If you happen to’ve spent any time on TikTok or YouTube currently, you may’ve seen some quick, unusual movies of heads rising from bathroom bowls to sing a considerably catchy tune. The clips, constructed utilizing the software program behind a few of Valve’s video games like Half-Life 2 and Workforce Fortress 2, have been racking up thousands and thousands of views on YouTube since they popped up earlier this 12 months. However what is that this pattern? What’s the tune? And extra importantly, what within the fuck is definitely occurring right here?
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This pattern is named “skibidi bathroom” and it’s a part of a sequence of YouTube Shorts that went viral again in February. Created by Georgia-based animator DaFuqBoom, the movies depict a random human head making erratic actions in a rest room bowl (colloquially referred to as a rest room creature) singing a remix of a Turkish tune that took TikTok by storm in 2022 due to “tummy dancer” Yasin Cengiz. The tune Cengiz danced to, “Dom Dom Sure Sure” by Turkish group Biser King, spawned its personal viral TikTok pattern of creators comparable to turkishoogway, Twitch streamer and health influencer Paryss Bryanne, and thatoneguy.tt all shifting sporadically to the catchy bop. And by means of viral inception, we’ve entered our present second, the place the refrain’ onomatopoeia of “brr skibidi dop dop dop dop sure sure” has grow to be an audio file utilized by creators like DaFuqBoom to create some really unsettling content material.
A warfare between cameramen and bathroom creatures
So, what’s occurring in DaFuqBoom’s movies? They begin fairly innocuously. The primary episode within the ongoing sequence embedded above, uploaded on February 7 with over 75 million views on the time of writing, is only a head singing the tune. Nevertheless, with every episode, the stakes grow to be more and more fraught. By the third episode, there’s a military of bathroom creatures shifting in on a metropolis as denizens watch in abject horror. There are just a few episodes which have totally different renditions, like episode 4 that syncs it to a Star Wars theme and episode six with Girl Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” however the tune is all the time the identical and the bathroom creatures are all the time current. By the point you attain episode eight, issues ramp up as a warfare between individuals with cameras for heads (the cameramen) and bathroom creatures begins. All of it involves a head with episode 12 because the cameramen combat again, making an attempt to thwart the invasion as bathroom creatures laser beam the town.
Issues proceed at this tempo with every subsequent episode. The cameramen ship in spider-legged tanks to bomb floating bathroom creatures. Bathroom creatures fireplace laser beams, blowing up every thing of their warpath towards supremacy. The cameramen even name in big mechs by episode 18 to crush the bathroom creatures, solely to get completely rekt as soon as episode 22 rolls round. And on the finish of most movies, there’s a pseudo leap scare, with a rest room creature quickly closing in on the digital camera making probably the most unsettling face doable. It’s creepy.
Skibidi bathroom’s creator floored by the sequence’ reputation
Folks love no matter DaFuqBoom is doing right here. Most of the replies to his movies beg for a live-action sequence. Others are invested within the story DaFuqBoom is telling, hoping the cameramen overpower the bathroom creatures’ onslaught and save their metropolis. A couple of of us have even mentioned skibidi bathroom is healthier than anime. In the long run, most marvel why they’re on this “present” they will’t appear to show away from. The straightforward reply, as I’ve spent just a few hours watching each episode on YouTube, is that it’s enjoyable, intense, and unsettling in a single breath. Issues evolve quickly. The bathroom creatures develop expertise to manage the cameramen, whereas the cameramen recruit new troopers with radios and TVs for heads that may paralyze the bathroom creatures for quick flushing. It’s bizarre. However it’s additionally a have a look at how collective motion can overcome oppressive regimes.
DaFuqBoom, whose actual identify is Alexey, informed Dexerto in a June 29 interview that he’d been animating with Valve’s proprietary 3D software program software Supply Filmmaker for 9 years. Taking inspiration from Paryss Bryanne, DaFuqBoom mentioned he didn’t anticipate his random movies to explode like they’ve.
“I did a parody of her tackle the ‘skibidi dop dop sure sure’ meme,” DaFuqBoom informed the publication. “[The] Skibidi bathroom video was a random factor, simply primarily based on [an unexpected] head coming out of the bathroom.”
It’s most likely the bathroom creatures themselves that’ve skyrocketed the virality of his movies. Created utilizing property from Counter-Strike: Supply and Half-Life 2, these bathroom creatures are giving headcrab meets siren head in a bathroom. And that Valve inspiration appears to be on objective as, though he’s expert in Blender, DaFuqBoom opted for Supply Filmmaker for one easy cause.
“Simpler entry to totally different property [and a] nice interface,” DaFuqBoom mentioned. “I understand how to animate as nicely in Blender, however the entire course of together with lighting and rendering would take [three times as longer].”
The pattern has grow to be so common for DaFuqBoom that he’s observed copycats popping up on TikTok. Regardless of boasting over 250Okay followers on the short-form video-sharing platform, he’s run into issues taking the phonies to activity.
“I attempted to take them down, however TikTok help doesn’t care, even after all of the proof I’ve given to them,” DaFuqBoom mentioned. “They’re unable to confirm me.”
Kotaku reached out to DaFuqBoom for remark.
The copycats are a bummer, but it surely’s not stopping him. He’s received extra episodes deliberate, with a primary plot that’s been mapped out already. He additionally developed a single-player action-shooter cellular recreation primarily based on the Skibidi bathroom. So, it seems we’ll be seeing these bathroom creatures for some time to come back. Yikes.
