Rosanna Pansino’s handling of the controversy involving MrBeast is a childish, dramatic overreaction to an unfortunate situation in an attempt to manufacture drama.
Rosanna Pansinois an online celebrity with over 14 million YouTube subscribers best known for her baking videos. In 2021, she competed in Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson’s “Extreme $1,000,000 Hide And Seek” video along with nine other notable YouTube creators. In the video, Pansino is depicted as having finished in fifth place, but according to the creator, that may not have actually been the case.
On Oct. 27, Pansino publicly accused Donaldson of manipulating the editing process for his video to misrepresent the results. In a series of now-deleted posts on X (formerly Twitter), Pansino claimed that she had actually finished third place in the competition, an achievement she was incredibly proud of, and had been disappointed to find out that the results had been skewed in the video.
Pansino also went on podcasts such as the H3 Podcast to discuss the allegations. In the podcast, she described herself as being in her “healing era” and that her “trauma tank was full.”
Pansino seemed to imply that her misrepresentation in the video has something to do with being a woman, saying she was initially “disappointed that [her] male friends didn’t speak up for [her].” Despite this, she also added that Quackity, a male YouTuber who also competed in the video, finished second but was also negatively misrepresented in the results.
If her claims are true, it seems likely that these edits occurred because MrBeast’s team wanted the largest creators present to appear victorious, not necessarily on the
simple basis that they are men. Of course, there is a possibility that this situation is a case of misogyny first and foremost, but Quackity’s misrepresentation makes this stance, at most, questionable.
Otherwise, Pansino’s claims hold a lot of merit, especially considering Quackity seemingly also alluded to this situation in an old livestream, saying that he was “second place in that video.”
With this independent corroboration from Quackity, it’s reasonable to assume that Pansino is telling the truth. Let it be perfectly clear that this is not something the MrBeast team should have done. Misrepresenting the results of a competition, regardless of the reasoning, is shameful and takes away valid achievements from people like Pansino who worked hard to reach them.
With that being said, Pansino has blown this situation so far out of proportion that it can only be assumed she is attempting to gain some sort of public notoriety from what she experienced.
“In the hours since posting my story I have received at least three other messages from female creators who have had similar experiences with MrBeast and those around him,” Pansino wrote in a now-deleted post. “That will be their story to tell if they choose to, but it is making me realize that I’m not as alone as I once thought I was.”
Pansino is acting as though she suffered some sort of deeply traumatic experience that left her in a state of perpetual mental isolation. While her experience is certainly unfortunate, this sort of statement makes the entire situation appear far more significant than it actually is.
Bringing this situation to the public eye makes sense as it exposes falsehoods and misrepresentation within MrBeast’s competitions. By no means should Pansino have been expected to keep this to herself, especially considering her excitement upon finishing third place – and subsequent disappointment in the video’s skewed results – is completely valid.
Yet it’s odd that she would launch a crusade against Donaldson through rapid appearances on multiple podcasts and a series of posts over a few days, with a hide-and-seek video seemingly being the main offender. This controversy came out of nowhere, and Pansino’s making a fairly big deal over what is, at the end of the day, a video competition.
It doesn’t help that after Donaldson privately messaged her on X hoping to call her to sort things out, she posted the interaction publicly to fuel her case. The following day, she implied on the H3 Podcast that Donaldson looking for a phone call was some sort of shady business tactic, without anything in their interaction to signify this was the case.
Pansino publicly apologised to Donaldson in an X post on Oct. 29, citing the multiple death threats she’d received – which, for the record, are undeniably deplorable and unacceptable regardless of her intentions throughout this situation – but also mentioning that she had taken her followers’ feedback on the controversy seriously. She also decided to remove all of her posts regarding the situation. With that, the controversy finally seemed to draw to a close, which at that point was likely a good thing for all involved.
That was until the night of Nov. 1, when Pansino posted a public retraction of her apology to Donaldson, reigniting the drama between the creators; or, at least attempting to.
At this point, the Internet was finished caring about Pansino’s outburst, and her retraction didn’t create much conversation as a result. Pansino needed to make up her mind, something she clearly still hasn’t done considering she removed the retraction shortly after posting it. It’s alright to be uncertain in a difficult situation, but flippantly posting apologies and retractions to a massive audience is irresponsible.
Pansino appears to be manufacturing drama for the sake of virality, which is surprising considering her status as a widely respected influencer usually recognized for her kind nature. It’s a shame to see her take a negative experience and twist it
into something much bigger.
It’s a shame that this situation, which could have been used to publicly question the authenticity and bias of Donaldson’s videos, had to be twisted into further toxicity and controversy across the YouTube platform. Pansino’s experience could have been an interesting conversation about bringing some of Donaldson’s lies to light, but like the MrBeast hide-and-seek video, the situation was manipulated and things inevitably ended up messy.
