What is ‘Skibidi Toilet’? Creepy YouTube series is being called ‘Gen Alpha’s Slenderman’
In February, a YouTube channel debuted an animated series called Skibidi Toilet and it’s since exploded on the platform. But an outsider coming across it for the first time while browsing YouTube Shorts might be confused by its massive popularity.
The creator, DaFuq!?Boom!, whose real name is Alexey, told Dextero, an outlet dedicated to internet culture, that he never expected the series to become as big as it is. His YouTube channel now has over 20 million subscribers, and the animation style looks similar to that of a mobile game — very choppy movements and exaggerated facial expressions. His most popular Skibidi video has over 41 million views and is only 42 seconds long.
it rocks that skibidi toilet went viral for what on earth are the kids into these days reasons and then we all learned that it's what if you crossed gmod ytp with a scp lore wiki, so it's actually the most easily explainable internet phenomenon ever
— yuuko from nichijou (@headfallsoff) July 15, 2023
What is the plot of ‘Skibidi Toilet’?
There isn’t much of a storyline outside of a group of people who seemingly live in toilets, and their heads stick out with elongated necks and scary faces. The premise is that these toilet people are taking over, and people with cameras, TVs and speakers for heads are fighting back against their multiplying.
The animation is intentionally exaggerated and surreal. There are over 50 episodes so far on YouTube, and, as Lifehacker described in its review, “they’re half funny and half scary, and they don’t make literal sense, or any kind of sense, and people love them.”
Alexey, who has nine years of animation experience, uses a 3D computer graphics software called Source Filmmaker and builds the characters from assets from the video games Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source.
me making sure skibidi toilet isn't in my home before i go pic.twitter.com/XuTrQn61W9
— Mia (@nazrin_touhou) July 20, 2023
Why do people like ‘Skibidi Toilet’ so much?
According to Social Blade, Alexey could be raking in millions of dollars from his Skibidi Toilet series. One Twitter user summarized the interest in Skibidi Toilet as being “Gen Alpha’s Slenderman.”
Went down a YouTube shorts algorithm rabbithole and found out what Gen Alphas slenderman is pic.twitter.com/Pydc1Ulnjv
— Bow Down Before The One You Serb👩🔬 (@AnimeSerbia) July 9, 2023
Every generation has its own urban legends: Millennials had the story about the escaped serial killer with a hook targeting couples in cars, and Gen Z had Slenderman.
Slenderman is a fictional monster that came from a creepypasta internet meme in 2009. Creepypasta posts are short pieces of original horror fiction and sometimes scary images that are shared in online communities dedicated to people who love to read horror. The term is a play on “copypasta” because the stories are usually copied and pasted in multiple places, especially if they’re really good.
“The best creepy pastas are short digestible horror nuggets,” one Reddit user explained in a horror fan subreddit. “They are like a pure hit of the spooks.”
Slenderman is a thin, very tall person without a face who is commonly shown following people — especially children. The popularity of the character inspired multiple YouTube series and independent games, was featured in a Skrillex music video and, nine years after it was made, became a Sony Pictures movie.
In May 2014, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wis., stabbed a classmate 19 times and alleged it was in an effort to “prove” Slenderman was real. The classmate survived, and the two attackers were sentenced to 25 and 40 years in mental health institutions.
Now Skibidi Toilet is being touted as the creepy character Gen Alpha — which counts anyone born between 2010 and now — is as obsessed with as Gen Z was with Slenderman. The oldest members of Gen Alpha are 13 and have grown up on the internet.
I am not kidding. Gen Alpha watches this for hours a day. This is their slenderman. Look up skibidi toilet on youtube and see for yourself https://t.co/bGitJFnyC0 pic.twitter.com/Wujwl3Ce2r
— Bow Down Before The One You Serb👩🔬 (@AnimeSerbia) July 9, 2023
“I have faith in the genre,” TV writer Nick Antosca told Mashable about the perseverance of scary urban legends. “I think as long as people have fears in the modern world, they’re going to continue to read, write and watch this stuff.”
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