In case you’ve spent any time on TikTok or YouTube currently, you may’ve seen some brief, unusual movies of heads rising from rest room 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 Staff Fortress 2, have been racking up tens of millions 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 taking place right here?
This pattern is called “skibidi rest room” 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 known as a rest room creature) singing a remix of a Turkish tune that took TikTok by storm in 2022 because of “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 similar 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 change into an audio file utilized by creators like DaFuqBoom to create some actually unsettling content material.
A conflict between cameramen and bathroom creatures
So, what’s taking place 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. Nonetheless, with every episode, the stakes change into 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 a couple of 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 at all times the identical and the bathroom creatures are at all times current. By the point you attain episode eight, issues ramp up as a conflict between folks with cameras for heads (the cameramen) and bathroom creatures begins. All of it involves a head with episode 12 because the cameramen battle again, trying to thwart the invasion as rest room creatures laser beam town.
Issues proceed at this tempo with every subsequent episode. The cameramen ship in spider-legged tanks to bomb floating rest room creatures. Rest room creatures hearth laser beams, blowing up every thing of their warpath towards supremacy. The cameramen even name in large 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 digicam making essentially the most unsettling face doable. It’s creepy.
Skibidi rest room’s creator floored by the sequence’ recognition
Folks love no matter DaFuqBoom is doing right here. Lots 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. Just a few of us have even stated skibidi rest room is healthier than anime. In the long run, most surprise why they’re on this “present” they’ll’t appear to show away from. The easy reply, as I’ve spent a couple of 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 know-how to regulate the cameramen, whereas the cameramen recruit new troopers with radios and TVs for heads that may paralyze the bathroom creatures for speedy flushing. It’s bizarre. But it surely’s additionally a have a look at how collective motion can overcome oppressive regimes.
DaFuqBoom, whose actual identify is Alexey, instructed 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 stated he didn’t count on his random movies to explode like they’ve.
“I did a parody of her tackle the ‘skibidi dop dop sure sure’ meme,” DaFuqBoom instructed the publication. “[The] Skibidi rest room video was a random factor, simply based mostly 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 rest room 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 motive.
“Simpler entry to totally different property [and a] nice interface,” DaFuqBoom stated. “I understand how to animate as properly in Blender, however the entire course of together with lighting and rendering would take [three times as longer].”
The pattern has change into so in style for DaFuqBoom that he’s seen copycats popping up on TikTok. Regardless of boasting over 250K 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 assist doesn’t care, even after all of the proof I’ve given to them,” DaFuqBoom stated. “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 obtained extra episodes deliberate, with a major plot that’s been mapped out already. He additionally developed a single-player action-shooter cellular sport based mostly on the Skibidi rest room. So, it seems we’ll be seeing these rest room creatures for some time to return. Yikes.
Leave a Reply