Skibidi Toilet
Entry updated 12 August 2024. Tagged: TV.
Georgian animated online tv series (2023-current). Created by Alexey Gerasimov (under the name DaFuq!?Boom!) and released in instalments on YouTube. Colour.
Skibidi Toilet begins with a viral 11-second clip of a head emerging out of a toilet while singing the literally infectious Skibidi song ("Skibidi dop dop dop yes yes ..."). Subsequent episodes grew in length and sophistication. It is the most viewed series on YouTube, a mainstay of Generation Alpha pop culture, and a property potentially worth billions in revenue, with director Michael Bay since involved in a touted mainstream franchise adaptation. Simply put, it is a phenomenon.
The series, created using the free game engine Source Filmmaker, details the Invasion of Earth by the Skibidi Toilets – toilets with human heads, led by the large, malevolent G-Toilet. Humans, seen only fleetingly throughout the series, get turned into Skibidi Toilets if caught. Rising to fight the toilets, however, are three factions of Cyborg human-machine hybrids: of Cameramen (human bodies with cameras for heads), Speakermen (with speakers for heads) and TVMen (who have televisions for heads, and can also Teleport). This loose alliance begins fighting the toilets with an increasingly extreme array of Weaponry. An escalating arms race ensues. The Alliance is aided by three Mecha "Titans", one from each cyborg faction. The toilets invent parasitic forms of toilets which manage to suborn one of the Titans in one of several running sub-plots. Explosions grow larger, toilets more monstrous, Titans more noble, and countless Cameramen bravely die.
The series is almost entirely non-verbal. This has been put forward as one aspect of its universal appeal. Events are seen from a Cameraman's point of view. Many, as mentioned, die, thus ending the episodes, though some survive multiple battles, and there is touching camaraderie between the combatants, signalled with hand gestures. As the story line progresses, the presence of a hitherto hidden human with seemingly special powers is revealed. This Secret Agent moves behind the scenes. Late into the series, the main headquarters of the Skibidi Toilets are revealed as a strange, formerly human-run research lab. The large Chief Scientist Skibidi Toilet is killed. A new threat then emerges, of the more advanced Astro Toilets, of which the original G-Toilet is a former commander and renegade. The series continues.
The surreal elements, the Battle Royale style death matches and the inherent absurdity of the premise (see Absurdist SF) have caused much moral consternation with adults. Children the world over love it, however, and with some just cause. The show can be surprisingly tender in its depictions of the – quite often noble – members of the Alliance, and the storylines are compelling. At its current running time, Skibidi Toilet often resembles an epic Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, and one could argue it is better written than some.
Where Skibidi Toilet goes next is anyone's guess. [Lti]
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