Youtuber MrBeast’s obnoxious Squid Game imitation – which is currently being sued by contestants – is ugly, tasteless TV. It’s as grimly compelling as picking a scab

The new Amazon gameshow Beast Games comes with an awful lot of baggage. At the age of 26, MrBeast has more YouTube subscribers than anyone alive. He is the third most followed person on TikTok. He has put his name to restaurants, chocolates, toys, clothes and Nerf guns. His fame among young people is genuinely unfathomable. In short, he needs television a lot less than television needs him.

However, since the show went into production, the wheels have fallen off somewhat. In September, five Beast Games contestants filed a 54-page class action lawsuit against MrBeast’s production company and Amazon, alleging widespread mistreatment, , inadequate compensation and “serious emotional distress, including suffering, anguish, fright, horror, nervousness, anxiety, […] worry, shock, humiliation, and/or shame”. As such, Beast Games arrived yesterday under a hell of a cloud.