Skibidi Toilet is a series of viral YouTube Shorts uploaded on the DaFuq!?Boom! channel on YouTube. The series depicts a conflicting war between the Skibidi Toiletsdisembodied heads inside moving toilets who can be killed by being flushed downand a faction of people with hardware for heads, such as those with a camera. Skibidi Toilet is produced by Georgia-based animator Alexey Gerasimov using Source Filmmaker. The first short was posted in February 2023.

Skibidi Toilet features bizarre visuals, a nonsensical nature, a relatively short running length, and toilet humor, and became viral several months after its debut. It quickly accumulated millions of views, becoming an Internet meme on both YouTube and TikTok. According to Tubefilter, "DaFuq!?Boom!" was the most viewed YouTube channel in the world during June 2023.

Plot and characteristics 
The series documents the conflict between human-headed toilets, called Skibidi Toilets and CCTV-headed people, called Cameramen. A remix of the songs "Give It to Me" by Timbaland and "Dom Dom Yes Yes" by Biser King makes its appearance in every episode as the theme song of the Skibidi Toilets. The events unfold from the perspective of a Cameraman, who ends up getting caught or killed by the Skibidi Toilets in the end of almost every episode. Both parties use increasingly powerful weapons to aid their advances.

In later episodes, other types of humanoids make an appearance, where they have TV or speakers for their heads. Some characters are much larger than their normal counterparts,  who are the most powerful amongst their ranks of normal and large counterparts.

Game Rant commented the series lacks a coherent plot until episode 3, but began to expand on the lore starting from episode 10.

Background and production 

Skibidi Toilet was created by Alexey Gerasimov, better known as "DaFuq!?Boom!" and "Blugray", an animator on YouTube. Since 2014, he has been learning animation on his own without formal education. He lives in Georgia. His channel has produced a few prior viral hits, such as when his short I'M AT DIP gained over 45 million views.

Every episode is produced using Source Filmmaker, a Valve-published 3D computer graphics software. The creator has said he uses this software because "it allows me to work easier and faster with assets that I need doing animation, direction, writing, and editing myself." The music prominently featured in the series was popularized due to a TikTok dance video posted by the user @yasincengiz38, which was also has become an internet meme prior to the series release.

The creator of Skibidi Toilet cites TikTok user Paryss Bryanne's adaptation of this meme as inspiration for his series, in which Bryanne moves in a jerky fashion with quick cuts. Some assets are taken from video games Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, and Garry's Mod.

Reception and influence 
The magazine Dazed said that Skibidi Toilet is "frenetic, unpredictable, funny and at times genuinely unsettling". Many sources highlighted a viral tweet, in which a user @AnimeSerbia called the series  Generation Alpha's Slender Man.

According to Tubefilter rankings, by the end of April 2023, "DaFuq!?Boom!" entered the fifty most viewed YouTube channels in the United States,  at 33rd place. Editor Sam Gutelle remarked that animators "used to struggle with the demands of the YouTube algorithm; now it’s possible to get millions of views with a bunch of pixelated toilets." By June, the channel had achieved a milestone of five billion views, making it most the viewed YouTube channel in the US during that month. It also garnered 2.9 billion views and saw a 9% weekly increase in viewership. Gutelle noted that until the recent months, the channel existed largely under the radar, except for a few "animation diehards in the meme community". Distractify has said the channel is popular with a younger viewer base.

Trend specialist Phil Ranta explained that the serialization of the series made it so that "people had a reason to come back". They also explained the series' "genuine" feel and just plain luck boosted its popularity. Skibidi Toilet have sparked many fans to create and post fanworks on TikTok. Influencer Apps LLC published a spin-off mobile game named "Skibidi War - Toilets Attack", which Distractify describes as a "traditional, top-down shooter". A Steam version of the game is planned to be published by Hand Up Digital LLC.

References

External links 
 Dexerto interview with DaFuq!?Boom!
 
 DaFuqBoom's YouTube Channel

 https://www.perthnow.com.au/technology/internet/explainer-youtube-shorts-sensation-toilet-head-man-created-by-alexy-aka-dafuqboom-c-11417801
 https://www.intheknow.com/post/skibidi-toilet-youtube/
 https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gen-z-becomes-self-aware-191358563.html

2023 web series debuts
2023 YouTube videos
Internet memes introduced in 2023
Memes
Internet humor
Surreal comedy
Fictional wars