Mr Beast and Cristiano Ronaldo broke the internet—but not in the way they intended

What happens when you combine the most popular name on YouTube with the most followed person across social media? The answer is that the internet will break, although perhaps not in the way it was intended.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s venture into the YouTube world has attracted a lot of attention, and his latest video with Mr Beast, titled “I meet MrBeast to break the internet,” does exactly what it says on the tin. Unfortunately for them, it’s less about great content and more about reaching astonishing heights of cringe.

Millions of fans flocked to see the video, which has close to 20 million views in the first 23 hours of being uploaded, making the video sit first on YouTube’s trending charts. Given the global reach of both stars, this is hardly surprising.

If fans wanted to see a behind-the-scenes peek at both Mr Beast and Ronaldo’s content, however, they were left disappointed, with the chat largely being Mr Beast providing Ronaldo with advice on how to succeed on the platform—though some questionable editing techniques overshadowed that.

From a freeze frame with sunglasses dropping onto Ronaldo’s face to adding TV show-like clapping to some scenes, the end result was extremely cringeworthy, leading to plenty of fans taking to social media to ask what was happening.

Mo Syed, channel manager and editor for the Sidemen and KSI, described the video as “cringe overload” that “feels like boomer or mainstream media trying (and failing) to fit into YouTube,” adding he would have preferred a “clean, serious convo” between the pair. Another fan said the edits “are really childish and a few years too late.”

Meanwhile, reacting to the overall video, another fan suggested Mr Beast’s “lack of personality” was making Ronaldo himself cringe. Another claimed Ronaldo was “beyond washed” for the footballer hyping his collaboration with Mr Beast.

One moment resulted in clips being shared across the internet, though mostly for its awkwardness. Mr Beast told Ronaldo he was “about to die” after the latter revealed he is approaching his 40s, which led many to ask why he would make such a comment.

Ronaldo’s YouTube channel suggests he won’t be going away anytime soon, but for the sake of humanity, we hope the editing approach on his videos changes.