On Jan. 11, 2023, the Disney fan blog Mouse Trap News published the headline, "MrBeast Will Rent Out Disney World for Epic New Video."
The story referenced the popular YouTuber known as MrBeast, whose YouTube channel has more than 127 million subscribers and well over 21 billion video views. His real name is Jimmy Donaldson.
Through the MrBeast YouTube channel, Donaldson has become known for giving away money to charity, as well as handing out cash, cars, islands (yes, islands), and other prizes, in some of the most-viewed videos on the platform.
As for the rumor about MrBeast renting out Disney World's Magic Kingdom, the truth was that Mouse Trap News publishes satire. In other words, guests visiting Disney World in the future need not worry about the park closing for a day. This rumor was nothing more than a work of fiction that had been created for a harmless bit of fun.
Mouse Trap News published part of its satirical story like this:
MrBeast is one of the most popular YouTube creators of all time. He creates high-production YouTube videos that are very engaging. For example, MrBeast rented out an NFL stadium for a giant game of hide and seek and gave away $1,000,000! Now, MrBeast will Rent out Disney World for his next big video.
We recently reported here that Disney will allow people to rent out the Disney World Parks for a day. We recommend you read the article for full context. However, here is a quick summary. It will cost between $2,000,000 to $5,000,000 to rent out a Disney World park for the day. The cost fluctuates based on how busy the parks are as well as which park you rent out. This is an incredible experience… if you have the money.
Renting out Disney World for the day opens the door to unique opportunities. MrBeast sees this as an excellent opportunity for a new viral video. The combination of his massive popularity on YouTube, as well as the popularity of Disney World, is the perfect equation for virality. MrBeast understands how popular Disney is and realizes this will likely be a top-performing video for him.
Any readers who visit the "About" page on Mouse Trap News are greeted by a disclaimer that alerts them to the website's satirical nature:
Mouse Trap News is the world's best satire site. We write fake stories about Disney Parks stuff. From Disney Park announcements to Disney Hotel and resort news to made up Disney partnerships, you can be assured that anything you read here is not true, real, or accurate, but it is fun. So technically our slogan "The Moused Trusted Name in Disney News" isn't true, but we thought it was creative and funny, so we are running with it.
Mouse Trap News was created on a whim to have some fun and write stories about Disney we wish were true. Some Disney sites write deceptive stories for clicks. We write 100% made up stories for your enjoyment. We also hope that Disney sees how much people like some of our stories and decide to actually make one of our stories a reality!
While you read our articles, be sure to keep your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the vehicle at all times and remember these are strictly fictional for your enjoyment. Please share any articles you enjoy reading with your Disney friends and on social media to help us grow and continue to put out fun articles.
The satirical article about MrBeast renting out Disney World also appeared in a TikTok video that was put out by Mouse Trap News:
We previously published other stories about rumors that originated on Mouse Trap News after we received inquiries from readers.
For example, one such fun story said that Disney had filed a patent for a roller coaster that jumps the track. Another article talked about how Disney World would be lowering the drinking age to 18. A third one said that a man lost his hands on Space Mountain, which resulted in Disney deciding to keep the lights on permanently. All of these were works of fiction that had been created for fun by Mouse Trap News.