REVENUE VS. CONTENT
Mac isn’t immune to the struggles
of many creators when it comes
to the business side of YouTube
and the threat of demonetization.
When asked if he was afraid of
getting demonetized, he responds,
“For me to say no, that would make
me — a big-ass liar. I’m terrified of
getting demonetized, I’m terri-
fied of getting a full-on copyright
strike. In my TikTok series, I kept
saying I had to stop because I
wasn’t ready to get a full strike. Be-
cause strikes like ruin your chan-
nel on YouTube, basically.”
Beyond satisfying the AdSense
gods, Mac also has to balance his
sponsored ad spots on MacDoesIt
with the rest of his content. Mac
explains, “I always wanna upload a
video that I think my audience will
enjoy, that I think my audience will
have fun with ... I don’t try to make
it affect the content itself, but I do,
I guess, think about how to sell it
in my brand. As long as you know
the brand you are on your channel,
I feel like it’s easy for you to basi-
cally sell anything.”
Thanks to a considerable
amount of self-awareness, Mac has
found an approach to sponsored
content that doesn’t detract from
his comedy. “Ad reads, no matter
how you do it,” according to Mac,”
are always going to come off as
fake and awkward, and so I just
kinda lean into that.”
MACDOESIT ON CANCEL
CULTURE
Mac isn’t afraid to call other
creators out but not in the mean-
spirited way that defines cancel culture. For in-
stance, he has reacted to other creators apologizing
for instances of racism in their past, but he never
attacks the creators in question. Instead, his tone
switches seamlessly between that of your typical
comedic reaction video and real talk about how
racism manifests in our society. He’s adamant that
a person’s actions do not necessarily reflect their
entire identity, but people do still need to be held
responsible when what they do or say is hurtful
towards others.
“The conversation on human decency should be a
normal thing,” he reminds us. “I feel like people mix
up cancel culture with call-out culture and put it as
cancel culture entirely, which makes people, when
they are being called out — they feel attacked. They
feel like they’re being canceled.” He goes on to point
out another problem with the way the internet tends
to handle controversy. “The internet is filled with a lot
of children ... and the fact is, we don’t know that. The
fact is, everyone’s age is blended together and every-
one’s voice is blended together, so there’s no way of
differentiating that ... it’s basically all at an equal line,
and that is what’s making it so destructive.”GROWTH IS HEALTHY
While cancel culture can make it scary to expose our
pasts to a broader audience, Mac believes it is impor-
tant to show how you have grown over time:
“Even though it might seem like it’s not possible
anymore because of the internet ... growth is actually
a healthy thing. As long as you are willing to showcase
that you are a growing person on your YouTube chan-
nel and that you are trying to figure out who you are
on YouTube, I think that’s a great thing.”
Reflecting on the evolution of MacDoesIt, Mac is
adamant, “I wouldn’t change anything about [my
YouTube career] because I think I’ve always shown
that I’m trying to find my right voice and what I wan-
na do on this channel, and I think that’s a really cool
journey you can watch by watching me on YouTube.”
Looking back on his own development, Mac says, “A
lot of my friends tell me that the now-me on YouTube
is so much more the real Mac than how I startedMACDOESIT
HOW MACDOESIT USES COMEDY TO BREAK OPEN REAL CONVERSATIONS ON YOUTUBE