BEASTLOG // 001 — When Popular Culture Started Using MrBeast
Love, Death + Robots and Becoming an Icon
While watching Love, Death + Robots Season 4, Episode 7, “The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur,” I found myself looking at the Master of Ceremonies and thinking: That looks a lot like MrBeast.
Turns out, when I did some research it was. Well based on him.
Jimmy Donaldson appears as the host of an enormous gladiatorial spectacle involving genetically engineered dinosaurs in a future where humanity has expanded into space. On the surface, it is a fun cameo. Jimmy is also a big Love, Death + Robots fan, making his appearance feel like both a collaboration and an homage.
But what interested me wasn’t simply that Jimmy appeared in the show.
It was why putting him there made so much sense.
The Showman
Tim Miller has referred to Jimmy as a “master showman,” and that description fits the role surprisingly well. In a sense he is like a modern day “Greatest Showman” (Film) an immortal like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. 😊
Jimmy isn’t presented as the billionaire who owns everything. He isn’t humanity’s president, a military commander, or some powerful ruler.
He’s the host.
Obviously, I don’t know Jimmy personally, so I’m basing this entirely on the public persona I’ve seen through his videos. But that position feels much more fitting to me. Jimmy’s role has often been to create or present something extraordinary and then direct our attention toward it.
That also makes his appearance particularly appropriate for Love, Death + Robots, a series that showcases the work of incredible animators, artists, writers, directors, and studios.
The show gets to pay homage to one of its biggest fans, while the “showman” gets to introduce another enormous spectacle.
Leading the Pack
Something else caught my attention: the wolves and the recurring idea of the pack. Now I know Mr Beast is more feline, but it can still relate to the regal element of the wolves as well.
The episode is filled with beasts, competition, survival, and people being turned into entertainment. Against that is this idea of belonging to something larger than yourself — the pack.
And standing above an arena full of beasts is, appropriately: Mr. Beast.
I don’t know if that connection was intentional, but it made me think about Jimmy’s own position among creators.
For years, he has been part of an incredibly competitive YouTube ecosystem. Yet at some point, his choices began influencing where everyone else ran.
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Bigger challenges. Bigger prizes. Bigger productions. Different approaches to thumbnails, pacing, hooks, and spectacle.
When you’re leading the pack, your creative decisions don’t necessarily remain yours. Other people respond to them, copy them, modify them, or deliberately move in another direction.
When the Reference Becomes the Referent
That led me to what I think is the most interesting part of Jimmy’s appearance.
For years, Jimmy has used things we already recognize from popular culture as foundations for new ideas. Perhaps the clearest example is recreating Squid Game as a real competition.
But something else changed.
Originally, Jimmy used popular culture to make YouTube videos.
Now popular culture uses Jimmy to communicate an idea.
Think about what the creators needed for this character: someone who instantly communicates enormous competition, ridiculous scale, high stakes, and showmanship.
By definition that is MrBeast.
And we immediately understand why.
Jimmy has become recognizable enough that putting him in this fictional future communicates something without requiring an explanation.
He’s becoming a kind of cultural shorthand.
Maybe even an unlikely cultural ambassador for Earth.
Humanity has reached the stars, yet we’ve apparently brought our love of competition, storytelling, spectacle, and entertainment with us.
And who’s hosting?
MrBeast.
There is something absurd about it, but also something strangely believable.
Jimmy once borrowed from popular culture to help create MrBeast. Now this isn’t the first animated version of him, but it is a first that is iconic on a different level
Now other creators can borrow MrBeast to create their own worlds.
And perhaps that’s one indication that Jimmy has moved beyond simply being a successful creator.
He has become part of the culture other creators create from.
