I’m a Millennial and I’ve watched all the Skibidi Toilet videos. AMAA.
What’s it about?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8fnbhC7olnxP0sPD4IMYUOnwwSWjYtq&si=ki4x2HL4HPvADnsa
This is the series in question. I think it’s obvious why little kids like it
It’s a series of YouTube shorts (it may be on TikTok but I wouldn’t know because I don’t use it) made in Source Filmmaker (SFM), mostly using assets from Valve Software’s Half Life 2.
The series features the eponymous Skibidi Toilets, which are human heads that are shown popping out of toilets and also sometimes urinals or bathtubs. The heads stare ominously at the camera and sing the Skibidi Toilet song with comedically and anatomically impossible (to a deliberately absurd degree) facial and neck animations.
From the Skibidi Toilet wiki:
The song is a sped-up remix/mashup of the songs “Give It To Me” by Timbaland (The most common and popular one), “Promiscuous” by Nelly Furtado and “Dom Dom Yes Yes” by Biser King.
The series starts out with a surrealist bent, with third-person omniscient cameras and swooping crane shots through sterile apartment and commercial buildings, usually panning to a Skibidi Toilet which sings its song before attacking the camera and the video ends. The first few videos are variations on this theme.
As the series goes on, it develops a more coherent storyline, showing giant Skibidi Toilets appearing in a human city and attacking the population, and the military attempting to fight back but being overrun.
Shortly, an army of humanoid robots with CCTV or sometimes movie cameras for heads (the Cameramen) appears and starts to do battle with the toilets. Whether they were created by humans or just arrived on Earth to fight the toilets from another world is not clear.
It’s shown early on that the Skibidi Toilets can be defeated simply by flushing the toilet, which causes the head to comically spin before getting sucked down into the toilet, and this is the Cameramen’s primary mode of attack. Physical damage to the head is also usually sufficient to incapacitate or kill the Skibidi Toilet, though the largest Skibidi Toilets are highly resistant to attack.
The series transitions to disconnected vingettes from the perspective of one of these Cameramen, showing their ongoing escalating war with the Skibidi Toilets. Larger and larger Skibidi Toilets with more advanced weaponry keep appearing, and the Cameramen build a large Cameraman Titan to fight them. Later, other factions of humanoid robots, the Speakermen and TV men, join the fight on the side of the Cameramen.
The series ebbs and flows, alternating between triumphant victory and devastating defeats for this Alliance. The episodes get longer (broken into multiple shorts to fit the format) and have more complex action.
We see that Skibidi Toilets have a hierarchy and use their song not only as a battle cry but also to communicate with each other. And later, the series shows them >!infighting which leads to a splinter faction appearing that is hostile to both them and the Alliance, with hints that these new toilets are even more dangerous as they have advanced weaponry and are able to speak English.!<
There’s hints that the series is escalating toward an epic final showdown, but it’s already had a few and I’m wondering where it’s all going to end. That’s why I say it’s surprisingly engaging.
How’s the job hunt going?
I’m currently employed as a software engineer.
So you make Roblox games?
No. I used to work with porn websites, though.
You know what I won’t knock that.
I’ve been told (by a zoomer) all the zoomer love for the series is ironic. Do you think that’s true?
I’m a zoomer. As far as I’m concerned, this series is none of our business. That’s gen alpha territory.
Every new generation has some cultural element that’s valued simply because it confounds old and out-of-touch people.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Zoomers only pretend to like it ironically, but I think underneath that there’s always going to be at least some genuine interest. The exact same thing happened with Bronies a decade ago: started as a meme, then grew into its entirely own subculture, distinct from both weebs and furries.
From what I’ve gathered, Gen Alpha seems to be a lot more into it than Zoomers though.
Personally, I actually really enjoy the series. I was drawn in by the surrealist and absurdist humor that I’d known from other SFM artists like anonym00se, and then stayed for the surprisingly engaging story. It’s actually pretty entertaining, and I think it’s actually a great case study in visual storytelling, because with only one or two exceptions, it’s presented entirely without dialogue or wordy exposition.
