more popular giveaways, he has given away houses, chocolate factories, airplanes, and other million dollar prizes. Mr Beast soon became a household name as he has generated more than 100 million subscribers.

“The million dollar give-aways, like the twenty-four hour challenges, are my favorite to watch,’’ Iraheta said.

Recently, Mr. Beast’s giveaways have helped people in more significant ways. He paid for 1000 people’s surgery to restore their eyesight. Despite 50% of blindness being curable, the government will not help pay for the $5000 surgery. In total Mr. Beast dropped a whopping $5-10 million to fight blindness. He restored eyesight to people that reside in poorer countries Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, and Indonesia. Restoring their eyesight will greatly affect the lives of the cured people as they can return to work and gather money for their families. The economy there will greatly rise.

“I think the government should help pay for the surgeries if someone is blind because if they are able to work again then the government could easily collect more than $5000 in taxes,’’ junior Connor O’brien said.

 Despite helping people in need, he has received backlash after posting his charity acts which critics contend are “exploiting participants in the video by funding their surgeries for personal gain and content, rather than genuine altruism,’’ according to USA Today.

“I just see jealousy and hatred [from critics]. Most people won’t be blessed the way Mr. Beast helped them in times of need,’’ O’brien said.

People that have met Mr. Beast personally have said that he is quite rude off camera and even cursed out a waiter at a restaurant. Although these opinions have not been proved true, the tories could take a toll on his popularity. 

“We don’t know [Mr. Beast]. We just see him through Youtube. We see what he wants us to see; we don’t really know him and who he is,’’ junior Ceasar Montesdeoca said.

Mr. Beast has shown interest in becoming Twitter’s next CEO as Elon Musk plans to step down. In late December, Mr. Beast tweeted “Can I be the new Twitter CEO?” Elon Musk later tweeted back “It’s not out of the question”.

This could take his career in a whole new direction and possibly start a new chapter in his life.

“I don’t see him being a great CEO because he is too generous and it may not be what’s best for the company; it could also limit the amount of Youtube videos he can post,’’ O’brien said.

Mr. Beast is the most subscribed to individual in the world. Multiple unnamed people have tried to purchase his channels and offered up to a billion dollars according to Mr. Beast.

 “After some point it’s like you feel like you should quit, but you want it so badly you just keep going,” Mr. Beast said.