Broke vs rich vs giga rich: writing, dressing and filming the three-tier skit
Pick a situation, send three characters through it, make each one wilder than the last, then flip the scoreboard. This guide covers the word, the writing, the costumes, the rules for videos kids may watch, and how to handle the phone shot at the end.
Published:
Where the format and the word come from
Sketches that set the poor against the rich are an old habit of kids and family channels, which have turned them out in bulk for years, often inside a school. The three-tier remix adds a top rung nobody can reach. Big skit channels such as 123 GO! now post it under titles like "Broke vs Rich vs Giga Rich Student", and searching the phrase returns almost only video: family channels, gamers who rebuild the three tiers in Minecraft, and offshoots set in a food challenge, a dollhouse or a jail cell.
"Giga" is borrowed twice. Science gave it first: it is the SI prefix for a billion, as NIST's list of prefixes shows, so a gigawatt is a billion watts. The internet then used it as a booster, with "gigachad" as the famous case, which Wiktionary traces to a forum post from 2017. Put in front of "rich" it means wealth beyond counting, and nobody has to explain it. Related vocabulary lives in slang for rich.
The three tiers as characters
Treat each tier as a person with a worldview, not just a pile of props.
| Tier | Attitude | Solves a problem by | Colors and clothes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broke | Resourceful, cheerful, a little proud | Making something out of what is lying around | Grey and brown, a worn hoodie, odd socks |
| Rich | Comfortable, slightly smug | Paying someone, using the newest version | Clean pastels, blue or pink, pressed clothes |
| Giga rich | Bored by everything | An answer so big it creates a new problem | White and gold, sunglasses indoors |
Because the costumes read in a second, the skit survives with the sound off and crosses language borders, which is a big part of why it spreads.
Writing the episode
Start from one situation that every viewer has lived through, not from the jokes. A missed bus, a dead battery, a class trip, a sibling's birthday. Then write three solutions that escalate, and last write the twist.
- Three is the number. Show the pattern once, let the audience guess the second step, and place the biggest joke on the third, where they are already leaning in.
- Escalate by size, not by meanness. The giga rich fix should be larger and sillier than the rich one, not crueler.
- Save the surprise for the end. Search suggestions attach "who wins" to the phrase, and the clips people finish tend to answer against expectation: the broke character's trick works, or the giga rich plan topples over.
Under the gags the format is a comment on what money does and does not buy, which is why grown-ups enjoy it too.
A screen can look rich without anyone being wealthy. A balance on a prop phone is a figure somebody typed for a laugh. It says nothing about savings, income or property, and that gap is the whole joke of the top tier, so the screen stays a labeled prop.
A sample 60-second plan: the class trip
| Time | Beat | On screen |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 4 s | Titles | Three headshots with BROKE, RICH and GIGA RICH written under them |
| 4 to 17 s | Broke | A bus ticket drawn on cardboard, a lunch in a recycled tub |
| 17 to 30 s | Rich | A taxi arrives, a branded-looking (but invented) tote bag, snacks for the whole row |
| 30 to 45 s | Giga rich | A friend in a cape as "pilot", a toy helicopter on a string, a gold cardboard seat |
| 45 to 57 s | Twist | The helicopter gets stuck in a tree, and the broke kid's bus gets everyone there |
| 57 to 60 s | End card | "Skit." and a hint of tomorrow's situation |
More starting points
Any of these gives you three rungs without extra thinking: a snow day, a school photo, a dead phone, losing a game, a school fair, a rainy picnic, a garage sale, a new puppy, a sleepover, the last slice of pizza. For longer lists with the props each one needs, go to money skit ideas. A parody that borrows the same rule of three is the day in the life of a trader video.
Dressing the set
Cheap and obviously fake wins. Spray-paint ordinary objects gold, use cardboard for the yacht, borrow a toy helicopter, make bundles of play money. Tape, a coin jar, instant noodles and cardboard belong to the broke tier; delivery bags, plain shopping bags and car keys to the rich one. Extras help: a friend in a cap as the driver, one in a bow tie as the butler, a third with a clipboard as an assistant.
Three rules keep you out of trouble.
- Prop cash. In the United States, printed illustrations of currency must be under three-fourths or over one and a half times the size of the real note (18 U.S.C. 504), while filming genuine banknotes is allowed. Other countries have their own rules; see prop money for videos.
- Brands. Luxury invites logos. Invent your own: a real brand turns the clip into an advert, and for children's content YouTube treats videos that mostly feature "products, brands and logos" as low quality.
- Real accounts. Do not film your own bank or wallet app for the final shot, and for screens in general read prop phone screens for film.
When the audience is young
Many viewers of these skits are children, and platforms treat that seriously. In 2019, Google and YouTube agreed to pay $170 million to settle FTC charges under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, with an obligation to build a way for channel owners to flag child-directed content. YouTube asks you to declare, for each video, whether it is made for kids, and says a wrong answer "may result in consequences on YouTube or have legal consequences under COPPA and other laws".
Made for kids content is also measured against quality principles. The low-quality list mentions material that "encourages excessive buying" and that promotes "wastefulness, bullying, dishonesty, or a lack of respect for others", and a channel leaning heavily on such videos can lose Partner Program access. The skit stays on the right side when the mockery aims at the excess and not at the broke character.
- Let the broke character be the winner or at least the sharpest.
- Keep the twist kind and the humiliation out.
- Make every luxury clearly a toy.
For teachers and parents: the same episode doubles as a lesson on needs and wants. Have students rewrite it so the twist teaches something, then compare what each tier spent. The CFPB publishes classroom activities along these lines. Anything that costs money for a shoot is a decision for the adult in charge.
The giga rich phone shot
The top tier loves to end by glancing at a phone with more digits on the balance than the screen can display. That image needs a prop, as much as the cash does. A real wallet or bank app would show whatever the account holds, and would show viewers a real account. For crypto, Bitcoin.org's privacy page states the risk: anyone can see the balance and every transaction of an address.
The prop route exists. A larp wallet, or crypto wallet app simulator, draws a believable wallet screen from the balances you enter, for videos, skits, pitch decks and demos, with no funds and no blockchain behind it. Flexdger Wallet is one, a paid app that we make. On a family channel, the adult in charge enters the silly balance and films the phone. Leave "Skit" in the frame as long as the screen is visible, and never cut the shot so it could pass for a real account. A mockup is a prop and never proof, and passing it off as a real balance is deception that our terms of use prohibit.
Not affiliated with 123 GO!, YouTube or Minecraft: they are mentioned only as examples of the genre.
Sources
- NIST, Metric (SI) Prefixes, read 2026
- Wiktionary, gigachad, read 2026
- 123 GO!, Broke vs Rich vs Giga Rich Student (YouTube), read 2026
- YouTube Help, Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts, read 2026
- YouTube Help, Practices for kids and family content, read 2026
- YouTube Help, Determining if your content is made for kids, read 2026
- FTC, Google and YouTube Will Pay Record $170 Million for Alleged Violations of Children's Privacy Law, 2019
- Legal Information Institute, 18 U.S. Code 504: Printing and filming of United States and foreign obligations and securities, read 2026
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Youth financial education, read 2026
- Bitcoin.org, Protect your privacy, read 2026
Questions
Is "poor vs rich vs giga rich" a different format?
No. It is the same three-step skit with a different first word. Some versions bolt on an ultra rich tier at the top or a normal character in the middle to give the scale something to measure against.
Where does the word giga come from?
From the metric system, where giga means a billion, as in NIST's table of SI prefixes. Internet slang turned it into an intensifier, best known from "gigachad". Giga rich simply means rich beyond any number a viewer could picture.
How long should each tier get?
Roughly 10 to 15 seconds each in a 60-second episode, so the joke lands before attention drifts. YouTube treats vertical or square videos up to three minutes as Shorts, which leaves room for a fourth tier or a longer story if you want one.
Can I film my own phone for the giga rich balance?
Better not. A real banking or wallet app shows the account as it is, not the number the gag needs, and it exposes a real account to the audience. Use a prop screen and keep a visible Skit label in the frame for as long as it shows.
What does YouTube require if kids might be watching?
Every creator has to say whether a video is made for kids. This follows the 2019 settlement between Google, YouTube and the FTC. YouTube warns that a wrong answer can bring consequences on the platform and under COPPA and other laws.