Caleb Hearon Vs Mrbeast isn’t just a spicy internet skirmish—it’s a case study in how “influence” gets defined in 2025. The flashpoint: Rolling Stone’s new 25 Most Influential Creators of 2025 list, which placed comedian Caleb Hearon at #6 and YouTube titan MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) at #7.
That one-slot gap detonated a sprawling conversation across X, Instagram, and creator forums about follower counts, cultural impact, and who gets to decide what “influential” even means. Coverage of the list and ensuing backlash confirm the positions and the deleted post that poured gasoline on the discourse.
What actually happened (the verified recap)
After the list dropped, MrBeast posted—and later deleted—a reply on X highlighting that a “guy with 1 million followers” had been ranked above him, punctuating the thought by asking what he’d done to “piss off The Rolling Stones.” Multiple outlets captured the wording before it disappeared, noting the band/magazine mix-up that fueled even more dunks and memes. Donaldson then followed up to say he’d watched some of Hearon’s material, thought it was good, and deleted the post.
Meanwhile, aggregator write-ups and creator press laid out the top of the leaderboard: IShowSpeed at #1, Druski #2, Ms Rachel #3, Kai Cenat #4—followed by Quenlin Blackwell, Caleb Hearon, and MrBeast at #7. That ordering—especially Hearon’s placement above the most-subscribed YouTuber—became the internet’s Rorschach test for what influence really is.
Who is Caleb Hearon, and why is he ranked so high?
Hearon is a stand-up, writer, and actor whose career arc mixes online character videos with traditional credits: writers’ rooms (Human Resources), acting turns (Fargo, indie film I Used to Be Funny), and a warm, prickly honesty that shows up in interviews and on stage.
He co-hosts and headlines podcasts (most recently So True with Caleb Hearon), and taped his first HBO stand-up special in Chicago in June 2025 for a fall premiere—an indicator that his cultural footprint is widening beyond social feeds.
Press profiles this past year emphasized how Hearon’s point of view—queer, Midwestern, sharp but empathetic—has resonated with audiences hungry for specificity.
That voice has carried into film work (the Max rom-com Sweethearts, where he plays Palmer) and a slate of projects in development. None of that boosts follower counts as fast as stunt YouTube, but it does deepen cultural presence, which is what Rolling Stone says it’s measuring.
What Rolling Stone says it’s measuring (and why it clashed with “numbers talk”)
The list’s methodology emphasizes creators “born from the internet” who drive conversations across platforms and into TV, film, and music—less a scoreboard of raw reach, more a snapshot of who’s shaping culture right now. It’s also consistent with Rolling Stone’s remit as a culture magazine, not an analytics firm.
That’s why you can see top-ranked streamers alongside comedians and podcasters, and why the write-ups highlight cross-media impact as much as subscriber totals.
By that lens, Hearon’s #6 makes sense: he’s been showing up in prestige interviews, films, and soon on HBO, while his online bits seep into vernacular and stan-speak.
The friction arrives because MrBeast is the undisputed leader on another metric: scale. Forbes crowned him the #1 creator for 2025, which underlines just how dominant his brand and businesses remain. Two lists, two definitions, two truths.
Why MrBeast’s deleted post poured jet fuel on the story
On its face, questioning a list isn’t scandalous; creators do it every cycle. But a few ingredients made this one cook: (1) the follower-count framing, which inadvertently set up a “big vs small” narrative; (2) the “Rolling Stones” slip, a meme-ready moment; and (3) the fact that
Hearon is a comedian with a highly online fanbase who delights in meta-jokes about fame, bodies, and identity. Add quote-tweets from other creators and entertainment press, and a minor gripe instantly became a referendum on the meaning of influence.
“Influence” has at least three layers in 2025
- Distribution power (scale): This is the MrBeast lane—own the largest channel, run multiple revenue lines, seed new products and formats. On this axis, few compare. Forbes’ creator list reflects that paradigm.
- Cultural authorship (ideas): The power to coin bits and beats that migrate into late-night monologues, friend-group slang, even brand decks. Comedy’s edge here is that a single joke can shape discourse for weeks.
- Cross-platform stickiness: When sketches become roles, podcasts become specials, and a single clip becomes a year’s worth of bookings—your presence compounds. That’s where a Hearon-style trajectory shines.
So… was Rolling Stone “wrong” to rank Hearon over MrBeast?
Lists are opinions, and that’s the point. The value here isn’t the pecking order but the frame. Rolling Stone is mapping cultural heat, not server load. That frame will always under-rank the most industrialized channels and over-index on creators whose ideas ricochet through comedy rooms, writers’ rooms, and niche communities before they break wide. In 2025, those circuits can be as consequential as raw watch-time.
How Caleb Hearon handled the moment
Hearon didn’t launch a thread or post a multi-slide clapback. Instead, he posted a simple thank-you to the magazine and let the internet do its thing—an approach that kept the spotlight on the work and let fans fight the ranking wars.
Trade recaps noted that he shared the screenshot of the deleted post with a grateful caption, letting the “clown car” of replies provide the punchlines. It’s smart: no need to dunk when the discourse is dunking for you.
Why this flare-up matters beyond two names on a list
This wasn’t just a stan battle. The blow-up exposed a split that brands, studios, and even journalism schools are still trying to bridge:
- Metrics vs meaning: Follower counts predict distribution; they don’t automatically predict cultural authorship. A nimble comic can set the day’s tone with one four-line premise.
- Entertainment vs platform products: Stunt philanthropy and mega-scale challenges are a kind of spectacle TV; character-driven comedy builds durable voice. Both move audiences—just differently.
- Where taste is made: The road from TikTok to HBO to box office is no longer exceptional; it’s a pipeline. Lists like this are a crude, public way to argue over who’s driving the bus.
Who “won” the internet that day?
Short term, Hearon—because silence is undefeated and the room loves a callback. Long term, both: Donaldson’s post (and deletion) kept his gravitational pull intact, and Hearon gained name recognition with audiences who might never set foot in a Brooklyn comedy club. The funniest part?
Everyone who argued about the list helped prove Rolling Stone’s thesis: creators shape culture not just by posting, but by catalyzing discussions that pull in people who weren’t paying attention ten minutes ago.
A quick primer on Caleb Hearon’s work (if you’re just meeting him)
If this saga put him on your radar, start with the tightly written front-facing bits that ricocheted him into festivals and writers’ rooms, then bookend with the more intimate interviews about identity and place.
His Max turn in Sweethearts shows how his sensibility plays in studio fare, and his upcoming HBO special will likely be the widest on-ramp yet. If you’re tracking where comedy is headed—toward specificity and imperfect sincerity—he’s a good bellwether.
The bottom line
Caleb Hearon vs MrBeast is less a feud than an algorithmic mirror: a reminder that influence is plural. On one side sits the world’s biggest creator-operator, awarded by Forbes for scale; on the other, a comic whose ideas travel in subtler but stickier ways, crowned by a culture mag for authorship.
The conversation was messy, meme-y, and occasionally mean—but it also clarified something useful for marketers, studios, and fans: when you ask, “Who’s most influential?” you must also ask, “by which definition?” Until those definitions converge, don’t be surprised when lists spark more culture than they settle.
