Any sort of dumb challenge or prank will do, as long as it’s choppily edited, fast-paced, meme-able and overlaid with flashy graphics and bleeps.
The MrBeast-ification of YouTube was epitomised this week by ‘Airrack’ – real name Eric Decker – who attempted to live inside a supermarket unnoticed for the longest time possible (spoiler alert: it was 24 hours before he was caught).
Not bad, except the store owner was in on it (in return for $10,000) and Airrack had pre-built a hiding spot under a fresh produce stand – complete with bed, coffee machine, video game console, and electric camping stove. The challenge – frenetically and infuriatingly documented in How Long Could You Secretly Live In A Grocery Store? – seemed to actually be, ‘not raise the suspicion of a few, frankly uncaring employees until you get bored’.
“Using my strategies I could survive in this place or any store, for years,” Airrack said. Try a decade in a cold store next, please.
But the top end of the views league table is not where YouTube’s true treasures lie. Channel Steady Walk in Seoul rejects all current editing styles, and, seemingly, any desire to entertain viewers.
It’s built an extensive library of first-person POV footage of grocery shopping in Korea. Products are picked from shelves, looked over (their price in five currencies and current promotions displayed in text on screen) and placed into a trolley or basket, soundtracked only by the ambient sound of the store. One recent post is two hours, 11 minutes long.
It’s ‘slow TV’ without any of the scenery – but boring beats Beast any day.
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