YouTube star MrBeast has responded to a viral rumor claiming that he passed away — and this isn’t the first time he’s had to debunk posts of this sort, either.
Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson is the single most-subscribed creator on YouTube. Finally beating out longtime YouTube king PewDiePie in 2022, MrBeast is best known for his over-the-top video projects and charitable works (such as paying for 1,000 peoples’ cataract surgeries).
As such, it makes sense that fans are eager to hear any news about his personal life — but sometimes, this enthusiasm can backfire in unexpected ways.
On March 15, a post went viral on twitter claiming that Donaldson had passed away. The tweet included a black and white photo of the YouTube star with the caption, “I cant believe MrBeast died… gone too soon man… you’ll never be forgotten you legend.”
At the time of writing, the post has racked up over 13 million views and 156k likes, but it looks like most commenters didn’t believe the wild claim. In fact, many of the replies are memes mocking the post, or condemning the poster for spreading false rumors about someone’s death.
MrBeast shuts down rumors of his death from viral tweet
Luckily, MrBeast has put the rumors to rest, posting his own response to the tweet that has similarly picked up quite a bit of traction.
“Why does this have 100,000 likes? Lol,” he wrote.
MrBeast’s humorous reply has prompted many fans and fellow creators to reference his plans for when he does pass away.
In the past, MrBeast has said that, when he dies, he wants the final video on his channel to be a “last person with their hand on my tombstone wins the channel,” challenge among his closest friends.
This isn’t the first time MrBeast has had to address rumors of someone’s untimely death, either; last year, a post circulated social media claiming that one of his friends and crewmembers, Chandler Hallow, had passed away.
In response, MrBeast told his buddy: “Sorry for making you eat 10,000 pickles in 5 hours.”
MrBeast, however, once had a horrifying brush with death — Here’s how he escaped.
While speaking with Minecraft gamers Karl Jacobs and Sapnap on their Banter podcast, MrBeast talked about the time he nearly died after driving back home from a film shoot.
“We had just finished a shoot at around midnight and went to sleep. It was me and two of my friends. None of us were drinking or anything like that. We all get a good sleep, get up in the morning, and begin our drive home,” he shared. The trip quickly went south.
“Two hours into the drive, we’re all listening to the JRM podcast, and Andrew, who was driving, felt a bit tired. He said he wanted to stop at a gas station. So I turned off the podcast and looked over to Andrew, and he had just passed out while driving, and the car was doing 70 miles on the highway,” MrBeast recalled.
Not exactly the kind of thing that you want to see while trying to head home after working a full day. But it gets even scarier. This wasn’t just a case of Andrew getting tired at the wheel. As it turns out, MrBeast’s friend actually had a heart condition he wasn’t aware of. He didn’t fall asleep at the wheel of the car — he was “out cold.”
“His arms just fell off the steering wheel, but his foot was still on the gas. I initially thought that he just fell asleep, but as it turned out he was out cold. I rushed and grabbed the steering wheel to take control, but the car just kept speeding up. We were now going 85 miles per hour, and I knew I had to slow down; the only problem was that I would have to drive blind in order to get Andrew’s leg off the accelerator to slow the car down.”
MrBeast then had to “drive blind” by moving Andrew’s leg off the accelerator to try and slow the car down. Andrew woke back up and hit the gas pedal, with MrBeast doing everything he could to stop the vehicle. They ultimately crashed into a concrete wall, and MrBeast sustained bruises to his head and stomach as a result. After putting the car in park, he called an ambulance, where they learned of Andrew’s heart condition.
