Hearon and new fan.
Photo-Illustration: Illustration: Vulture. Photos: Getty Images

Clearly, MrBeast has no idea that the real beasts on the internet are Caleb Hearon’s stan army of celebrities and “hundreds of thousands of mentally ill baristas.” The baristas are ready to mobilize, MrBeast fans are AFK training for the next Hunger Games. The multi-hyphenate YouTuber (chocolatier/real-life Frontman) Jimmy Donaldson was unhappy with his spot on Rolling Stone’s “25 Most Influential Creators of 2025” list as #7 and took it out on the person who ranked directly above him, Hearon. “According to this list a guy with 1 million followers is more influential than me. What did I do to piss off The Rolling Stones,” Donaldson wrote in a now-deleted X post on August 26. What’s Mick Jagger got to do with this? Anyone who has scrolled on TikTok for even just a day has probably come across one of Hearon’s videos; clips from his podcasts and stand-up shows get millions of views, not even counting the amount of reposts from random clip farming channels. Yes, MrBeast has millions of views as well as an Amazon Prime show, but not without controversy following him.

For what it’s worth, Hearon isn’t fazed by MrBeast’s comment. He shared the post on his Instagram (main feed, mind you) and thanked Rolling Stone for the “honor.” Kyle MacLachlan, Rosanna Pansino, and Ayo Edebiri have all found the humor in Donaldson’s strange call out — even John Cena posted a pic of Hearon in support.

After the pack of she/theys were unleashed onto Donaldson, he deleted the post because he didn’t “want the smoke from the shooters.” He added, “[Not gonna lie] after this I watched some of his stuff and it’s actually good.” Hearon also posted on Instagram Stories that he is in “peace talks” with MrBeast.

Ngl after this I watched some of his stuff and it’s actually good. I deleted the tweet I don’t want the smoke from the shooters, spare me plz

— MrBeast (@MrBeast) August 26, 2025

If MrBeast wants to rank higher on next year’s list, he’d better figure out what cologne Cooper was wearing.

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