Nightmare Fuel: What is Skibidi Toilet, How it demos a non-narrative future
93 comments
·October 16, 2025fxwin
the_gipsy
It would be more entertaining of they had the slightest clue of any of the meanings.
IMO the interesting part of "memes" is the information density not in the meme "data" itself but in the collective mind.
mallowdram
We don't need static, low-res semantics in media anymore, that's how Hollywood is already DOA. Their concern is carefully curating the meaning, when the density range is far too massive out there.
DocTomoe
In all fairness, as someone who never 'understood' the 'collective mind' behind skibidi toilet (and would argue there is none, he absurdity itself is the 'meme' - a term used very loosely here, considering memes of yesteryear did in fact transport messages), the Zeit critic sounds like he 'got' the cultural references pretty spot on (and he himself points out that the references themselves do not have to be understood to be there.
mallowdram
The point is that memes replace stodgy narratives, which are dinosaurs (news, history, novels), with semantic options. You can experience this as meaningless, or in well designed memewarefare, you can sense the density and how/where it applies to the culture today and sense that it has something to add when it's archaeology.
xdfgh1112
Really good video. I don't speak German but the subtitles were fine.
CaptainOfCoit
Off-topic, but how do you know the subtitles are fine if you don't speak German?
dfxm12
You only need to be able to hear German to know if the subtitles are OK. :)
dfee
I could not get English subtitles. Tried for a few minutes, unfortunately.
Muvasa
You can go wrong in two axes.
1. The interpertation 2. The execution
he means the second way, he didn't notice any english grammar mistakes or unnaturalness.
It's like how good translators make Donald Trump sound smarter.
thesz
And the (possible) origin of Skibidi (by Little Big): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw
rufius
Well my trip to Costco make infinitely more sense. I saw these 3 foot tall dolls for sale of the camera head characters. They were titled “skibidi toilet titans” but I was only familiar with the song mashups, not the web series.
Kids are always gonna love stuff that pisses off their parents. It’s just part of parenting and being a kid. My parents hated my love for the weird shows on Adult Swim like metalocalypse and squidbillies.
Big shrug - no one should be surprised this portrays a non-narrative future. The future feels pretty chaotic and undirected to me as an adult. I can’t imagine how it feels to a 12 year old.
Cthulhu_
> Kids are always gonna love stuff that pisses off their parents.
Thing is, gen alpha's parents grew up with weird shit themselves, edgy stuff that pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable. MTV and Comedy Central productions for a lot of people, stuff like Beavis & Butthead, Jackass, South Park, and then the 2000's internet of Newgrounds productions. Especially South Park I think desensitized the millennial generation, to the point where there's nothing that really weirds us (well, me) out.
I never watched skibidi toilet or much gen alpha stuff, but I'm not shocked by it or anything. I just think it's weird and surreal, but nothing worse than e.g. Salad Fingers.
dfxm12
What is or isn't edgy is defined by the dominant culture of the time and place. It changes over time. Stuff probably does weird you out, but maybe it's on a different axis than Cartman accidentally joining NAMBLA. I mean, if you think South Park is mainstream, what do you think about Paramount pulling a handful of episodes from their streaming platform? Surely if your peers, your kids, etc., stopped treating pedophiles as distasteful butts of jokes and started fighting for the censorship of media, that would weird you out, no?
CaptainOfCoit
> I think desensitized the millennial generation, to the point where there's nothing that really weirds us (well, me) out.
You know, I used to think the same way, that so many of us got desensitized that none of this newfangled stuff should really be surprising, even less appear bizarre.
Yet out in the real world, I think you, me and the others are maybe a 5% slice of all the people out there, as many people get borderline offended by "weird stuff" and doesn't seem like they got desensitized like you and me when we were younger.
marcuskane2
> Especially South Park I think desensitized the millennial generation
Desensitized some people, who understood and appreciated the irony, absurdity and inversion of norms.
It hyper-sensitized others, who often doubled-down on the type of authoritarian political correctness that South Park satirized.
There is clearly a huge segment of the millennial generation who don't agree with the South Park "make jokes about everyone and everything" ethos, and instead believe there are numerous individuals, groups, topics and issues which should never be joked about, and feel very offended when someone does.
balamatom
Jokes are serious business, more so when they're funny. It's best to leave that sort of thing to accredited professionals.
rufius
For sure. Im the parent of a couple Gen Alpha kids on the younger side. I showed the skibidi toilet videos to my wife and her response was a shrug and “looks like dumb videos we watched in college”.
But as other posters say, not everyone was into that corner of internet culture as millennials. Especially the weirder offshoots.
aftbit
Salad Fingers! That lives rent free in my brain, near Magical Trevor and Schfifty Five, and a bunch of 90s TV ads. It's my money and I want it now!
ChrisGermano
On a similar note my parents didn't love the [AS] shows with more narrative but always sat down to watch stuff like 12oz Mouse with me. I still enjoy that kind of loose narrative content but I really don't get a lot of stuff these days, Skibidi included.
candiddevmike
Idk, I wouldn't consider adult swim and friends brain rot. Whereas kids these days celebrate brain rot ("Italian brain rot", specifically). I see this as part of the larger anti-intellectualism gripping our species and really dislike it. A lot of these kids are glued to screens and are fed just a constant stream of ads and algorithmic shit while forming parasocial relationships with fake personalities.
andai
I was at the bookstore and they Italian Brainrot keychains.
hirvi74
> weird shows on Adult Swim like metalocalypse and squidbillies
Those masterpieces belong in the Louvre.
Cthulhu_
Maybe in 20 years people will say the same about Skibidi Toilet, if it isn't already in there. Corporations are embracing it already, a local chain had a campaign titled "skibidi school".
dkarl
> The series follows an increasingly epic war between two factions: the antagonists who take the form of human-headed singing toilets, led by G-man—or G-Toilet—and a group of mechanical humanoids with cameras, TVs, and speakers for heads, called The Alliance (or informally, Cameraheads)
I wonder... how many people decide they need to know names for these characters, and go online to find the names other people are using? Versus just watching, vibing, and referencing the explicit content with their friends?
The existence of lore doesn't mean the lore plays a significant part in the cultural phenomenon. For the purposes of the article, it's convenient to have terminology, and it takes terminology from the lore, but I wonder how many people consuming the skibidi toilet videos know and use the lore terminology, or invent their own, or are happy to accept the ambiguity and lack of terminology in the videos. The appeal of skibidi seems to be inseparable from the chaotic, absurd, unexplained nature of it. People revel in the nonsensicalness of it and how it enrages others who demand that it make sense. This is completely contrary to the nature of lore, which is a sense-making exercise.
karel-3d
Maybe I'm too old, but... I thought Skibidi Toilet was kind-of funny 2 years ago, when it spiraled from a fun memey Gary's Mod shitpost into a full-on story, but then... it's kind of stuck there for 2 years?
It's kind of same-y, when I look into the latest episode. (Yes I am not at all caught up to the lore, and I don't want to.)
But hey it kind of fits Michael Bay storytelling style.
svantana
Google trends supports your experience. According to it, interest peaked about two years ago [1]
[1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...
Cthulhu_
But as with a lot of trends, it takes a long time for people / organizations to catch up. Including a film or whatever; I thought the majority hype for Minecraft had passed already but they still made a film.
xnx
Definitely.
Private chats -> TikTok -> Instagram -> Facebook -> TV/Newspapers
ctxc
Great point, I was surprised to see the Minecraft movie myself
null
d0100
The new skibidi toilet are the italian brainrot
thinkingemote
I sometimes dip my feet into this universe and read the fan theories. The theories are part of the story, like the TV show LOST, the lack of explanations keeps people watching and making up their own interpretations. The resulting theories are kind of simplistic or superficial which isn't at all surprising considering the audience who watches it. We shouldn't expect deep criticism from children but we should expect children to understand deep concepts.
More grown up analyses of it are not that enlightening and overall the phenomena doesn't work (for me) as art as a kind of nutritious food for the soul or mind...
Cthulhu_
But does it really matter if the theories are simplistic? They are thinking about it, forming a basis for, well, thinking. They're allowed to be wrong, because with time they will look back and think "haha I was wrong but man did I learn a lot from that".
scns
> More grown up analyses of it are not that enlightening and overall the phenomena doesn't work
Have you seen the one fxwin linked?
yunwal
This will end up inspiring thousands of kids to learn blender
kranke155
They are already doing it, blender is enormously successful and only growing by the day
teekert
That would be nice, but I fear it will teach them prompting Sora.
jrm4
I'm most reminded of not the movies as much but -- Monty Python's Flying Circus? Same kind of ... "uh what?" vibe.
Cthulhu_
Especially the stop motion animations, they were just absurdist / surreal, not unlike skibidi toilet and italian brainrot content.
If people were a bit more media savvy and less kneejerk or pearl clutching about it, they'd realize that it's nothing new. I don't actually know anyone clutching pearls about skibidi toilet, the worst is a somewhat indifferent "I don't get it". And not getting it is fine.
josefx
We also have SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM, eggs bacon sausage and SPAM.
wikings: SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM ...
Funny, complete and utter nonsense and probably a lot older than most of the people complaining about "modern" brainrot.
ipnon
“It’s certainly uncontaminated by cheese.”
edd25
Initially I was irked by Skibidi Toilet and considered it to be peak of brainrot content. Though at one party we decided to do an ironic Skibidi marathon and I genuinely had a fun time watching the shorts, it was quite fun trying to piece together was was going on in the series, we even started to root for some of the characters. When GMod/TF2 videos were just starting to appear on YT, I recall watching/making a lot of very similar videos, I'd say it was even worse and with more brainrot. Skibidi Toilet is exactly the same, except with higher production quality, and I no longer think it's a bad thing after the marathon, just more of the same.
greesil
It makes as much sense as All Your Base, no one predicted a non-narrative future based on that.
iceyest
All your base is in no way comparable to skibidi and is simply a parody making fun of how bad Japanese are at English.
egypturnash
All Your Base didn’t sprawl into a hundred episodes of vaguely continuing story, with toy deals and a major Hollywood director involved in a film, though.
null
xrd
I went into Target yesterday with my daughters. There was a half wall of skibidi toilet merch. Right underneath the Mr. Beast merch.
I've seen a video or two of skibidi toilet, and it looks like something a 14 year old boy would make at his first pass with blender.
Is this the modern day "Adventures of Tom Sawyer", a masterpiece that no one over 19 is able to recognize?
I feel like we have ai slop and then we have 14 year old boy slop, and it is a race to see which one will win. Henry Kissinger can rot in hell, but as he said: "It’s a pity they both can’t lose."
walkabout
I watched the first video a long time ago to see what the deal was, and reckoned it was just one of those silly, absurd videos that become well-known for whatever reason. The tradition of very stupid, absurd stuff taking off on the internet goes back to at least “Mr T Ate My Balls” and hell, I love the long-running, weird YouTube channel “How To Basic”, so, I didn’t mind it but thought that’s all there was to it.
But no. I eventually learned it was an hours-long series and gave it another try.
It’s a long, serialized silent film sci fi war epic told without intertitles. And damn, I was invested in it before long!
[edit] I am not joking that I cared more about and paid more attention to the long battle and infiltration mission near the end (at the time—I understand there’s more now?) than I care about or pay attention to at least half of the 30-45 minute final battles in Marvel movies. I would defend the series as outright better than, certainly, something like Quantumania.
lunias
> There was a half wall of skibidi toilet merch
Pretty crazy... My hypothesis is that it's popular because it feels more authentic and grassroots than most things being foisted upon them. It has surreal comedy and doesn't take itself seriously; both traits that are in extremely low supply in the recent / current zeitgeist. It was not designed by a committee pre-conception to appeal to the most-profitable possible audience. It is now however, produced by a studio which has just partnered with the Creative Artists Agency (a major Hollywood agency). We'll see if they ruin the vibe or ride off into the sunset akin to Minecraft.
vintermann
There was some scandal about rights. As I understand it, the guy who started this used Garry's mod assets (actually of characters belonging to Valve), then turned around and threatened the Garry's mod author for those same assets. So, I can think of more authentic and grassroots things. Maybe that's also why, as far as I can tell, this meme show has had its 5 minutes of fame already.
nancyminusone
It's just something dumb to pass the time. When I was a kid we had Charlie the Unicorn, Potter Puppet Pals and YouTube Poops.
If you feel morally panicked by Skibidi Toilet, you are old and out of touch (which is fine). It's the same as it's always been.
Edit: Well, not /just/ something dumb. Completely forgot about the associated lore some of these had, which makes them even more like Skibidi Toilet. I guess there's a whole category of "dumb things with underlying narratives." Filthy Frank is another one that comes to mind.
DuperPower
the point is that Skibidi Toilet does have a narrative, the problem is the excess of narrative not the lack
xrd
I really, really, love the comments here and my mind has been expanded.
Everyone calling out my uneducated moral panic is right.
mallowdram
No, it's not a narrative at all, it's episodic-mimetic and it's fractal, the pieces can be recombined in other vids. A narrative has bells and whistles like backstory, cause and effect dichotomies.
thijson
More recently it's the 6-7 meme. It feels like meaning is added after the video becomes viral.
ryukoposting
Wow, you just unlocked an incredibly dusty memories.
Maybe it's not the same as it's always been, but it's the same as it's been for 20-something years at a very minimum.
I think the comparison with Charlie the Unicorn is spot-on. Yes, there's a narrative, but any attempt to analyze that narrative automatically misses the point.
Moomoomoo309
The article explains it pretty well. If you want to understand it better, watch the first video, then skip 20 videos, repeat, and you'll see the development over time as it morphs into what it's become now (I.E: watch episode 1, 21, 41, 61). I also dismissed it at first, but as the article points out, there's a lot more to it than it looks.
citizenkeen
I’m 43. About six months ago I sat down and watched an hour of skibidi toilet.
I get why it’s popular. I didn’t enjoy myself but I completely get why kids soaked in memes might love it.
steve_adams_86
I'm 39 and did the same. I found myself annoyed by the repetition and humour that brought me back to being 9 years old, but also curious about where it would progress and what the underlying story might be revealed to be, if anything. Without the grating components stemming from being an old person, I'd probably like it or see the appeal better.
The humour is practically the raw embodiment of how little kids joke and play. If you're around little kids (especially boys often), you see skibidi toilet antics erupt from time to time whether they've seen it or not. Goofy facial expression, nonsensical voices and singing, over-exaggersted comical violence, constantly escalating battles, etc.
Devasta
Its completely destroying the minds of the youth. Back when I was a kid, we had proper narrative videos online like badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM...
guerrilla
Sallad Fingers
and my absolute favorite: Charlie the Unicorn!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cthulhu_
I have a bag full of crabs here, I'm gonna put them in my mouth oh yes!
InspGadget4343
ASDF movie, look at my horse, llamas with hats.. it truly was the peak time of brainrot
teekert
In Netherlands we had "master movies": "You know sheep cause cancer right?"
Cthulhu_
Hello boom
tizzy
You're a wizard Harry walked so Skibidi Toilet could run
German newspaper "Die Zeit" has a few videos where they get art/cultural critics to watch and comment on modern meme culture which i find quite entertaining. Here is the video about Skibidi Toilet: https://youtu.be/z-oAtxjnDlQ?si=FjpcVJxMoLv537RZ (Audio is mostly german, but the subtitles are quite accurate from what i can tell).
Also recommend this one with "German Brainrot": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mJENuEN_rs