Bing Madsen

Bingham "Bing" Madsen is the main protagonist of the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits". He is an energy cyclist who lives in a dystopian society dominated by screens. He tries to help a fellow coworker by the name of Abi Khan getting into the reality talent show Hot Shot so she can show off her singing skills, but after she gets deceived into becoming a pornstar, he becomes wrathful and decides to get himself in the show in order to make a point.
He's portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya, who also portrayed Chris Washington in Get Out, OJ Haywood in Nope and Spider-Punk in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
== Biography ==
=== Background ===
Very little is known about Bing's background, but it's stated that he had a brother who was also an energy cyclist just like him and passed away prior to the events of the episode. After his death, Bing would inherit 15,000,000 merits he had gathered.
=== Fifteen Million Merits ===
Bing is a energy cyclist who is disillusioned with his life in a screen-dominated dystopia. He lives inside of a cubicle full of screens that constantly bombard him with intrusive ads that he has to pay to skip. One day he meets Abi Khan, a young woman that was transferred to his sector who he starts forming a frienship with. After hearing her sing in the bathroom, he tells her that she has a beautiful voice and that she could star in the Hot Shot reality show in order to get a chance to change her life as a cyclist. While she at first declines, since the ticket to the show is very expensive, he tells her that he would be giving it to her as a gift, spending the remaining inheritance he got from his brother. 
Once there, he accompanies her to the show, where they give Abi a substance called "Cuppliance" before getting in stage. After her live performance, the judges cut her off saying that, while she didn't have the most unique voice, she was very beautiful, so they suggested that she could become one of Judge Wraith's pornstars in his show Wraith Babes in exchange for her lousy job as a cyclist. While Abi is hesitant at first, she soon accepts the offer (which is implied to have been influenced by the Cuppliance substance). This angers Bing who tries to stop her from doing it, but he's quickly dragged away by the security guards. Disillusioned and angered, Bing returns to his cyclist life, until one day while on his cubicle, he sees an ad for the Wraith Babes debut of Abi which causes him to have a mental breakdown, destroying the screens in his room. He then grabs a shard from one of the broken screens and tries to slit his wrists, but soon has an idea.
After this, Bing becomes way more hardworking than before, spending the next days waking up early to work and saving several of his merits in food, toothpaste and other basic needs while also practicing a dance number. He keeps cycling everyday until he finally reaches the fifteen million merits once again, which he uses to buy another ticket to Hot Shot, bringing his glass shard with him. When he arrives as the show he states that he's an "artist", keeping details about his performance in secret. After arriving at the stage, this time Bing refuses to take the "Cuppliance", saying he had already taken one back there, showing Abi's empty Cuppliance cup in order to deceive the staff. Once there, he begins his performance which starts with a regular dance, until he pulls out the shard from his pocket and threatens to cut his own throat. He starts saying that his goal was to get on stage and be genuinely heard by the judges and everyone else. He begins his speech saying how useless and superfluous their lives are, chasing materialistic desires for virtual objects who don't even exist. He says that his relationship with Abi was the only "real" thing in his life and that they took it from his, then telling everyone to go "fuck themselves". Judge Hope, seeing this, thinks that his speech skills are brilliant and that this performance would make for a great show, offering him a place in the network.
The episode ends showing that Bing, because of the success of his new show, is now living a better life in a larger settlement without screens. His show consists of a livestream of him pointing the shard into his throat while spouting harsh criticisms to their dystopian system. While he now has a platform, his opinions aren't actually heard and have been commoditized as mere entertainment.
== Gallery ==
File:15MM 1 ez.gif|Bing waking up in his cubicle
File:15-Million-Merits.webp|Bing and his virtual avatar
File:Black Mirror 2.jpg|Bing and Abi presenting themselves to the Hot Shot staff
File:Dancing-bing-madsen.gif|Bing practicing his dance
File:15-Million-Merits-Black-Mirror-Bing-speech.webp|Bing during his speech in front of the Hot Shot Judges
File:15MM 2.gif|Bing in his new apartment he got after agreeing to do his program
=== Promo Art ===
File:15 million merits poster.webp
File:15 million merits comic poster.jpg
== Trivia ==
* The ending of the episode where Bing's show about social commentary has become an entertainment program is a parody of the commoditization of dissent
* Bing's relationship with Abi is inspired by the relationship between Julia and Winston in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
* Bing makes a cameo in the episode Black Museum where he's seen in a comic adaptation of his episode, being read by Jack.
== External Links ==
* Bing Madsen on the Black Mirror Wiki
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