The Greatest Animated Series in the Surreal Sci-Fi Toilet Horror Genre

August 7, 2023 5:46 PM

Skibidi Toilet [SLYT] is a series of so far 55 minute-long animated episodes featuring an invasion of roving heads-in-toilets taking over the world as they sing remixes of "Brr Skibidi Dop Dop Dop Dop Yes Yes Yes Yes" by Turkish music group Biser King. (CW: Mild jump scares)

The animation is created from Half Life 2 assets, presumably through Garry's Mod. There is no dialogue. It begins as a silly internet video, turns into a zombie apocalypse parody, then a revolution, a counter-revolution, and a sci-fi arms race. The first episode was posted by YouTuber DaFuq!?Boom! on February 7th, 2023 where the camera tracks over to a toilet and a man's head pops out of it and starts singing the lyrics to "Dom Dom Yes Yes." The video gained over 37 million views in three months.

posted by AlSweigart (25 comments total)

Ignore the clickbait articles saying "Gen Z doesn't get this Gen Alpha sense of humor." The videos are weird but the plot is perfectly coherent. This MSN article is at least somewhat decent and confirms the videos are made with Garry's Mod and Source Filmmaker.

I'm a sucker for show-don't-tell story telling, and the pacing of this series as well as the introduction of characters/factions and their arcs is incredibly well don-SKIBIDI DOM DOM YES YES SKIBIDI PAP PAP YES YES
posted by AlSweigart at 5:51 PM on August 7, 2023 [5 favorites]

Hey it’s Concerned. Haven’t seen him in a while.
posted by rlk at 6:15 PM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I've been enjoying this, and I always get a chuckle over the comments/articles about This Gen or That Gen not 'getting' the humor. I remember encountering humor much like this that was already collecting a little dust when I became a serious internet user years ago. I mean, they're using assets from roughly 20 years ago.
When Youtube was a year old a Gmod music video was produced for Banana Phone by Raffi.
AMV Hell came around 2004 I think? And those were fresh.
posted by shenkerism at 6:16 PM on August 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

📹👍
posted by genpfault at 6:40 PM on August 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

This is great—a real Cool 3D world vibe
posted by Countess Elena at 6:58 PM on August 7, 2023

For anyone who's never seen this and is going to sleep soon and is wondering if now is a good time to watch:

no
posted by Baethan at 7:15 PM on August 7, 2023 [6 favorites]

rlk's comment refers to Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman (a parody comic made in Garry's Mod with Half Life 2 assets), which I still think is hilarious though at times it's humor didn't age well for a mid-2000s comic.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:21 PM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

don't forget the merch. I like the 'MOC blocks'.
posted by alex4pt at 9:25 PM on August 7, 2023

We've wrapped around to Garry's Mod memes again? Hell yeah. Nature truly is healing.

Feels like this owes something to eggdog
posted by BungaDunga at 9:31 PM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I remember the dawn of this artform. It started out as "Quake Movies". Later on, a bunch of opportunists coined a new term for it "Machinima" which unfortunately stuck. Back when the form was invented, my two favourite exemplars were Apartment Huntin' and Blahbalicious
posted by signsofrain at 10:00 PM on August 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

My 14-year-old is an avid viewer of Skibidi Toilet, and I've watched a few but I must be an old because I do not get it at all.
posted by zardoz at 11:39 PM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

And thank you for the reminder of the one true* skibidi.

*read: Briefly viral music video from four or whatever years ago
posted by rhooke at 4:11 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

So this is just weird and not somehow an online pipeline into something horrible? That's a relief since my young nephews are into it.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:58 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

EGGDOG! I love Eggdog so much. Always brightens my day to see one of those goofy little cartoons, especially if you turn on CC's for an extra layer of silliness.

But it does blow my mind when I remember how damned young most of these Youtube creators are. I wanted to be an animator when I was a teen, and I was extremely lucky to be able to squeeze one stopmotion film out of a jerry-rigged camera in the school studio. I had no idea how else to pursue it, so I put the idea away for a time that never came. Now kids can just knock this stuff out at home. I love that for them.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:04 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure whether to root for the bland fascists or the anarcho terrorists, but it certainly has a compelling arc.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:29 AM on August 8, 2023

I love running jokes that get taken way way too far. This is awesome.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:18 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

The creator is an old Zoomer/young Millenial
posted by airmail at 7:26 AM on August 8, 2023

I discovered Skibidi recently by doing my new favorite thing to do if I'm traveling: look at the youtube search history on the TV/roku/whatever. The results are usually mostly boring in a comforting and very human "everybody has their favorite boring thing" sort of way but then you see a search term you've never heard of and suddenly one of the guys from Garry's Mod is popping his head out of a toilet and doing a weird dada musical number.
posted by cortex at 7:35 AM on August 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

I also love running jokes that go too far. This has the same energy as Long Long Man to me
posted by weewooweewoo at 7:50 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Stage 1: Oh, this is silly, look at all the toilet people singing.
Stage 2: Wait, if I overthink this, there's actually a plot here, a coherent storyline.
Stage 3: No, no, it's not a plot, it's just kids throwing increasingly large and complex action figures together in play-battles.
Stage 4: Wait, no, the grinding repetition of the play-battles interrupted by mysterious savior figures who cannot be spoken to or touched implies a deep frustration with the pointless material and psychological destruction caused by human conflict.
Stage 5: I must go forth and spread the One Truth of Camera-Speaker-and-TV people against the corrupting influence of Toilet people.
posted by mittens at 8:10 AM on August 8, 2023 [7 favorites]

I'm down to the last ten episodes now and they're about as long as the previous 41, so lots more to come I suspect!
posted by some loser at 8:14 AM on August 8, 2023

Stage 6: I am having trouble seeing the toilet people as the "bad guys" and have started recognizing the legitimacy of their sovereign claims. They are not an invading horde but a superior culture whose growing influence was unacceptable to the powers that be, causing a violent backlash.

Stage 7: SKIBIDI BAM BAM YES YES
posted by AlSweigart at 10:10 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that caught on the distinction between this Skibidi vs. the Little Big Skibidi.
I'm still partial to the Little Big version (though I can't seem to find someone explaining the parallel existence yet), but I'm glad a new generation can take it & make it their own.
posted by CrystalDave at 3:29 PM on August 8, 2023

I can’t believe I watched this for an entire hour. I am seeing hideous little toilet people out of the corners of my eyes.
posted by egypturnash at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

youtube is now recommending me videos with titles like "Big TV Man and TV Woman + love = ??? | Skibidi toilet Animation" lmao
posted by BungaDunga at 7:47 PM on August 11, 2023